ON A RAFT TO GUAYAQUIL 307 
The oars used in navigating these rafts are 
merely bamboos, about 20 feet long, half their 
thickness being cut away for about a yard at the 
outer end, so as to form a sort of scoop. Two oars 
were fixed in the prow, and a third oar in the stern, 
the latter being worked by the old black who had 
sold me the raft. The river had risen almost to its 
winter level, and we swept along rapidly. At 
2 P.M. we were already eight leagues away from 
Aguacatal, near a site called Catarama, below which 
the river is narrowed in some places to 30 yards, 
and the navigable channel is further straitened by 
the trees (chiefly species of Inga) which hang far 
over the water. Add to this that the river ran like 
a sluice, and that the turns were frequent and 
abrupt, and it will be seen how difficult it was to 
maintain our clumsy craft always in the mid-stream. 
Although the men tugged hard at their oars, they 
could not save us from being frequently brushed 
by the trees ; and at length, at a sharp turn, the 
raft went dead on, and through a mass of branches 
and twiners that hung over to the middle of the 
river. The effect was tremendous : the heavy 
cases were hoisted up and dashed against each 
other, the roof of our cabin smashed in, and the 
old pilot was for some moments so completely 
involved in the branches and the wreck of the roof, 
that I expected nothing but that he had been 
carried away ; he held on, however, and at last 
emerged, panting and perspiring, but with no 
further injury than a smart flogging from the twigs, 
which indeed none of us entirely escaped. There 
have been instances on this river of a man being 
hooked up bodily by the formidable Uncaria 
