to obtain our provisions; and having performed our day's journey,
might have anchored fearlessly at night. Finding we could not induce
our people to land, we agreed to continue on all night. The eastern
horizon became very dark, and the lightning more and more vivid;
indeed, I never recollect having seen such strong fork lightning
before in my life. All this denoted the approach of a storm. At eleven
P.M. it blew somewhat stronger than a gale, and at midnight the storm
was at its height. The wind was so strong, that it washed over the
sides of the canoe several times, so that she was in danger of
filling. Driven about by the wind, our frail little bark became
unmanageable; but at length we got near a bank, which in some measure
protected us, and we were fortunate enough to lay hold of a thorny
tree against which we were driven, and which was growing nearly in the
centre of the stream. Presently we fastened the canoe to its branches,
and wrapping our cloaks round our persons, for we felt overpowered
with fatigue, and with our legs projecting half over the sides of the
little vessel, which, for want of room, we were compelled to do, we
lay down to sleep. There is something, I believe, in the nature of
a tempest which is favourable to slumber, at least so thought my
brother; for though the thunder continued to roar, and the wind to
blow,--though the rain beat in our faces, and our canoe lay rocking
like a cradle, still he slept soundly. The wind kept blowing hard
from the eastward till midnight, when it became calm. The rain then
descended in torrents, accompanied by thunder and lightning of the
most awful description. We lay in our canoe drenched with water, and
our little vessel was filling so fast, that two people were obliged
to be constantly baling out the water to keep her afloat. The
water-elephants, as the natives term the hippopotami, frequently came
snorting near us, but fortunately did not touch our canoe. The storm
continued until three in the morning of the 17th, when it became