we started, fell in with the blacks who had visited us last, and who were
now in much better humour than upon that occasion. As they had their women
with them, we pushed in to the bank, and distributed some presents, after
which we dropped quietly down the river. Its general depth had been such
as to offer few obstructions to our progress, but about an hour after we
left the natives, the skiff struck upon a sunken log, and immediately
filling, went down in about twelve feet of water, The length of the
painter prevented any strain upon the whale-boat, but the consequence of
so serious an accident at once flashed upon our minds. That we should
suffer considerably, we could not doubt, but our object was to get the
skiff up with the least possible delay, to prevent the fresh water from
mixing with the brine, in the casks of meat. Some short time, however,
necessarily elapsed before we could effect this, and when at last the
skiff was hauled ashore, we found that we were too late to prevent the
mischief that we had anticipated. All the things had been fastened in the
boat, but either from the shock, or the force of the current, one of the
pork casks, the head of the still, and the greater part of the carpenter's
tools, had been thrown out of her. As the success of the expedition might
probably depend upon the complete state of the still, I determined to use
every effort for its recovery: but I was truly at a loss how to find it;
for the waters of the river were extremely turbid. In this dilemma, the
blacks would have been of the most essential service, but they were far
behind us, so that we had to depend on our own exertions alone. I directed
the whale-boat to be moored over the place where the accident had
happened, and then used the oars on either side of her, to feel along the
bottom of the river, in hopes that by these means we should strike upon
the articles we had lost. However unlikely such a measure was to prove
successful, we recovered in the course of the afternoon, every thing but
the still-head, and a cask of paint. Whenever the oar struck against the
substance that appeared, by its sound or feel to belong to us, it was