high. Late in the evening of the second
day after entering upon this picturesque stretch of the river we arrived
at a point where the stream forked into two of apparently equal width
and depth, one branch striking away to the eastward, while the other
continued its northerly course. Here my savage companions proceeded
with the utmost caution, frequently landing and sending one or two of
the party away to reconnoitre, and otherwise behaving as though they
feared attack; but after a slow and anxious progress of some twenty
hours' duration they seemed to consider the danger as past, and once
more pressed boldly forward.

By this time I had completely recovered, not only from the effects of
the snake-bite--at which my companions seemed greatly astonished--but
also from the hardship and privation which I had experienced during the
latter part of my voyage aboard _La Mouette_, and had begun to think
very seriously of how I was to effect my escape from those who held me
captive. Not that I was ill-treated by them, far from it; I enjoyed the
same fare as themselves, and was never asked to share their labours, and
that, I take it, was as much good treatment as I could reasonably expect
under the circumstances. But I knew that they were not hampering
themselves by taking me and their other prisoners this long journey up
the river--much of the paddling being done against the stream--merely
for the pleasure of enjoying our society. My intuition assured me that
their action had a more sinister motive than this, and in any case I had
no desire to penetrate the interior of equatorial Africa; therefore so
soon as I felt that my health and strength were sufficiently restored to
allow of my attempting the long and perilous journey back to the sea
alone, I began to consider the question of escape. But the longer I
thought of it the less became my hope of success; for I very soon
discovered that under no circumstances whatever were my custodians
disposed to allow me to stray a yard out of their sight. Without
imposing any actual restraint upon me, they invariably so contrived
that, if I made the slightest attempt to withdraw myself from them,
three or four of the most active of the party, always well armed, had
occasion to go in precisely the same direction as myself. That,
however, was not my only difficulty; for, assuming for a moment the
possibility of my being able to give the savages the slip, how was I, a
white man, alone, u