s due to their understanding the native
way of fighting. While white men stand up and fire away into the bush,
they quickly throw themselves down behind the trunk of a tree, and then
crawl into the forest and fight in the same way as the Indians do; and
they say that more than once those two alone have made the natives fall
back, and so enabled the whites to retreat. You will see that they will
both take bows and arrows with them; and though they would use their
rifles if openly attacked, in these battles in the forests, or when
hunting in dangerous neighbourhoods, they use their bows in preference to
the rifles."

The next day the journey was continued, and in ten days they reached a
stream which, as the Indians told Stephen, ran into the Beni, one of the
principal feeders of the Madeira. Here was a village occupied wholly by
Indians and half-castes. A large canoe was purchased, and the loads of the
two mules stowed in it, a store of bread and fruit was obtained from the
natives, together with ten skins sewn up as bags, and intended to be
inflated and used for the construction of a raft. Two days were spent in
making their preparations, and then Stephen took leave of Gomez, to whom
he gave a handsome present, in addition to the sum that had been agreed
upon. By this time Stephen had come to appreciate the good qualities of
Hurka, whose unfailingly good temper and gaiety had lightened the journey,
and whose humorous stories of his adventures, and of the obstinacy and
folly of his employers, raised a smile even on the impassive face of Pita.

Stephen was delighted when the canoe pushed out into the stream, and they
began their journey down the thousands of miles of river that had to be
traversed before they reached the eastern sea-coast. Pita sat in the stern
of the canoe, Hurka in the bow, while Stephen had a comfortable seat in
the middle, separated from them by two piles of stores and provisions.
Over him was a roof of green boughs, supported by four poles, connected by
others, to which a thin curtain of cotton-stuff was attached. It was all
made in one piece, and was rolled up in the daytime to allow the passage
of air, but at night could be dropped all round so as to form a protection
against insects and the vapours from the water. The tent was large enough
for the three men to sleep in comfortably; and in the centre was a small
stove, in which fire was kept burning for cooking purposes in the daytime,
and to counte