RESCUED 
with an expression of terror upon it. He was quite 
exhausted, and was shouting pitifully for help. The man 
X was a few yards farther off. 
The canoe suddenly swung round, going right against 
Antonio, who grasped the side of the boat and proceeded 
in such haste to climb on board that he came within an 
ace of capsizing her. A few moments later we were along¬ 
side of X, but he was so exhausted that he had not the 
strength to climb up. We seized him and with great 
difficulty lifted him inside the canoe. 
We continued to go round and round the vortex in a 
helpless fashion, endeavouring with the steering oar to get 
out of that perilous position. As I gazed around I saw 
my camp-bed and bedding, which were enclosed in a water¬ 
tight canvas bag, still floating close to the centre of the 
whirlpool. Alas! a moment later they were sucked down. 
Most of our cooking utensils which were loose in the canoe 
had been washed overboard, and I saw two of our cas¬ 
seroles floating gracefully in a circle round the whirlpool. 
It is curious how people’s mentality will work on such 
occasions. After we had been some minutes endeavouring 
to get away from the centre of the whirlpool, one of my 
men, who had recovered from the fright, saw the cooking 
pans, which were about to disappear. His first impulse 
was to shout that we must go and get them! 
It was with some relief that we were able to extricate 
ourselves, and eventually reached the outer edge of the 
whirlpool, where the water changed direction, and the 
canoe was swung violently, entering a patch of com¬ 
paratively placid water. Paddling with our hands we 
slowly reached the bank, and nearly an hour later — it 
having taken us all that time to go about 150 metres — 
we baled the water out of the canoe and proceeded to 
examine the amount of our loss. 
Nearly all the cooking utensils, as I have said, had 
disappeared; two boxes of tinned provisions had gone 
119 
