AiYUKANTE Has a Tall, 
119 
a tiresome water trip began. After something like four hours across a 
savannah overüooded with two, often three or four feet of water, we 
arrived at the junction of the Nappi with the Pirara. The Nappi still 
remained the same rapid and deep mountain stream, but yet it had to be 
crossed. To swim the raging torrent Avith the heavy astronomical 
instruments was an impossibility, and, there was no suitable tree along 
the bank which, even when felled, would be long enough to reach the 
opposite shore. A raft Avas the only way to cross. All hands were 
therefore set to Avork, and, Avith the fcAV tools that Ave happened to have 
at hand, Ave managed to make one in about four hours. It Avas Avith 
trouble that Ave put it into the water, only to see it sink a nionuMit after. 
The freshly-cut hard timber Avas too heavy. The (uily tiling uoav Avas for 
one of the Indians to SAvim the rivei" and send him to the mouth of the 
Pirara so that my brother, avIio Ave reckoned Avould have arrived there 
already, might send one of the boats up to Avhere Ave were on the Pirara, 
and so help us get to the opposite bank of the Nappi. 
291. We had already spent five hours here, the sun Avas sinking on 
the horizon, and the month of the I'irara Avas still another five hours 
distant. The no less comforting pros])ect of lieing unalde to get aAvay 
before midnight became CA'ery moment more certain. Just as our boat, 
so smart in battling with the Avaves, reached the opposite shore the noise 
of her ])addles aroused our keenest and most Avelccune interest which aa ms 
soon changed to astonishment on seeing the craft Avith my brother in her: 
she had left Pirara village the <lay before and Avas slowly making her Avay 
doAvn. She had proved as good a helping angel to him as to us. It 
would seem that when he reached Pirara Elver he intended riding over, 
but with the first few steps his horse had sunk knee-dee]) in the mud, 
turned a somersault in trying to free itself, and had throAvn its rider 
Avho, as soon as he had got up and Aviped the mud and dirt off his face 
saw his steed doing a gallop back to the settlement. He now found 
himself in a worse predicament than we AA-ere : for he was alone. The 
boat had reached him also just in the nick of time. 
295. After she had put us, as Avell as the chronometers, safely across 
the Nappi, we resumed our journey over the savannah, noAV changed into 
a lake. The sun had long gone to rest, yet on and on Ave Avent l)y moon- 
light through the water until a forest belt indicated our proximity to the 
Pirara, and soon we recognised right ahead, but deep below us, the many 
fires which cast the shadows of the denselji leaved branches of the ohl 
Mararen tree in strong relief over the choppy waves, and lighted up in 
glaring contrast the nude broAvn figures of the Indians squatting around 
them. We found ourselves ui)on the ."^O to lO foot high bank in the neigh- 
bourhood of Pirara mouth and a loud hurrah hastened the paddlers on 
the yonder shores to come and fetch us over to their inviting fires. This 
Avas easier said than done, because before getting into the corial noAV 
waiting to take us across we had to^ slide doA\^n this 40 ft. embankment. 
We, tli^e women, Ooodall and I, were already paddling towards the 
tempting hearths when a sudden scream immediately succeeded by the 
noise of a heavy fall caused us to stop. Someone must have fallen down 
the steep incline and the almost minute-long sih'nce that followed made 
