EXPEDITION TO THE ORINOCO. 279 



friend, so faithful, courageous, and active. Throughout the 

 journey he evinced many astonishing proofs of courage and 

 resolution, for we were necessarily surrounded during the 

 whole time by a variety of dangers, not only from the Indians 

 among whom we travelled, but from the nature of the country, 

 which swarmed with tigers, crocodiles, and serpents. I shall 

 never forget the generous attachment he showed me during a 

 storm which overtook us on the Orinoco on April (j, 1800. 

 Our pirogue was two-thirds full of water, and the Indians 

 already overboard fast swimming to shore, when my noble- 

 hearted friend, who alone stood by me in this emergency, 

 entreated me to follow their example, and offered to swim to 

 shore with me upon his back. 



4 We were not destined, however, to perish in this wild re- 

 gion, where, within a circle of forty miles, there was no hu- 

 man being to learn our fate or trace the manner of our 

 disappearance. Our position was truly appalling : the shore 

 was distant from us more than a mile, where a number of 

 crocodiles could be discerned lying half ou,t of the water. Even 

 if we had gained the shore against the fury of the waves and 

 the voracity of the crocodiles, we should infallibly have either 

 perished from hunger or been torn in pieces by the tigers, 

 for the woods upon these shores are so dense and so intertwined 

 with lianas as to be absolutely impenetrable. The strongest 

 man, axe in hand, could hardly make his way in twenty days 

 for the distance of a league. The river too is so little frequented 

 that even an Indian canoe scarcely passes oftener than once in 

 two months. At this most momentous and perilous crisis a 

 <mst of wind filled the sails of our little vessel and effected 



<) 



in a marvellous manner our deliverance. We only lost a few 

 books and a portion of our food. 



' You may imagine our feelings of grateful happiness when, 

 as night approached, we went on shore, and, assembling for our 

 evening meal, found that none of our party were missing. The 

 night was dark and the moon only shone at intervals through 

 the gaps in the clouds as they were driven by the wind across 

 the sky. The monk who formed one of the party addressed 

 himself in prayer to St. Francis and the Holy Virgin. The 



