_LIFE ON THE RIVER_
"Daylight! Daylight!"
It was the stentorian shout of Captain Peter. He was a human alarm
clock. He never failed to awaken at the first gleam of daylight. In
the tropics it does not come on with a slow pink dawn as here, but
seems to burst through the gray morning sky in a flash.
There was a scramble everywhere and all tumbled out of the hammocks.
Camp fires were lighted, tea was boiling and in a short time everyone
was getting into the boat. The natives had our shelters down while we
were drinking tea. They came down to the boat with their pots and pans
jangling at their sides, and at the captain's cry, "In boats all!" we
climbed in, the darkies took up their paddles and began their noisy
paddling, singing at the same time. The sun was flaming over the top
of the jungle from the distant shore of the river, three quarters of a
mile away, and we set out on our journey.
Lewis and I took seats on top of the canvas where we could see
everything. We passed through a wide part of the river full of islands
and deep channels and treacherous currents and whirlpools. Only a
skillful man like Captain Peter could have guided our boat through the
right channels, as some of them contain whirlpools that look smooth
enough on the surface but would have dragged even as heavy a craft as
our own under without a struggle.
Some of the islands were a mile in area, some no bigger than a
doormat. In and out amongst them we paddled and finally came to a
smoother, more open part of the river.
"Eleven o'clock!" cried Captain Peter.
I looked at my watch. It was just eleven o'clock.
"Your watch is right, Captain," I called.
"I have no watch, sir," he replied. "I use God's time."
It was a fact, he told time by the sun, and seldom was a minute out of
the way.
Eleven o'clock was always breakfast time. How those black men could
paddle up against a strong current towing our smaller boat, from five
o'clock to eleven with only a cup of tea was more than I could
understand. Yet they did it, and worked well and never seemed hungry.
At eleven we always went ashore and cooked breakfast, cakes, rice,
boiled plantains, salt fish and tea. Then we would pile back into the
boat again and keep on until just before sunset, trying to make a good
landing in time to pitch camp before dark.
That long afternoon was tiresome to me. I scanned the deep foliage
everywhere in hopes to see many wild beasts and reptiles. I recalled
my school geography, with its woodcuts of jungles showing great
alligators on the shores, giant boa constrictors writhing in trees,
monkeys hopping from branch to branch and queer, bright-colored birds
flitting about. This was jungle, surely enough, with such thick
vegetation that only crawling things could penetrate it, yet for hours
I saw no signs of life there. There were wonderful orchids that would,
if they could be brought to New York, sell for fabulous sums. There
were queer looking trees, great fronded palms, hanging moss as thick
as large hawsers and other growing things that I knew nothing about.
In Georgetown I had heard tales of giant forty-foot snakes. I never
saw one. I did catch a glimpse of a small snake which they told me was
deadly poison. He was hanging from a limb over the water. We were
paddling close inshore to avoid a current. One of the blacks saw it
and in a flash knocked it far away into the stream with a blow of his
paddle and kept on paddling, because to him this was a common
incident. His eyes were trained to see such things.
That night we camped at Topeka Falls, or just below them, and the roar
lulled me to sleep.
I discovered that the first part of our trip upriver was not as full
of adventures as I had hoped. But adventure came in good time. The
routine was the same, night after night, but there were many new
things of interest to see, many narrow escapes and considerable
trouble in one way and another. At this camping place I stripped and
was about to take a swim.
"Hey, quit that," shouted Lewis.
"I won't hurt your old river," I laughed.
"You won't come out alive, sir," said the captain.
"There isn't an alligator or crocodile or whatever you call 'em in
sight," I insisted and started to dive. Jimmy restrained me.
"No go in. Fish eatum up," he said.
I laughed at the idea of a fish eating me up. The captain tossed a
salt fish into the water. There was a swish and a big fish came and
grabbed it. I didn't get a very clear look at the fish but he looked
bigger than a whale and his teeth seemed altogether too prominent for
me to fool with.
I discovered that the river was full of "perai," a decidedly savage
fish extremely fond of human beings. One of them will devour a man in
a short while.
I gave up my plan of having a swim and Lewis and I satisfied ourselves
by sitting on the edge of the small boat and splashing water over each
other.