some bringing in a monkey or two, others a few brace
of parrots, one man a big lizard like an iguana, another a fine deer,
until each of the ten had contributed something to the common larder,
when the fire was made up, a plentiful supply of food cooked, and all
hands set to with a will, each apparently animated by a determination to
show all the others how much solid food he was capable of putting out of
sight at a sitting. They very civilly offered me a choice of their
dainties, and I accepted a tolerably substantial venison steak, broiled
over the fire by being suspended close over the glowing embers upon the
end of a stick. Off this I contrived to make a fairly hearty meal,
after which, following the example of the others, I stretched myself out
in the long grass under the shadow of a big bush, and quickly fell into
a deep sleep.

I was aroused from my slumbers, some hours later, by my savage
companions, who intimated to me, by signs, that the moment had arrived
for us to take our departure, and we accordingly wended our way back to
the canoe, taking our surplus stock of food with us, and, embarking,
soon found ourselves once more afloat on the placid bosom of the broad
river, the downward and opposing current of which had by this time
greatly slackened under the influence of the flood tide which was
evidently making fast.

Keeping well out toward the centre of the stream, and paddling steadily,
we now made rapid progress in a northerly direction, the river gradually
widening and shoaling as we went, until, by the time of sunset, we found
ourselves progressing up a comparatively narrow deep-water channel with
wide expanses of shallow water on either side of us, dotted here and
there with dry patches of mud or sand upon which crocodiles lay basking,
in some cases in groups of as many as six or eight together, while
occasionally the great head of a hippopotamus appeared for a moment,
only to vanish again with a little eddying swirl of the mud-charged
water as the creature dived.

While the sun still hovered a degree or two above the tree-tops on the
western bank of the stream, the moon, now nearly full, sailed gloriously
into view above the clumps of vegetation that shrouded the eastern bank;
and the gradual transition from the ruddy, golden light of the dying sun
to the flooding silver of the brilliant moon, with the ever-changing
effects that accompanied the transition, presented a spectacle of
enchanting beau