rom the adjacent jungle, and bestowed, without much
consideration for their comfort, in the bottom of our canoe. The
captured canoes were then sunk by means of a few large stones placed in
them to take them down, and then heeled until the water flowed in over
their gunwales, when they quickly vanished beneath the turbid, foetid
waters of the creek. This done, our people made preparations for the
continuation of their journey.

But our leader, whose knowledge of the river seemed intimate enough to
entitle him to a certificate as branch pilot, had no inclination to
incur the risk of leaving the creek again at the point where we had
entered it, and thus very possibly falling into a cleverly arranged
ambuscade. On the contrary, he proceeded to push boldly on up the creek
for a distance of several miles, much to my astonishment, for the
waterway generally was so narrow as scarcely to afford room for two
canoes to pass abreast, and I was momentarily expecting that this creek,
like so many others of the African rivers, would abruptly end in a mud-
bank overgrown with mangroves. Contrary to my anticipations, however,
when a dozen times or more the banks closed in upon us in such a manner
as to suggest that our further progress was about to be stayed, we would
suddenly emerge into a comparatively wide channel, and push merrily on
for a mile or more ere we encountered our next difficulty. In this
manner we must have traversed a distance of nearly twenty miles when, to
my amazement, and also that of most of the canoe's crew, I think, we
suddenly emerged from the tunnel-like channel that we had been
navigating for something like five hours, and found ourselves once more
in what was undoubtedly the main stream of the river, and so far away
from the spot at which we had diverged from it that it was nowhere to be
seen. The moon had by this time risen so high in the sky as to be
almost directly overhead; there was therefore little or no shadow on
either bank of the river to shroud us from observation, nevertheless we
continued to cling closely to the eastern bank for several miles
further--the tide having now turned and being against us--until at
length, the current becoming too strong for us, our leader found a
practicable landing-place, and all hands, except the unfortunate
prisoners of war, scrambled ashore and, hastily lighting a fire,
disposed ourselves to sleep around it.

Now, it will probably be thought by many that I wa