all without a certain demijohn of that liquor, to which he paid
frequent court.

The rise of the flood had clearly manifested itself for several days.
From minute to minute the level of the river rose, and during the
twenty-four hours which preceded the maximum the waters covered the bank
on which the raft rested, but did not lift the raft.

As soon as the movement was assured, and there could be no error as to
the height to which the flood would rise, all those interested in the
undertaking were seized with no little excitement. For if through some
inexplicable cause the waters of the Amazon did not rise sufficiently to
flood the jangada, it would all have to be built over again. But as the
fall of the river would be very rapid it would take long months before
similar conditions recurred.

On the 5th of June, toward the evening, the future passengers of the
jangada were collected on a plateau which was about a hundred feet above
the bank, and waited for the hour with an anxiety quite intelligible.

There were Yaquita, her daughter, Manoel Valdez, Padre Passanha, Benito,
Lina, Fragoso, Cybele, and some of the servants, Indian or negro, of the
fazenda.

Fragoso could not keep himself still; he went and he came, he ran down
the bank and ran up the plateau, he noted the points of the river gauge,
and shouted "Hurrah!" as the water crept up.

"It will swim, it will swim!" he shouted. "The raft which is to take us
to Belem! It will float if all the cataracts of the sky have to open to
flood the Amazon!"

Joam Garral was on the raft with the pilot and some of the crew. It was
for him to take all the necessary measures at the critical moment. The
jangada was moored to the bank with solid cables, so that it could not
be carried away by the current when it floated off.

Quite a tribe from one hundred and fifty to two hundred Indians, without
counting the population of the village, had come to assist at the
interesting spectacle.

They were all keenly on the watch, and silence reigned over the
impressionable crowd.

Toward five o'clock in the evening the water had reached a level higher
than that of the night before--by more than a foot--and the bank had
already entirely disappeared beneath the liquid covering.

A certain groaning arose among the planks of the enormous structure,
but there was still wanting a few inches before it was quite lifted and
detached from the ground.

For an hour the groanings increased. T