THE RIVER LIMA AND VIANXA. l.GO 



craft over the sand ; but again and again we heard the dis- 

 agreeable grating sound beneath our feet to which we had 

 become well accustomed in Egypt, and which always pro- 

 claimed that we were hard and fast upon a sandbank : and 

 then, like the Arabs on the Nile, the whole crew, male and 

 female, went over the side into the water, and with backs 

 to the boat, tried by main force to urge her over the im- 

 peding bar. Generally, but not without considerable delay 

 and hard work, their efforts were successful: but some- 

 times a more obstinate shallow than usual would baffle all 

 their attempts, and then they would dig in the sand with 

 a wooden scoop they carried for the purpose, till they had 

 deepened a sufficient channel before the boat ; and in this 

 work two or more crews would sometimes combine (for 

 other grain boats followed close upon our wake), and then 

 the united efforts of many hands would force each vessel 

 over the difficulty, and we would continue our course, till 

 arrested again by another mishap like the last. 



Thus we continued to crawl down the river, now float- 

 ing with the stream, now punting slowly over the sand- 

 banks ; and for a dozen times or more our gallant crew 

 must have jumped overboard, and extricated us from the 

 shallows ; moreover the towers of Vianna, and the masts of 

 the ships in the harbour of that port had long been visible 

 in the horizon, and we were contemplating a speedy arrival, 

 when on a sudden and with a swifter current than usual 

 we grounded with such an impetus as to make our delay 

 unmistakable, but the period of our detention and the 

 time of our release in the highest degree problematical. 

 Hitherto, I must do our boatmen and boatwomen the jus- 

 tice to say, they had worked manfully and well, but now 

 at this last mishap they lost courage ; and after a few feeble 

 attempts to push off, and a good deal of wandering in 

 various directions down the stream in the vain hope of 

 finding a better channel, they gave it up in despair, re- 



