. Africana; or, The heart of heathen Africa. lhard. We were in the very middle of the stream, andthe situation was most critical. It was really a questionof life or death. We had always held a theory that ifa hole were knocked in the boat we could stufi it, buttheories are often difficult to practice. Before we couldhave reached the bottom of the boat, through all thebags and boxes, the necessity for stuffing the hole wouldhave passed away. The natives rowed but lose their heads in an emergency. It looked as ifwe were to sink on the spot. Mr. Moir at this crisisseized an oar and ro
. Africana; or, The heart of heathen Africa. lhard. We were in the very middle of the stream, andthe situation was most critical. It was really a questionof life or death. We had always held a theory that ifa hole were knocked in the boat we could stufi it, buttheories are often difficult to practice. Before we couldhave reached the bottom of the boat, through all thebags and boxes, the necessity for stuffing the hole wouldhave passed away. The natives rowed but lose their heads in an emergency. It looked as ifwe were to sink on the spot. Mr. Moir at this crisisseized an oar and rowed with the strength of any fourof them. I was told off to the helm ; the baling beingof no use. The boat rapidly filled with water—itwas questionable whether we could reach the bankbefore it sank. The river here was very deep. One ofthe canoes saw our position and made towards , we reached the bank just as the boat the carsro was under the water and had to be fetchedout. After the accident we held a short council. One. HIPPOPOTAMI. 293 was to stay with the boat and the other to go and obtainassistance from the rest of the party. Ultimately Iwent in a small canoe, but notwithstandino: hard rowin<xI could not overtake the others. Sometimes the canoefound itself among herds of hippopotami, whose presencemade me somewhat uncomfortable after the. last en-counter. Santos has the following account of theseanimals:—The head of the hippopotamus is three timesthe size of our ordinary horse, and its body thick inproportion. What is extraordinary in this species ofanimal is their practice of destroying each other forfood, whence it rarely happens that two are foundtoo-ether. How much I could have wished on thepresent occasion to be able to confirm the last part ofthe Reverend Fathers remarks ! But I found scores ofthem, all regarding my frail bark at the same time, sothat they must have laid aside this inhuman practice ofthe 16th century! The above incident was
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