nd
these, so as to be entirely concealed from the sight of any passing
boat, cooked some food and, having eaten their breakfast, lay down
and slept until evening.

Illustration: They forced the canoe behind bushes, so as to be
entirely concealed.

Night after night the journey was continued. Their supply of food
was ample to last them; and there was, therefore, no occasion to
stop at any village to purchase more. The river, at the point where
they started, was about two miles wide; but at some points it was
double that width, while at others it contracted to little over a
mile. Its level was much lower, now, than it had been when Stanley
ascended it, two months before. Sometimes at night they towed one
of their nets behind them, and obtained an ample supply of fish for
their wants.

Each night they made, as Stanley calculated, about forty miles and,
after ten days' travel, they came to the point where the great
river divided, one small arm running down to Rangoon; another
descending to Bassein, and then falling into the sea at Cape
Negrais; while a large proportion of the water found its way down
by innumerable branches between the Rangoon and Bassein rivers.

For the last two or three days they had been obliged to observe
great caution for, below Prome, there were numbers of boats all
going down the river laden with men and stores. These, however,
only travelled by day; and the canoe was always, at that time,
either floating in the shelter of bushes, or hauled up on the bank
at spots where it could be concealed from view by thick growths of
rushes.

"We shall never be able to get down to Rangoon by water," said
Meinik. "The river will be crowded with rowboats near the town; and
there will be no chance, whatever, of making our way through them.
At the next village we come to, I will go in and learn the news.
Your countrymen may have been driven out by this time and, in that
case, there will be nothing to do but to travel north on foot,
until we reach Chittagong."

"I have no fear that we shall be driven out, Meinik."

This conversation had occurred on the night when they had passed
the point of division of the two arms of the river. They had caught
a larger supply of fish than usual and, as soon as the boat was
laid up, Meinik started along the bank, with a number of them, for
the nearest village. He returned in two hours.

"It is well I landed," he said, "for the point where the greater
portion of our peop