368 EXCUESIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI. 



article I had not yet had occasion to use on the river, 

 but which was indispensable in all excursions beyond 

 Ega, every person, man woman and child, requiring 

 one, as without it existence would be scarcely possible. 

 My tent was about eight feet long and five feet broad, 

 and was made of coarse calico in an oblong shape, with 

 sleeves at each end through which to pass the cords of a 

 hammock. Under this shelter, which is fixed up every 

 evening before sundown, one can read and write, or swing- 

 in one's hammock during the long hours which intervene 

 before bed-time, and feel one's sense of comfort increased 

 by having cheated the thirsty swarms of mosquitoes 

 which fill the chamber. 



We were four days on the road. The pilot, a mame- 

 luco of Ega, whom I knew very well, exhibited a know- 

 ledge of the river and powers of endurance which were 

 quite remarkable. He stood all this time at his post, 

 with the exception of three or four hours in the middle 

 of each day, when he was relieved by a young man who 

 served as apprentice, and he knew the breadth and 

 windings of the channel, and the extent of all the 

 yearly-shifting shoals from the Kio Negro to Loreto, a 

 distance of more than a thousand miles. There was no 

 slackening of speed at night, except during the brief 

 but violent storms which occasionally broke upon us, 

 and then the engines were stopped by the command of 

 Lieutenant Nunes, sometimes against the wish of the 

 pilot. The nights were often so dark that we pas- 

 sengers on the poop deck could not discern the hardy 

 fellow on the bridge, but the steamer drove on at full 

 speed, men being stationed on the look-out at the prow, 



