Into That Tree
The Canoe Shot With A Crash, And I Hung On, And Shipping My Paddle,
Pulled The Canoe
Into the slack water again, by the aid of the
branches of the tree, which I was in mortal terror
Would come off
the rock, and insist on accompanying me and the canoe, via Kama
country, to the Atlantic Ocean; but it held, and when I had got safe
against the side of the pinnacle-rock I wiped a perspiring brow, and
searched in my mind for a piece of information regarding Navigation
that would be applicable to the management of long-tailed Adooma
canoes. I could not think of one for some minutes. 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. "You'll be drowned," they said.
"Gracious goodness!" said I, "I thought that half an hour ago, but
it's all right now; I can steer." After much conversation I lulled
their fears regarding me, and having received strict orders to keep
in the stern of the canoe, because that is the proper place when you
are managing a canoe single-handed, I returned to my studies. I had
not however lulled my friends' interest regarding me, and they
stayed on the bank watching.
I found first, that my education in steering from the bow was of no
avail; second, that it was all right if you reversed it. For
instance, when you are in the bow, and make an inward stroke with
the paddle on the right-hand side, the bow goes to the right;
whereas, if you make an inward stroke on the right-hand side, when
you are sitting in the stern, the bow then goes to the left.
Understand?
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