"

Although I had felt great despondency, I could not help being influenced
by Ellen's hopeful spirit. Still it seemed to me that the probability
of our discovering them along the wide-extended banks of the river was
but small indeed. They, too, how anxious they must be feeling on our
account; for if they had been in danger, as we supposed, they must know
we should be subjected to the same. However, I will not dwell longer on
this subject, but only again repeat that our parents and our aunt and
Fanny were never absent from our thoughts. A light breeze springing up,
we hoisted our mat sail, and glided down the river. Nothing could be
more delightful. The light air cooled us, and kept off the mosquitoes;
and as the nights were bright, had we not been anxious to examine the
shore, we agreed that we might have continued our voyage till it was
necessary to land and procure food.

Suddenly, however, the wind again dropped. The sun, which had hitherto
been casting his undimmed rays down on our heads, became obscured, as if
a thick curtain had been drawn across it. The whole sky assumed a
yellow tinge. Domingos looked anxiously round.

"I do not like the look of the weather," he observed. "It would be wise
to lower the sail."

We had just got it down, when a low murmur was heard in the distant
woods, increasing rapidly to a subdued roar. A white line appeared
across the river. It came rapidly towards us. Now we could feel the
wind blowing against our cheeks, and the whole surface of the water
became suddenly rippled into wavelets, from which the white foam flew
off in thick sheets. The sky had again changed to a greenish hue. The
waves every moment increased in height.

"A hurricane is coming on," observed Domingos. "We cannot face it."

We put the canoe's head towards the shore.

"Paddle, my masters! paddle!" exclaimed Domingos. "We must reach the
shore before the storm breaks with its full violence, or we may be
lost!"

We had not paddled many strokes before we felt the canoe driven forward
by the wind at a rapid rate. We exerted ourselves, running before the
wind, and edging in at the same time towards the northern shore. Every
instant the hurricane gained strength; and as we looked upward, the
whole sky, we saw, had assumed a red and black appearance. A little
ahead appeared a sand-bank, on which stood a number of tall-legged
birds, cormorants, white cranes, and other waders, large and small. W