a brownish-red, intermixed with
dirty white. What say you to landing in our park, taking possession,
and having our dinner there?"

"Agreed; but first of all I must have that bird; I never saw one like
it," replied the missionary. Strange birds of brilliant plumage were
flying about; among others, a small one, which hovered over the water
like a hawk, espying its finny prey doubtless from its dizzy height; and
then, apparently shutting its wings, would drop or dart into the river,
like a stone, making the water splash around. A shot gun had been
placed in the boat, and the missionary wounded one of these birds. For
fully ten minutes the canoe chased it, the bird diving and remaining so
long under water that it was almost impossible to tell where it would
rise, and eventually it got away.

The day was hot, although a cool breeze was blowing on the river,
bending down the long reeds on the banks, as heated with their long
chase, and laughing at their failure, the boat was forced through the
drift wood into the little bay, and eventually made fast by a rope to
the trunk of a tree.

"Here, Noti, help me to haul out the carcass of the water-buck, and
we'll make a fire under yonder clump," shouted Hughes as he leaped
ashore.

The fire was soon blazing merrily, and great collops of venison roasting
before it. The monkeys came grinning and chattering among the branches,
looking at the intruders, and occasionally pelting pieces of bark at
them; strange birds of bright plumage circled round them, and whole
flocks of ducks went winding about among the leaves of the water-lilies
before their eyes.

Seated under the shade of a splendid tree, the bright knives were soon
at work, and a hearty meal made, washed down by clear cool water from
the springs of Gorongoza.

"What do you say to making an hour or two of halt here, Wyzinski?" said
Hughes, with his mouth full of venison meat. "It's a sweet spot, and we
could pull gently down the river in the cool of the night."

"I should like very much to secure some specimens of the strange birds I
see here," replied the missionary, "and the moon rises early."

"Well, then, take Noti with you, and Masheesh and I will be
boat-keepers. I shall have a sleep."

Taking a short gun, and calling to Noti to fetch his rifle and follow
him, Wyzinski strolled away leisurely into the bush, having first taken
the bearings of the place by means of a small pocket compass he always
carried.