tangle of rattan, palms, vines, creepers, and
brushwood, tolerably straight except where
great forest monarehs stood untouched, and
whatever brushwood had been cut from the
jungle had been laid across the road in thick
piles. A rude camp had also been constructed
half-way on the river side of the road, into
which everything was conveyed. By 8 P.M. we
had hauled the canoes over one mile of ground.
The next day, while the people were still
fresh, we buckled on to the canoes, and by 3
P.M. of the 7th had passed the falls and rapids
of the First Cataract, and were £ afloat in a calm
creek between Baswa Island and the left bank!
Not wishing to stay , in such a*dangerous locality
longer than was absolutely necessary, we
re-embarked, and descending cautiously down
the creek, came in a short time to the great
river, with every prospect of a good stretch of
serene water. But soon we heard the roar of
another cataract, and had to hug the left bank
closely. Then we entered other creeks, which
wound lazily by jungle-covered islets, and after
two miles of meanderings among most dismal
islands and banks, emerged in view of the great
river, with the cataract’s roar sounding solemnly
and terribly near. As it was near evening, and
our position was extremely unpleasant, we resolved
to camp for the night at an island which
lay in mid-stream. Meanwhile, we heard drums
rjan. 7, >8771 WE TAK E AN ISLAND B Y STORM. 293
L Cheandoah. J
and war-horns sounding on the left bank, and
though the islanders also responded to them,
of the two evils it was preferable to risk an
encounter with the people of the island rather
than with those of the main, until we could discover
our whereabouts. We had no time for
consultation, or even thought—the current was
swift, and the hoarse roar of the Second Cataract
was more sonorous than that of the first,
thundering into our affrighted ears that, if we
were swept over, destruction, sudden and utter,
awaited us.
The islanders were hostilely alert and ready,
but, spurred on by our terror of the falls, we
drove our vessels straight on to the bank,
about 500 feet above the falling water. In fifteen
minutes we had formed a rude camp, and enclosed
it by a slight brushwood fence, while
the islanders, deserting the island, crossed over
tp their howling, yelling friends on the left bank.
In a small village close to our camp we found
an old lady, of perhaps sixty-five years of age,
who was troubled with a large ulcer in her
foot, and had therefore been unable to escape.
She was a very decent creature, and we carried
her to our camp, where by dressing her foot
and paying her kind attentions we succeeded in
making her very communicative. But Katembo
could understand only very few words of her
speech, which proved to me that we were rapidly