in the wood he
required. How could he, indeed, he observed, find the materials for
concocting the woorali poison into which to dip the point of his darts?
He hoped, however, when we reached the shore, to obtain the necessary
ingredients, and to form a blowpipe, with which he promised to kill as
much game as we should require.

We had sailed on four days, when we reached a point, on rounding which
we saw a wide expanse of water before us, with another point in the far
distance. We knew therefore that we were at the mouth of a considerable
river. It was what we were looking for, and the wind, which had changed
to the northward, would enable us to sail up it. The current, however,
was setting down the river, and just as we had eased off the sheet,
intending to run up it, the wind failed and we were speedily drifted out
again. We could not reach a tree to which to make fast, and there we
lay, floating helplessly on the calm surface. After drifting for half a
mile along the edge of the forest, we found ourselves in slack water, in
which we lay, neither advancing nor receding. Our food was running
somewhat short, but, fortunately, we had our hooks and lines, and taking
some dried herrings as bait, we set to work to fish. We had not long to
wait before we caught several somewhat curiously shaped creatures, which
we should from their appearance have hesitated to eat; had not Kallolo,
who knew most of them, told us which were wholesome and which poisonous.
Some he immediately knocked on the head and threw overboard. As we
were unwilling to light a fire on the raft, we cut them up and dried
them in the sun. Though not very palatable, they enabled us to
economise the rest of our provisions; and the natives, and even Peter,
had no objection to eat them raw.

For three days we lay totally becalmed. Fortunately we most of us had
some occupation. Uncle Paul, the skipper, and I were engaged in making
floats from the large nuts I spoke of. Having bored a hole, we scraped
out the kernel, and then stopped up the orifice again with some resinous
substance which Uncle Paul had brought for the purpose. The natives,
assisted by the mate, were manufacturing spears and bows and arrows.
When not thus occupied, we were engaged in fishing. Most of our hooks
were small, and we could only venture to haul up moderately-sized fish
with them. We had, however, one big hook with a strong line, and we
hoped with it to catch a proportionat