for now, as we rode downwards furiously on
the crests of the proud waves, the human voice
was weak against the overwhelming thunder of
the angry river. Oars were only useful to assist
the helm, for we were flying at terrific speed
past the series of boulders which strangled the
river. Never did the rocks assume such hardness,
such solemn grimness and bigness, never
were they invested with such terrors and such
grandeur of height, as while we were the cruel
sport and prey of the brown-black waves, which
whirled us round like a spinning-top, swung *us
aside, almost engulfed us in the rapidly subsiding
troughs, and then hurled us upon the white,
j-ageful crests of others. Ah! with what feelings
we regarded this awful power which the great
river had now developed! How we cringed
under its imperious, compelling, and irresistible
force! What lightning retrospects we cast upon
our past lives! How impotent we felt before it!
La il Allah, il Allah!” screamed young Ma-
bruki. “We are lost!-—yes, we are lost!”
After two miles we were abreast of the bay,
or indentation, at which we had hoped to camp,
but the strong river mocked our efforts to gain
It- The flood was resolved we should taste the
bitterness of death. A sudden rumbling noise,
like the deadened sound of an earthquake, caused
us to look below, and we saw the river heaved
bodily upward, as though a volcano was about
rApril 12, .i8771 OUR ESCAPE FROM DEATH.
LNkenke River.J
to belch around us. Up to the summit of this
watery mound we were impelled; and then,
divining what was about to take place, I shouted
out, “ Pull, men, for your lives!” A few frantic
strokes drove us to the lower side of the mound,
and before it had finished subsiding, and had
begun its usual fatal circling, we were precipitated
over a small fall, and sweeping down
towards the inlet into which the Nkenke Cataract
tumbled, below the lowest lines of breakers of
the Lady Alice Rapids. Once or twice we were
flung scornfully aside, and spun around contemptuously,
as though we were too insignificant to
be wrecked; then, availing ourselves of a calm
moment, we resumed our oars, and soon entering
the ebb-tide, rowed up river and reached
the sandy beach at the junction of the Nkenke
with the Livingstone. Arriving on shore, I
despatched Uledi and young Shumari to run to
meet the despairing people above, who had long
before this been alarmed by the boat-boys, whose
carelessness had brought about this accident,
and by the, sympathizing natives who had seen
us, as they reported, sink in the whirlpools. In
about an hour a straggling line of anxious souls
appeared; and all that love of life and living
things, with the full sense of the worth of living,
returned to my heart, as my faithful followers
rushed up one after another with their exuberant
welcome to life which gushed out of them in