time of the year, was running
out pretty strongly. The sea-breeze was blowing half a gale, however,
and despite the current the little _Felicidad_ slid over the ground
bravely, arriving abreast the mouth of the creek to which we were bound
about four bells in the afternoon watch. We here cleared the schooner
for action, sent the men to their quarters, and, with a leadsman in the
fore-chains, both on the port and on the starboard sides, and with Ryan,
sketch-chart in hand, conning the vessel, steered boldly into the creek.
The soundings which we obtained at the entrance proved the chart to be
so far correct, and with our confidence thus strengthened we glided
gently forward over the glassy waters of the creek, every eye being
directed anxiously ahead, for we knew not at what moment we might
encounter our enemy, nor in what force he might be. To me it appeared
that we were acting in rather a foolhardy manner in thus rushing
blindfold as it were upon the unknown, and earlier in the day--in fact,
just after we had entered the river--I had suggested to Ryan the
advisability of taking the schooner somewhat higher up the stream and
anchoring her in a snug and well-sheltered spot that we had noticed when
last in the river in the _Barracouta_, and sending the boats away at
night to reconnoitre. But this happened to be one of the captain's bad
days--by which I mean that it was one of the days when the fever from
which he had been suffering seemed to partially regain its hold upon
him, making him impatient, irritable, and unwilling to receive anything
in the shape of a suggestion from anybody; and my proposal was therefore
scouted as savouring of something approaching to timidity. I had long
ago got over any such feeling, however; and even now, when we
momentarily expected to come face to face with the enemy, I found myself
sufficiently calm and collected to note and admire the many beauties of
the scene as the creek opened up before us.

For the scene _was_ beautiful exceedingly with a wild, tropical
lavishness of strange and, in some cases, grotesque forms and rich
magnificence of colour that no words can adequately describe, and even
the artist's palette would be taxed to its utmost capacity to merely
suggest. The creek was, as usual in the Congo, lined with an almost
unbroken, impassable belt of mangroves, their multitudinous roots,
gnarled and twisted, springing from the thick, mud-stained water, and
presenting a confu