VIOLENT STORM 



183 



We made but little progress on the 20th and two 

 following days, on account of the unsteadiness of the 

 wind. The dry season had been of very brief duration 

 this year ; it generally lasts in this part of the Amazons 

 from July to January, with a short interval of showery 

 weather in November, The river ought to sink thirty or 

 thirty-five feet below its highest point ; this year it had 

 declined only about twenty-five feet, and the November 

 rains threatened to be continuous. The drier the 

 weather the stronger blows the east wind ; it now failed 

 us altogether, or blew gently for a few hours merely in 

 the afternoons. I had hitherto seen the great river only 

 in its sunniest aspect ; I was now about to witness what 

 it could furnish in the way of storms. 



On the night of the 22nd the moon appeared with a 

 misty halo. As we went to rest, a fresh watery wind was 

 blowing, and a dark pile of clouds gathering up river 

 in a direction opposite to that of the wind. I thought 

 this betokened nothing more than a heavy rain which 

 would send us all in a hurry to our cabins. The men 

 moored the vessel to a tree alongside a hard clayey bank, 

 and after supper all were soon fast asleep, scattered 

 about the raised deck. About eleven o'clock I was 

 awakened by a horrible uproar, as a hurricane of wind 

 suddenly swept over from the opposite shore. The 

 cuberta was hurled with force against the clayey bank ; 

 Penna shouted out, as he started to his legs, that a tro- 

 voada de cima, or a squall from up river, was upon us. 

 We took down our hammocks, and then all hands were 

 required to save the vessel from being dashed to pieces. 

 The moon set, and a black pall of clouds spread itself 

 over the dark forests and river ; a frightful crack of 

 thunder now burst over our heads, and down fell the 

 drenching rain. Joaquim leapt ashore through the 

 drowning spray with a strong pole, and tried to pass 

 the cuberta round a small projecting point, whilst we on 

 deck aided in keeping her off and lengthened the cable. 

 We succeeded in getting free, and the stout-built boat 

 fell off into the strong current further away from the 

 shore, Joaquim swinging himself dexterously aboard by 

 the bowsprit as it passed the point. It was fortunate 

 for us that we happened to be on a sloping clayey bank, 

 where there was no fear of falling trees ; a few yards 

 further on, where the shore was perpendicular and formed 



