s of the forest, and the fire was put
out at once, leaving these half-starved wretches to shiver and shake
with ague all through the afternoon and up to midnight.

Then the waters began to rise, and in the darkness--that total absence
of light under the canopy of foliage, where two men sitting together
only know of each other's presence by feeling, for the din of the
elements is absolutely deafening--Wafer began to appreciate the fact
that the swirl of the flood had reached his feet. With no possibility of
communicating with the others, he felt his way to a hollow silk-cotton
tree, into which he crawled, and climbed upon a heap of debris that
stood in the centre. Here he fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, or more
probably, perhaps, fainted. When he awoke he said it was impossible for
words to paint the terrors that overwhelmed his mind. The water reached
to his knees, notwithstanding that the mound was five feet above the
ground level, and he was afraid it would reach still higher. However, as
the sun rose the flood went down, and presently he was glad to crawl out
and stretch his chilled limbs. But he was all alone, and at first
thought his comrades had been drowned. He shouted, but no answer came
back, except the echo of his own voice. Giving way to despair, he threw
himself on the buttress of a tree, from which condition he was roused by
the appearance of first one and then another, until the little company
was again complete. They also had found similar refuges and now came to
look after their rafts.

But the bundles of canes had become water-logged and useless, so they
resolved to retrace their steps if possible to the Indian village. On
their way they unfortunately missed shooting a deer which lay beside the
path, and had nothing to eat but macaw berries and the pith of a tree.
Seeing the track of a wild hog they followed that, and ultimately came
upon two provision fields. But even with this prospect of food they were
so much depressed that, although perishing with hunger, they were afraid
to venture near the Indian huts, and lingered about for some time.
However, at last Wafer summoned enough courage to go into one of them,
when almost immediately he was so affected by the close atmosphere and
the odour of some meat cooking over the fire, that he fainted.

The kindly Indians assisted in his recovery, and gave him something to
eat, when he was pleasantly surprised to find there the very same guides
on whose acc