as preserved from
immediate death. But where had I drifted to? Where were my friends?
What prospect had I of obtaining food to sustain life till I could find
them? All these were questions which I asked myself, but to which I
could give no satisfactory answer. Scarcely had I reached the shore
than my raft, which I had not secured to it, began to drift away.
Onward it went down the stream. I could not recover it; so a very
natural impulse made me follow its course along the banks. I ran on for
two or three hundred yards, when I arrived at the edge of a roaring
cataract, some forty feet deep at least. First, there was a foaming
rapid, with here and there black rocks appearing amid the sea of froth,
and then came a dark treacherous mass of water, which curled over and
fell downwards in a broad curtain into a deep pool, out of which there
arose a cloud of dense spray with a deafening roar; and then the river
went gliding away, dark and smooth, in innumerable eddies, showing the
rapidity of the current, till it was concealed by thick woods and rocks.
I now felt more than ever how deeply grateful I ought to be for the way
I had been preserved, for not an instant longer could I have existed had
I once reached the edge of the cataract.

I had, however, no time to lose, so, shouldering my rifle and pole, I
struck off at a right angle from the course of the river, hoping thus to
across the track of my late companions. I had, it must be remembered,
but two charges of powder remaining, and as at that season of the year
there were no fruits ripe, my existence depended on my making an
economical use of them.

I had another source of anxiety. I had left the camp in a pair of thin
old shoes, and they were now so worn-out and coming so completely to
pieces, that they no longer afforded any protection to my feet, which
were already cruelly cut. My only resource, therefore, was to tear off
the sleeves of my jacket, with which I bound them up. This afforded me
some relief; but the ground near the river was in many places rocky, so
that these bandages quickly again wore out. The sky, too, became
cloudy, and the wind changed constantly, so that when I got into a
hollow where I could not see any distant object by which to guide my
course, I was often uncertain in which direction I was going. I found
also, after I left the river, a great scarcity of water; the heat had
dried-up all the water-holes and rivulets, and I thus began t