"February 24. - Started at 6 A.M. Everybody eaten up by mosquitoes. At 9
A.M. the steamer smashed her starboard paddle: the whole day occupied in
repairing. Saw a bull elephant in the marshes at a distance. Horrible
treeless swamps swarming with mosquitoes.
"February 25. - Started at 7 A.M. At 10 A.M. arrived at a very narrow and
shallow portion of this chaotic river completely choked by drift
vegetation. All hands worked hard to clear a passage through this
obstruction until 2.30, when we passed ahead. At 4 P.M. we arrived at a
similar obstacle; the water very shallow; and to-morrow we shall have to
cut a passage through the high grass, beneath which there is deeper
water. I ordered fifty swords to be sharpened for the work. We counted
seventy elephants in the distance, but there is no possibility of
reaching them through the immense area, of floating vegetation.
"February 26. - Hard at work with forty men cutting a canal about 150
yards long through the dense mass of compressed vegetation.
"February 27. - Working hard at canal. The fleet has not arrived; thus we
are short-handed.
"February 28. - The canal progresses, the men having worked well. It is a
curious collection of trash that seriously impedes navigation. The grass
resembles sugar-canes; this grows from twenty to thirty feet in length,
and throws out roots at every joint; thus, when matted together, its
roots still increase, and render the mass a complete tangle.
