416 
A KOMANTIC UNDERTAKING. 
of attempting to land tliat night; but a spirit of adven- 
ture seemed to grow among us with the darkening 
shades, and, in less than a half-hour after the anchor 
■was down, two boats were in tlie water, and every officer 
in the ship, save myself, the purser, and an engineer, 
were seated in them, and pulling through the darkness 
to find the mouth of a vice.r that they kneio nothing in the 
tcorld about^ and to visit a town the very existence of 
which we only knew from hearsay. And now, as I did 
not go myself, I shall have to give the account of the 
trip as I myself heard it the next morning after their 
return, I even forget now who was the narrator: but 
these are the facts ; and it is said that facts speak for 
themselves. This is the sense of what we who remained 
on board heard the next morning after the party had 
returned in company with a number of natives, two of 
whom (priests of the Greek Church) took passage in our 
boats, while the others came off in their own half-bateau, 
half-canoe-like “dug-outs,*' 
Shortly after leaving the ship, the night had closed 
around them so fast that they soon lost sight of both ship 
and shore; but, as they had a compass and lantern in 
each boat, and had obtained their course before leaving 
the ship, they continued pulling steadily in the direction 
pointed out by the needle, and, taking care not to part 
company, soon came within reach of the sound of 
breakers, along which they then pulled until a dark spot 
on the beach told them that they were abreast of the 
river. They then closed in with it cautiously, and finally 
found themselves entering a swiftly-running stream 
whose mouth was whitened by the breaking surf, and 
