A SCURRY ACROSS THE RIVER 241 
floating off, and ran up the bank to wave a white handkerchief 
three times as a signal that all was well. We had done the ferry¬ 
men an injustice in our suspicions, for they certainly showed 
no desire to do anything but their best to ferry us over the 
river. 
As soon as the boys on the other side recognised the signal 
a scene that beats all description ensued. They seized several 
small canoes lying at the banks belonging to the natives, who had 
come in hopes of finding relics in the deserted camp, and, taking 
the reluctant Franz bodily up, forced him into a canoe, where 
they told him to lie flat or he would be drowned, and be hanged 
to him, and also putting Hammar into the best canoe at their 
disposal, they pushed the expostulating natives aside, and with 
shouts and yells came paddling over. Some swimming alongside 
to steady and push the canoes with their hands, and others 
paddling with their bare arms over the sides, they came 
screaming, laughing, splashing, and racing over, displaying 
the greatest dexterity and knowledge in handling these rickety 
little wet craft. When all were landed, they kicked the canoes 
into the river to show their contempt for the Mombokooshus, 
and yelled across the stream to the owners to fetch their dirty 
boats. We were surprised and somewhat alarmed, as I had also 
been at our boys, to see several Mombokooshus jump into the 
water, spite of crocodiles, and swim after their drifting canoes, 
expecting every moment to see a head go under, pulled down 
by a reptile to reappear no more; but they all reached their 
canoes with safety, and then gave us a display of their prowess 
at paddling in the rapid current over the small cataracts, quite 
astonishing in its nicety. Probably the crocodiles had deserted 
this spot, driven away by the constant traffic usual there ! The 
great feature was to work the canoe, certainly not a foot wide and 
often less than sixteen feet in length, along the bank against the 
current, where it is weakest, standing on their feet while they 
paddled, as securely as one of us would stand on firm ground, 
sending the little cockle-shell hissing forward against the stream 
until they had worked their way up above the point where 
Q 
