THROUGH THE COASTAL WILDERNESS. 237 



invariably cause the downfall of the occupant of the seat, 

 much to the disturbance of the canoe's ecjuilibrium. 



As we lay and listened to the strange rhythm of the pad- 

 dles, and watched the brown current swash past the side of 

 the boat, we thought of all the exciting scenes this river and 

 this coast had witnessed : — the ill-fated search for El Dorado 

 by Sir Walter Raleigh; then the capture and recapture of the 

 colony no less than three times by Dutch and Britisli. Later 

 came a period of great prosperity when hundreds of sugar 

 plantations yielded great profits to their owners and the social 

 life was as gay as that of our old Virginia. Then followed the 

 ruin of the sugar industry, bands of run-away slaves taking 

 to the wilderness; and now to-day, the chimneys of the old 

 mills are often the only marks of former civilization which 

 the jungle has not obliterated. 



We skirted the mangroves for hours and saw nothing but 

 an endless succession of those weird stilted plants, while 

 scores of four-eyed fish skipped and slithered over the mud, 

 or dashed across our bow, attracterl by the glow of our lan- 

 tern. In the electric light they looked pale and ghostly 

 against tlie black mud. 



At midnight we passed a light which showed the location 

 of Marlborough Police Station. Two hours later we heard 

 weird music from a tom-tom and a four-toned fife or flute. 

 Crude as it was, it had a wild melody and the syncopated, 

 or "rag," time was perfect. We could see the hut near the 

 water and hear the shouts of the dancers as we passed down 

 the centre of the river. We were hailed by a canoe of half- 

 drunken negroes who put off and wished to accompany us 

 up the river. Marciano gave a low command and one of 

 the Indians muffled the lantern; then all swung together in 

 a new rhythm — the full-speed paddle-rhythm of the Caribs 

 — and we fairly flew through the water. After every five 

 minutes spurt our crew rested for a few seconds to locate our 



