FROM SINGAPORE TO BANJERMASSING, 263 
attribute it to the mixing of the fresh and salt water. I have certainly 
heard it in several places at the mouths of rivers, where this mixture 
must have been going on, and in such places only. I think it is a 
little louder at night than in the day. We entered the northern mouth 
of the Indragiri, now called Kwala loukko; this I knew very well from 
my chart, and supposed the steersman knew it also, as he came in with- 
out saying a word. It appears, however, that he had never been in 
this way before, and had not intended it, but had made a mistake; on 
discovering this, he wished to turn back and go up the main channel, 
which would have lost us one or two days, and it cost me some trouble 
to convince him that we could go where we were. The stream was 
at the mouth about a mile and a half wide, the banks fringed with 
Nipa and Padada (Sonneratia acida); the latter always a sure sign that 
the water is nearly fresh, as on trial I found it to be. I could also 
distinguish, by its habit, the tall Rhizophora named Tumino; but until 
it was dark in the evening we did not approach the shore near enough 
to see much of the vegetation. At six P.M. we made fast for the night 
to a tree at the mouth of a small creek; and a most unlucky locality we 
chose, for until about eight p.m. the mosquitoes drove us half mad: they 
are always troublesome enough, but those on the Nipa swamps are 
always excessively venomous, every bite raising a large white wheal. At 
nine P.M. came on a violent squall with torrents of rain; but we covered — 
up the boat with Kajang or palm-leaf mats, and went to sleep, in hopes 
of weathering the storm comfortably: so we remained until past mid- 
night; and when all (including, I am afraid, the watch) were asleep, 
a huge tree came down with the current, and, striking us with such a 
shock that I believed at first the boat must be utterly destroyed, tore 
us from our moorings, swept away all our shelter, and swept us down 
the stream with it. It was raining as it rains only in the tropics, blow- 
ing great guns, and thundering and lightening fearfully, so that we 
were all drenched in a moment. We were in a most dangerous posi- - 
tion, for we were quite fast in the branches of the drift, and had it 
rolled over, the boat must have gone down; however, we got clear of it — 
at last, after half an hour’s hard work cutting away with choppers in 
the dark. The stream was now so strong in the middle of the river 
that our anchor would not hold; and as we did not know whether it 
was food or ebb at this hour, we were obliged to try to light a torch 
to see the compass: in this we succeeded after several trials, and found 
