ASSISTED BY THE NATIVES. 201 
The natives, in the mean while, resting on their spears, 
watched us with earnest attention. One of them, who was 
sitting close to the water, at length called to us, and we 
immediately recognised the deep voice of him to whose sin- 
gular interference we were indebted for our escape on the 
23d of January. I desired Hopkinson to swim over to him, 
and to explain that we wanted assistance. This was given 
without hesitation ; and we at length got under the lea of the 
rock, which I have already described as being in the centre 
of the river. The natives launched their bark canoes, the 
only frail means they possess of crossing the rivers with 
their children. These canoes are of the simplest construc- 
tion and rudest materials, being formed of an oblong piece 
of bark, the ends of which are stuffed with clay, so as to 
render them impervious to the water. With several of these 
they now paddled round us with the greatest care, making 
their spears, about ten feet in length, (which they use at once 
as poles and paddles,) bend nearly double in the water. We 
had still the most difficult part of the rapid to ascend, 
where the rush of water was the strongest, and where the 
decline of the bed almost amounted to a fall. Here the 
blacks could be of no use to us. No man could stem the 
current, supposing it to have been shallow at the place, but 
it was on the contrary extremely deep. Remaining myself 
in the boat, I directed all the men to land, after we had 
crossed the stream, upon a large rock that formed the left 
buttress as it were to this sluice, and, fastening the rope to 
the mast instead of her head, they pulled upon it. The 
