STILL RUNNING THE GAUNTLET ON TIIE RIVER. 475 
we thought we had begun to bridge the stream. But 
night drawing nigh, we said to them that we would 
O O O' 
defer further experiment until morning. 
“ Meantime the ninth canoe, whose steersman was a 
supernumerary of the boat, had likewise got upset, and 
he out of six men was drowned, to our great regret, but 
the canoe was saved. All other vessels were brought 
down safely, but so long as my poor faithful Uledi 
and his friends are on the islet, and still in the arms 
of death, the night finds us gloomy, sorrowing, and 
anxious. 
“ January 15. — My first duty this morning was to 
send greetings to the three brave lads on the islet, and 
to assure them that they 
should be saved before 
they were many hours 
older. Thirty men with 
guns w~ere sent to protect 
thirty other men search- 
ing for rattans in the 
forest, and by nine o’clock 
we possessed over sixty 
strong canes, besides other 
long climbers, and as fast 
as we were able to twist 
them together they were 
drawn across by Uledi and his friends. Besides, we 
sent light cables to be lashed round the waist of each 
man, after which we felt trebly assured that all accidents 
were guarded against. Then hailing them, I motioned 
to Uledi to begin, while ten men seized the cable, one 
end of which he had fastened round his waist. Uledi 
was seen to lift his hands up to heaven, and waving his 
hand to us he leapt into the wild flood, seizing the 
bridge cable as he fell into the depths. Soon he rose, 
hauling himself hand over hand, the waves brushing his 
face, and sometimes rising over his head, until it 
seemed as if he scarcely would be able to breathe, but 
by jerking his body occasionally upward with a desperate 
effort, he so managed to survive the waves and to 
PALM-OIL JAR AND COOLER. 
