lly
ghastly injury.

This was ill-luck, as our strength combined was not sufficient for the
work we had to do, and now the loss of one man--the best of my
followers--was an extra trial at the most inopportune moment.

The canoe, too, was in a wretched condition after all the many accidents
we had had, and we possessed no more tar, and could spare no more
clothes, to stop up the leakages which were now plentiful all over her
bottom.

The day of July 31st was thus absolutely lost. I was on the verge of
abandoning the canoe there altogether and attempting to get down along
the banks of the river on foot--which would have been almost suicidal, as
we never could have reached a place of safety.

Night came. At sunset we had the usual concert of mosquitoes, all kinds
of insects and frogs, in such innumerable quantities that the din made by
them collectively was so loud as to resemble the sound of an iron foundry
or a battle-ship in course of construction, the sounds produced by the
millions of nocturnal singers being quite metallic and reproducing
exactly the sound of hammers driving rivets into the steel plates of a
ship. Whether it was done purposely or accidentally I do not know, but
those little water creatures of the Arinos seemed to keep excellent time,
their vigour also being most enviable.

On August 1st we had a minimum temperature of 64 deg. F. during the night.

I still saw that it was out of the question to endeavour to take the
canoe over the immense boulders and over the hill range. One faint hope,
involving very great danger, loomed in my mind. If we could only cross
the river just above the fearsome channel we could perhaps on the other
side take down the canoe by water. This plan required great smartness,
as, had we miscalculated the speed of the river and the rate at which we
could travel across that dangerous water, it would surely mean certain
death.

I spoke to my men about it. They said they were ready to go. I explained
to them that they must paddle their hardest and not give way for a second
until we had got diagonally across the fairly still waters only a few
yards above the awful channel. Should we by misfortune be dragged into
that channel by the current we might as well say good-bye to the world.

When we started on that job we risked everything. My men behaved
splendidly that day. They paddled and paddled for all they were worth, to
get across the hundred metres or so, and took the best pa