DEATH OF FRANK POCOCK. 
499 
over the cataract, into the great waves and the soundless 
depths of whirlpools, and so away out of sight. 
Bad news travels fast. Kacheche, breathless with haste 
and livid with horror, announced that out of the eleven 
men who had embarked in the canoe at Mowa, eight only 
were saved. 
“ Three are lost ! — and — one of them is the little 
master / ” 
“ The little master, Kacheche ? ” I gasped. “ Surely 
not the little master ? ” 
“ Yes, he is lost, master ! ” 
“ But how came he in the canoe ? ” I asked, turning to 
Uledi and his dripping comrades, who had now come 
up, and were still brown-faced with their late terrors. 
“ Speak, Uledi, how came he — a cripple — to venture 
into the canoe ? ” 
In response to many and searching questions, I 
obtained the following account. 
As Uledi and his comrades were about to push off, 
Frank had crawled up near the river, and bade them 
stop and place him in. Uledi expostulated with him, 
upon the ground that I had not mentioned anything 
about taking him, and Manwa Sera, in charge of the 
canoes, hurried up and coaxingly tried to persuade him 
not to venture, as the river was bad ; but he repelled 
them with all a sick man’s impatience, and compelled 
the crew to lift him into the canoe. The Jason, being- 
swift and well-manned, was propelled against the eddy 
with ease, and in half an hour it was racing over the 
small rapids of Massesse down river. As they approached 
Massassa, which was only a mile below Massesse, the 
booming of the cataract made Uledi anxious not to ven- 
ture too near, until he had viewed the falls, and for that 
purpose, with Frank’s permission, he skirted the inter- 
mediate cliffs, until they came to a little cove just above 
the Massassa, where the crew held on to the rocks. 
Uledi soon climbed upward, and proceeded to the rocks 
overhanging the fall, where he was enabled to view 
the extent of the danger at a glance. After only a few 
minutes’ absence, he returned to Frank, who was still 
