424 
A CONTEMPLATIVE ETHIOPIAN. 
fiously turned iny musket muzzle down, planted it firmly 
against the edge of a sunken rock just below me, and, 
with that as a support, commenced to get myself pointed 
in the opposite direction. 
It was only a commencement. No sooner did I expose 
the surface of both boot-tops to the furious current than 
I came down face first, was drifted barrel-like over the 
sunken rock, then over another, and, altogether, jerked 
about in a most confusing manner. It seemed as if my 
arms, legs, and head were being swept about in all direc- 
tions at once; and I need scarcely remark that at this 
period of the action I let the musket look out for itself. 
How I ever reached the opposite shore is, and ever will bo, 
to me a mystery. I remember, as I fell, feeling nerved 
by the conviction that I was in great danger, and that 
presence of mind and powerful exertion were all that I 
could depend upon; and I remember also determining, as 
I felt myself rolled with bruising violence over the first 
rock, to strike out for the opposite shore at an angle of 
forty-five degrees loiih the current^ as the most apparent 
means of safety. But this, combined with avast amount 
of floundering, sharp pfiins, and confusion of ideas, is all 
that I do remember, until I found myself crawling with 
painful exhaustion up the rocky beach some eighty yards 
below the point from which I had started. I looked in 
the direction of the contemplative Ethiopian, who no 
sooner saw me lying exhausted upon the bank than he 
seemed suddenly a\vakened to the conviction that some- 
thing had happened, and that he had better make it 
known. So he hurriedly fired oft* his gun, shouted at the 
top of his voice that Habersham was drowning, and 
