386 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR 



rushes uninterruptedly from the skipper's lips, and all his commands 

 and cries, entreaties and execrations, are uttered with the utmost 

 seriousness, and enforced with appropriate gestures of hand, and 

 foot, and head. 



The boat sweeps into the first part of the rapid. The rocks on 

 both sides seem to whirl round; the surge floods the deck, and its 

 thunder drowns every order. Unresisting the frail craft is borne 

 towards a neck of rock fear, anxiety, dismay may be read on every 

 face, but there the dreaded spot is already behind the stern, the 

 foaming backwash has saved the imperilled boat, only a couple of 

 oars have been shivered like thin glass. Their loss hinders the 

 right management of the bark, and it sweeps on without answering 

 to the rudder, on to a formidable waterfall. A general cry, express- 

 ing horror and despair; a sign from the Reis standing in the bow 

 with trembling knees, and all throw themselves flat on the deck, and 

 hold on like grim death; a deafening crash and an overwhelming 

 rush of hissing, gurgling waves ; for the space of a moment nothing 

 but water, and then the boat gives a leap upward; they have passed 

 the cataract and escaped the jaws of death. "El hamdi lillahi!" 

 (God be thanked) rings out from every breast; some hurry to the 

 hold to find the leak and plug it, others lay out new oars, and on 

 they go. 



Behind the first boat comes a second, hurrying through the 

 dangerous rapid. The oarsmen are labouring with extraordinary, 

 ever-accelerating velocity; then, suddenly, all are thrown prostrate, 

 all but one, who describes a high curve through the air into the 

 river. He seems lost, buried in the raging depth; but no, while his 

 comrades wring their hands in dismay, the matchless swimmer 

 appears on the surface in the middle of the foaming whirlpool 

 beneath the rapid. As a third boat shoots past the second, which 

 has stuck on a rock, and reaches the whirlpool, the swimmer catches 

 one of the oars, swings himself cleverly on board, and is saved. A 

 fourth boat also hurries past; the beseeching gestures from the crew 

 of the second boat implore for help; but a hand raised to heaven is 

 the only answer. In truth, no human help could be given, for no 

 craft is here under man's control; the stream itself must help, if it 



