again, by the aid of the branches of the tree, which I was in
mortal terror would come off the rock, and insist on accompanying
me and the canoe, viA Kama country, to the Atlantic
Ocean , but it held, and when I had got safe against the side of
the pinnacle-rock I wiped a perspiring brow, and searched in
my mind for a piece of information regarding navigation that
would be applicable to the management of long-tailed Adooma
canoes. I could not think of one for some minutes. Captain
Murray has imparted to me at one time and another an
enormous mass of hints as to the management of vessels,
but those vessels were all presupposed to have steam power.
But he having been the first man to take an ocean-going
steamer up to Matadi on the Congo, through the terrific
currents that whirl and fly in Hell’s Cauldron, knew
about currents, and I remembered he had said regarding tak-
ing vessels through them, “ Keep all the headway you can on
her.” Good! that hint inverted will fit this situation like a
glove, and I’ll keep all the tailway I can off her. Feeling now
as safe as only a human being can feel who is backed up by a
sound principle, I was cautiously crawling to the tail-end of
the canoe, intent on kneeling, in it to look after it, when
I heard a dreadful outcry on the bank. Looking there I
saw Mme. Forget, Mme. Gacon, M. Gacon, and their attributive
crowd of mission children all in a state of frenzy. They
said lots of things in chorus. “ What?” said I. They said
some more and added gesticulations. Seeing I was wasting
their time as I could not hear, I drove the canoe from
the rock and made my way, mostly by steering, to
the bank close b y ; and then tying the canoe firmly
up I walked over the mill stream and divers other
things towards my anxious friends. “ You’ll be drowned,”
they said. “ Gracious goodness ! ” said I, “ I thought that half
an hour ago, but it’s all right now ; I can steer.” After much
conversation I lulled their fears regarding me, and having
received, strict orders to keep in the stern of the canoe, because
that is the proper place when you are managing a canoe
single-handed, I returned to my studies. I had not however
lulled my friends’ interest regarding me, and they stayed on
the bank watching.
I found first, that my education in steering from
the bow was of no avail; second, that it was all right
if you reversed it. For instance, when you are in the
bow, and make an inward stroke with the paddle on the
right-hand side, the bow goes to the right; whereas, if you
make an inward stroke on the right-hand side, when you are
sitting in the stern, the bow then goes to the left. Understand
? Having grasped this law, I crept along up river , and,
by A llah ! before I had gone twenty yards, if that wretch, the
current of the greatest, &c., did not grab hold of the nose of
my canoe, and we teetotummed round again as merrily as ever.
My audience screamed. I knew what they were saying,
“ You’ll be drowned ! Come back! Come back ! ” but I heard
them and I heeded not. If you attend to advice in a crisis
you’re lost; besides, I couldn’t “ Come back just then.
However, I got into the slack water again, by some very
showy, high-class steering. Still steering, fine as it is, is not
all you require and hanker after. You want pace as well, and
pace, except when in the clutches of the current, I had not so
far attained. Perchance, thought I, the pace region in a canoe
may be in its centre ; so I got along on my knees into the centre
to experiment. Bitter failure ; the canoe took to sidling down
river broadside on, like Mr. Winkle’s horse. Shouts of
laughter from the bank. Both bow and stern education
utterly inapplicable to centre; and so, seeing I was utterly
thrown away there, I crept into the bows, and in a few more
minutes I steered my canoe, perfectly, in among its fellows by
the bank and secured it there. Mme. Forget ran down to
meet me and assured me she had not laughed so much since
she had been in Africa, although she was frightened at the
time lest I should get capsized and drowned. I believe it, for
she is a sweet and gracious lady ; and I quite see, as she
demonstrated, that the sight of me, teetotumming about,
steering in an elaborate and showy way all the time, was
irresistibly comic. And she gave a most amusing account of
how, when she started looking for me to give me tea, a
charming habit of hers, she could not see me in among
my bottles, and so asked the little black boy where I was.
“ There,” said he, pointing to the tree hanging against the rock