teresting character; there was the
excitement and exhilaration of a stiff fight awaiting us at the end of
our journey; and, finally, there was the prospect of a pocketful of
prize-money as a wind-up to the whole affair. What more could any
reasonable individual desire?

Like most African rivers, the Fernan Vaz has a bar, but the sea breaks
upon it only when the wind blows fresh from the north-west, owing to the
fact that as far up as the town of Olomba the river flows parallel to
the line of coast, being separated from the open Atlantic by a low,
sandy peninsula, varying from one to three miles in breadth, terminating
in a spit which ordinarily shelters the bar from the rollers, leaving a
narrow channel of unbroken water, wide enough to enable a couple of
craft of moderate tonnage to pass each other comfortably.

And well was it for us that this was the case; for as we approached the
river's mouth we saw that the ground-swell was rapidly increasing in
weight, and that the surf was breaking upon the beach with such violence
that if it happened to be also breaking upon the bar it would be quite
useless for us to attempt to enter the river. Indeed, so formidable did
the appearance of the surf at length become that the captain ordered the
rest of the boats to heave-to, while we in the gig went ahead to
reconnoitre and inspect the condition of the bar. This was a bit of
work for which the gig was peculiarly well adapted, for she was a
beautifully modelled boat, double-ended, with a long flat floor--a
splendid sailer, and a boat which would claw off a lee shore in almost
any weather, the skipper having had her fitted with a good, deep, false
keel.

The wind was blowing a moderately fresh breeze from the westward at the
time, thus, the rest of the boats having hove-to, it did not take us
very long to run in far enough to get a sight of the bar. This was a
rather trying experience for the nerves of us all; for the surf was
pounding on the beach ahead of us in a constant succession of towering
walls of water, that reared themselves to a height of fully thirty feet
ere they curled over and broke in thunder so deafening that we presently
found it impossible to make our voices heard above its continuous roar.
But the skipper, standing up in the stern-sheets, soon detected the
smooth, narrow strip of unbroken water, and directed the coxswain to
shift his helm for it. I sprang up on a thwart and waved a small white
flag as a