XIV 
DOWN THE RIO NEGRO 
distressing colic, which for many consecutive days 
and nights had allowed her no rest. I had on me 
a slight attack of diarrhoea — this is mostly the case 
with me on the first day I embark, when the ex- 
cessive heat causes me to drink a great deal of 
water— and I had been obliged to leave my ham- 
mock two or three times since nightfall. It was 
now past midnight, and just as I lay down the last 
time I heard them deciding that the best way 
would be to strangle me as soon as I should be 
asleep again, which Yurebe undertook to do, and 
one of the others undertook to ascertain when I 
had fallen asleep. The fires had gone out and 
only the dim light of the stars illuminated the 
interior of the cabins. Though reclining in my 
hammock, I kept my feet on the ground ready to 
spring up should I be attacked. The darkness 
prevented their noticing this, and as I kept per- 
fectly still for some time the man who had placed 
himself to watch me reported I was sleeping. I 
heard them all whispering one to the other, " Iduali ! 
Iduali ! " (" Now it is good — now it is good "), and 
as Yurebe hesitated a moment, I got up and walked 
leisurely towards the forest as if my necessities had 
called me thither again ; but instead I turned when 
I got a few paces and walked straight down to the 
canoe, unlocked the door of the cabin, which I 
entered, and having fortified the open doorway 
by putting a bundle of paper before it, I laid my 
double-barrelled loaded gun, along with a cutlass 
and knife, by my side, and thus awaited the attack 
which I still expected would be made. At intervals 
I could hear angry exclamations from the Indians, 
wondering that I did not return to my hammock ; 
