368 
EXCUKSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. YL 
article I had not yet had occasion to use on the river, 
but which was indispensable in all excursions beyond 
Ega, every person, man woman and child, requiring 
one, as without it existence would be scarcely possible. 
My tent was about eight feet long and five feet broad, 
and was made of coarse calico in an oblong shape, with 
sleeves at each end through which to pass the cords of a 
hammock. Under this shelter, which is fixed up every 
evening before sundown, one can read and write, or swing 
in one's hammock during the long hours which intervene 
before bed-time, and feel one's sense of comfort increased 
by having cheated the thirsty swarms of mosquitoes 
which fill the chamber. 
We were four days on the road. The pilot, a mame- 
luco of Ega, whom I knew very well, exhibited a know- 
ledge of the river and powers of endurance which were 
quite remarkable. He stood all this time at his post, 
with the exception of three or four hours in the middle 
of each day, when he was relieved by a young man who 
served as apprentice, and he knew the breadth and 
windings of the channel, and the extent of all the 
yearly-shifting shoals from the Rio Negro to Loreto, a 
distance of more than a thousand miles. There was no 
slackening of speed at night, except during the brief 
but violent storms which occasionally broke upon us, 
and then the engines were stopped by the command of 
Lieutenant Nunes, sometimes against the wish of the 
pilot. The nights were often so dark that we pas- 
sengers on the poop deck could not discern the hardy 
fellow on the bridge, but the steamer drove on at full 
speed, men being stationed on the look-out at the prow. 
