614 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
themselves with long poles and hooks, and now insisted upon 
having our hammock-ropes of silk-grass, the solid fibres of 
several Bromeliacee. The small canoes were less endangered, 
and while one boat was fastened to a tree, all hands pro- 
ceeded into the Bush, and there, with extraordinary activity 
and address, they cleared a passage for us, which being ef- 
fected, forty men came back, swimming to our assistance. 
It must be remarked that a Bush Negro has no option: if he 
cannot swim, he must be drowned. We now slowly ascended 
the stream, with the aid of pole-hooks and silk-grass ropes, 
and had these latter wanted strength, or only slipped for a 
moment, our destruction had been inevitable, for we should 
have been dashed to atoms against the trees by the force of 
the current that would have swept us down. Imminent, 
however, as was the risk of passing into eternity, we still 
could not help taking some notice of surrounding objects : with 
our poles we were struggling through a virgin forest, twenty- 
six feet above the highest average level of tbe river, and much 
did I regret the impossibility of carrying away any of the 
beautiful plants, which clinging to, or hanging suspended 
from the trees around us, we were obliged to pass. The 
utmost exertions, added to the wonderful sagacity of our ne- 
groes, still only enabled us, after half a day's labour, to reach 
the part of the river above the cascades. Only one of our 
small canoes was swamped, and though theloss I thus ex- 
perienced was great (and in general I have not much to lose), 
yet the thought of the narrow escape which had been granted 
to our lives and limbs easily reconciled me to this misfortune. 
Severe as was the labour which my attendants had under- 
gone, I could not reasonably ask them to do any more that 
day, and a small island being in sight, we determined to 
rest there, both that night and the following day, with the 
double inducement of obtaining food for such a numerous 
party. It was inevitable, but that much of our stock of 
provisions must have been damaged by the water; so, very 
early the next morning, all our men, impelled by hunger, 
started off in different directions, equipped both for hunting 
