xtremely slow; they
had heard of the strange phenomenon, that, run which way the river
might, north, south, east, or west,--and it _does_ keep bending and
curving in all these directions,--the wind is almost always met with
blowing _up stream_!

For this reason they could put no dependence in their sail, and would
have to trust altogether to the paddles. These could not be always in
the water. Human strength could not stand a perpetual spell, even at
paddles; and less so in the hands of a crew of men so little used to
them.

Nor could they continue the voyage at night. By doing so, they would be
in danger of losing their course, their craft, and themselves!

You may smile at the idea. You will ask--a little scornfully,
perhaps--how a canoe, or any other craft, drifting down a deep river to
its destination, could possibly go astray. Does not the current point
out the path,--the broad water-way not to be mistaken?

So it might appear to one seated in a skiff, and floating down the
tranquil Thames, with its well-defined banks. But far different is the
aspect of the stupendous Solimoes to the voyager gliding through its
_gapo_.

I have made use of a word of strange sound, and still stranger
signification. Perhaps it is new to your eye, as your ear. You will
become better acquainted with it before the end of our voyage; for into
the "Gapo" it is my intention to take you, where ill-luck carried the
galatea and her crew.

On leaving Coary, it was not the design of her owner to attempt taking
his craft, so indifferently manned, all the way to Para. He knew there
were several civilized settlements between,--as Barra at the mouth of
the Rio Negro, Obidos below it, Santarem, and others. At one or other of
these places he expected to obtain a supply of _tapuyos_, to replace the
crew who had so provokingly forsaken him.

The voyage to the nearest of them, however, would take several days, at
the rate of speed the galatea was now making; and the thought of being
delayed on their route became each hour more irksome. The ex-miner, who
had not seen his beloved brother during half a score of years, was
impatient once more to embrace him. He had been, already, several months
travelling towards him by land and water; and just as he was beginning
to believe that the most difficult half of the journey had been
accomplished, he found himself delayed by an obstruction vexatious as
unexpected.

The first night after his departure fro