HEAVY ROLLERS. 75 



sail, and while two hands baled the boat, we manned 

 all the six oars, and set to work to pull off again. 

 Luckily the flood-tide was setting in from the north 

 into the mouth of the river, so that it gradually 

 swept us up to windward till we opened it, when 

 again watching an opportunity we pulled round, 

 hoisted sail, and in a short time shot round the 

 point into smooth water, and rapidly passed from 

 the roar and din of the breakers into smooth tran- 

 quil security. We escaped with the loss of our 

 boomken and with a good wetting ; but had we 

 capsized the boat, or swamped her, we should have 

 had the pleasing prospect of starving for several 

 days on a barren beach as the best thing that we 

 could have hoped for. The opening we had now 

 got into was about three miles wide, and we had 3^ 

 fathoms depth about 200 yards from the north shore. 

 There was here a small cliff of sand, about ten feet 

 high, and the land beyond was an open forest 

 country, with green grass and scattered trees. At 

 one spot was a small hill, shewing a cliff of sand 

 fifty feet high. The south shore seemed a great 

 mangrove swamp merely, with a spit of sand run- 

 ning out to seaward among the breakers. In about 

 two miles we came on a small low island, and passed 

 on the south side of it in shallow water, the shoal 

 apparently stretching all across. The tide was 

 running up pretty strongly, and having a fair wind 

 we went on rapidly. About a mile above the island 

 the river suddenly contracted to a width of about a 



