DEATH OF FRANK FOCOCK. 
501 
Then Frank despatched two of them to examine, and 
after a few moments they returned, saying it was im- 
passable by water. 
Frank laughed bitterly, and said, “ I knew what you 
would say. The Wang wan a are always cowardly in the 
water ; the least little ripple has before this been magni- 
fied into a great wave. If I had only four white men 
with me I would soon show you whether we could pass it 
or not.” 
Frank referred, no doubt, to his companions on the 
LIVING STONE FALLS. 
Medway or Thames, as by profession he was a bargeman 
or waterman, and being a capital swimmer had many a 
time exhibited to the admiring people, especially at 
Nzabi Creek, his skill in the art of swimming and diving. 
At the death of Kalulu he expressed great surprise that 
not one of the five then lost had been saved, and declared 
his conviction that Kalulu Falls would never have 
drowned him, upon which I had described a whirlpool to 
him, and when, with an apparent instinct for the water, 
he sought occasions to exhibit his dexterity, I had cau- 
