structed by the Author in order to navigate
the Canuma River with his Two Companions of Starvation.]

I made the raft of a triangular shape, with two parallel diagonal rows of
three bottles each at a distance of 3 ft. apart; then one set of two
bottles. One single _garaffon_ formed the bow of the raft. Naturally I
stopped up the necks of the bottles, so that no water should get inside.

While I was constructing the raft I was all the time wondering whether it
would have a sufficient floating capacity to carry us three men and our
baggage.

When the raft was finished we placed two parallel pieces of _assahy_ from
one end to the other, on which we could sit astride, with our legs
dangling in the water.

The lassitude with which we did our work and tore down part of the hut in
order to build that raft, our only way of salvation, was too pitiful to
watch. We absolutely had no strength at all. When we pulled the liane to
fasten together the different pieces of palm wood we were more exhausted
than if we had lifted a weight of 200 lb. As it was, we could not fasten
the pieces of wood properly, and when the raft was finished it was indeed
a shaky affair.

By sunset on September 20th the raft--strengthened by sundry knots all
over--was ready to be launched. I was more proud of her than if I had
built a Dreadnought. There we all sat by the side of her, my men looking
at her in a sceptical way, saying that it was just as well, perhaps, to
try and die drowned instead of dying of starvation.

We took a last glance around to see if we could discover some other fruit
or something to eat, but we found nothing. We postponed the launching of
our vessel--which I named the _Victory_--until the next morning, as had
she perchance had an accident that night--accidents at night seem so much
worse than in the daytime--it would have been too severe a blow for us,
from which we never could have recovered.

My feet were in such a terrible condition--so full of thorns, so swollen
with numberless _jiggers_ which had bored channels under my nails and
under the soles--that I really felt I could not walk another step. If
that raft did not float I knew that we were lost for good.

The entire night I could not sleep, speculating on whether the raft would
float or not. As far as I could judge, she seemed to me to have just
capacity enough to keep afloat with all of us on board.

CHAPTER XXI

The Launching of the Glass Raft--Accident