I Took My Seat Upon The Top Of The Cargo,
And The Raft Thus Laden Passed The River In The Same Way, And With
The Same Struggle As Before.
The skins, however, not being
perfectly air-tight, had lost a great part of their buoyancy, so
that I, as well as the luggage that passed on this last voyage, got
wet in the waters of Jordan.
The raft could not be trusted for
another trip, and the rest of my party passed the river in a
different and (for them) much safer way. Inflated skins were
fastened to their loins, and thus supported, they were tugged
across by Arabs swimming on either side of them. The horses and
mules were thrown into the water and forced to swim over. The poor
beasts had a hard struggle for their lives in that swift stream;
and I thought that one of the horses would have been drowned, for
he was too weak to gain a footing on the western bank, and the
stream bore him down. At last, however, he swam back to the side
from which he had come. Before dark all had passed the river
except this one horse and old Shereef. He, poor fellow, was
shivering on the eastern bank, for his dread of the passage was so
great, that he delayed it as long as he could, and at last it
became so dark that he was obliged to wait till the morning.
I lay that night on the banks of the river, and at a little
distance from me the Arabs kindled a fire, round which they sat in
a circle.
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