90 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



were put at our disposal: and best of all we were perfectly 

 free to come and go as we pleased ; and with everything done 

 to facilitate our work. All this we owed also to the instruc- 

 tions of Mr. Ellis Grell, who was then financing the Pitch 

 Lake Company and to the kindness of Mr. Lynch and Mr. 

 Stoute, two young West Indians employed by the company. 



FIG. 48. DIGGING OUT THE BLACK, WAXLIKE PITCH. 



We were tired that first night at Guanoco. The night 

 before had been a hard one sailing all night long, with 

 the boom swinging back and forth and making impossible 

 the hanging of our mosquito nets. All through the night the 

 Captain and his crew worked. Down the narrow river the 

 Captain skilfully guided the sloop in the darkness of a moon- 

 less night, following the line of the trees against the sky to 

 mark the channel. His commanding old voice rang from 

 stern to bow, the orders being there repeated by the mate 

 to the sailors who were towing us, and who paused in the 



