274 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VIL 



weather in November. The river ought to sink thirty 

 or thirty-five feet below its highest point ; this year it 

 had dedined only about twenty-five feet, and the 

 November rains threatened to be continuous. The 

 drier the weather the stronger blows the east wind ; it 

 now failed us altogether, or blew gently for a few hours 

 merely in the afternoons. I had hitherto seen the great 

 river only in its sunniest aspect ; I was now about to 

 witness what it could furnish in the way of storms. 



On the night of the 22nd the moon appeared with a 

 misty halo. As we went to rest, a fresh watery wind was 

 blowing, and a dark pile of clouds gathering up river 

 in a direction opposite to that of the wind. 1 thought 

 this betokened nothing more than a heavy rain which 

 would send us all in a hurry to our cabins. The men 

 moored the vessel to a tree alongside a hard clayey bank, 

 and after supper all were soon fast asleep, scattered 

 about the raised deck. About eleven o'clock I was 

 awakened by a horrible uproar, as a hurricane of wind 

 suddenly swept over from the opposite shore. The 

 cuberta was hurled with force against the clayey bank ; 

 Penna shouted out, as he started to his legs, that a tro- 

 voada de cima, or a squall from up river, was upon us. 

 We took down our hammocks, and then all hands were 

 required to save the vessel from being dashed to pieces. 

 The moon set, and a black pall of clouds spread itself 

 over the dark forests and river ; a frightful crack of 

 thunder now burst over our heads, and down fell the 

 drenching rain. Joaquim leapt ashore through the 

 drowning spray with a strong pole, and tried to pass 

 the cuberta round a small projecting point, whilst we on 



