Dangers of Swamp Savannah. 
173 
quent visit all that Mr. King had therefore to do was to tire his gun three 
times as soon as he got there when he or his people would come and lay 
their difficulties or wants before him. 
580. However flattering this attention was for Mr. King, it was 
very unpleasant for us to hear Caberalli say that our bigger corials could 
get no farther, and would therefore have to be left here. Our Arm 
promise to send them the longed-for provisions immediately after arrival 
at the village prevailed upon two of our people, who could be depended 
on, to stay behind with the large boats, while we others divided ourselves 
up amongst the smaller ones. Several cleared spaces which we passed 
indicated the probable situations of isolated settlements of former times 
until finally, the stream ever becoming more insignificant, we reached 
a small savannah or rather a swamp that was completely overgrown 
with reed and cutting-grass to a height here and there of from four to 
five feet. The whole flat might be perhaps a quarter of an hour's walk 
in breadth and an hour's in length: yet the breadth was not everywhere 
equal, because the hemming-in forest drew back in some spots and 
advanced in others. During the continuation of my journey to the 
coast I found such swampy grass-flats to be fairly frequent from now 
onwards. Their substructure consists of deep mud covered over with a 
vegetable decking of grass, rush and reed, which however is strong 
enough to carry the weight of a man, although it continually sways under 
foot like the rise and fall of a wave. This peculiar swaying of an 
apparently firm soil reminded me forcibly of many a light-hearted 
mischievous scene of my boyhood’s days when, in spite of the danger 
threatening, we yelled with enjoyment and coursed along in foolhardy 
presumption over the ice-flats melting under the rays of the spring sun. 
Just as a terrible punishment beneath the deceptive covering threatened 
our foolhardiness there, so here any attempt to stride over the swaying 
cover of intertwined rootlets may end in a still more dangerous abyss, 
from which the person sinking cannot extricate himself without speedy 
assistance, but, entangled in the innumerable tentacles of the roots, must, 
meet with a terrible death from suffocation. 
587. The forest growth enclosing this swamp-savannah through 
which the Asacota follows an ever winding course, appeared regularly 
dwarfed in certain spots whilst, on several elevations beyond, it had 
assumed its previous grandeur. 
588. We finally reached the landing whence a 12-foot broad pathway 
led straight to the village of Asacota situate on one of the rises ahead of 
us. That we more than doubled the pace towards this tempting goal 
can naturally be imagined by anyone who has been starving for over 24 
hours. 
589. In the midst of a horrible din of the most varied sounds from 
innumerable tame monkeys, macaws, parrots, and dogs which thereby 
wanted either to welcome or scare us, we made our way into the settle- 
ment. We preferred a welcome, because Repulse could not have been 
withstood : hunger had made us so wild and contentious, that at all events 
Force would have been opposed to Force. The chastening sticks of 
their irate masters and mistresses convinced us quickly enough, however, 
