332 
TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [November, 
thunder, which sometimes retarded us, and sometimes |j 
the wind shifting round suddenly, through every point 
of the compass ; so that, if our little canoe had not been 
well ballasted with her cargo of salt and iron, she would p 
have capsized. Once, in particular, at about four in the | 
morning, we experienced one of these storms in a wide j 
part of the river, where the waves raised were very great, 
and tossed us about violently. A sudden shift of the 
wind took our sail aback, and we had great difficulty in 
getting it in. The rain was driving thickly against us, j 
and rendered it bitterly cold ; our montaria, which was i 
towed astern, got water-logged, — plunged, and dashed 
against the canoe, — tore out its benches, and lost its 
paddles. I gave orders to cast it loose, thinking it im- 
possible to save it ; but the Indians thought otherwise, * 
for one of them plunged in after it, and succeeded in 
guiding it to the shore, where we also with much diffi- j 
culty arrived, and managed to fasten our bows to some j 
bushes, and get a rope out from our stern to a tree 
growing in the water, so as to prevent the canoe from 
getting broadside to the waves, which roUed in furi- 
ously, keeping one of our men constantly baling out , 
water; and thus we waited for daylight. I then gave 
the men a cup of caxa^a each ; and when the sea had |[| 
subsided sufficiently to allow of rowing, we continued our i 
passage. These storms are the only things that make 
travelling here disagreeable : they are very frequent, but || 
each succeeding one, instead of reconciling me to them, 
made me more fearful than before. It is by no means 
an uncommon thing for canoes to be swamped by themiJ 
helped us on. Many of them were complete hurricanes. 
