got down to the
edge of the water. Now I climbed along a trunk which overhang it; but
though I thus got a view for a considerable distance, I could see no
canoe. At length I returned, hoping that John might have been more
successful. I met him on the spot where we had parted.

"I cannot see her," he said. "Harry, I am afraid she has been carried
off!"

The same idea had occurred to me. We now carefully examined the spot
where we had left her. I found the very trunk of the tree round which I
had secured the painter. It was scarcely rubbed, which it would have
been, we agreed, had the canoe been torn away by the force of the wind.
We were soon joined by Arthur and Domingos, who had come along with
loads, surprised at our not returning. We communicated to them the
alarming intelligence. Domingos was afraid that we were right in our
conjectures. We returned to the camp to break the unsatisfactory news
to Ellen.

"If our canoe is lost, we must build another," she remarked, in her
usual quiet way, concealing her anxiety; "but it is very trying to be
thus delayed."

Still it would not do to give up without a further search for the canoe.
As the wind had set up the igarape, I knew that, should the canoe have
broken away by herself, she must have driven before it. It was
therefore settled that Arthur and I should go up still further in that
direction, while John would try and make his way down to the main river,
searching along the bank. Ellen and Maria, with Domingos and True to
take care of them, were to remain at the camp. Arthur and I had our
axes, for without them we could make no progress. I had my gun; Arthur
a spear, with bow and arrows, which Naro had presented to him. Thus
armed, we hoped to defend ourselves against any jaguar or boa we might
meet. We had little to fear from any other wild animals. As we had
seen no traces of natives, we did not expect to meet with any. We soon
gained the point I had reached in the morning. After this, we had to
hew a path for ourselves through the forest. Sometimes we got a few
feet without impediment, and then had to cut away the sipos for several
yards. Now and then we were able to crawl under them, and sometimes we
were able to leap over the loops, or make our way along the
wide-spreading roots of the tall trees. Thus we went on, every now and
then getting down to the edge of the igarape, and climbing out on the
trunk of one of the overhanging trees, when