Captain Murray
has imparted to me at one time and another an enormous mass of hints
as to the management of vessels, but those vessels were all pre-
supposed to have steam power.
But he having been the first man to
take an ocean-going steamer up to Matadi on the Congo, through the
terrific currents that whirl and fly in Hell's Cauldron, knew about
currents, and I remembered he had said regarding taking vessels
through them, "Keep all the headway you can on her." Good! that
hint inverted will fit this situation like a glove, and I'll keep
all the tailway I can off her. Feeling now as safe as only a human
being can feel who is backed up by a sound principle, I was
cautiously crawling to the tail-end of the canoe, intent on kneeling
in it to look after it, when I heard a dreadful outcry on the bank.
Looking there I saw Mme. Forget, Mme. Gacon, M. Gacon, and their
attributive crowd of mission children all in a state of frenzy.
They said lots of things in chorus. "What?" said I. They said some
more and added gesticulations. Seeing I was wasting their time as I
could not hear, I drove the canoe from the rock and made my way,
mostly by steering, to the bank close by; and then tying the canoe
firmly up I walked over the mill stream and divers other things
towards my anxious friends.
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