Part 17 (1/2)
As he spoke, we observed a bright light bursting forth from among the trees, at a short distance off along the bank. Now it disappeared--now it came again in sight. We paddled down towards it. It was apparently a torch held in a person's hand. We rapidly approached the light, but yet failed to discover any place where we could land with safety. We shouted loudly, hoping to attract the attention of any one who might be near. Presently a hail came off the land. We answered it. Again a voice was heard.
”Can you tell us where we can land with safety?” cried John, in Spanish.
The answer was unintelligible. Presently he asked again in English; and in a little time we saw the light moving along the bank. Then it remained stationary. We exerted ourselves to the utmost to steer for it; and we now saw a division in the wall of trees, which indicated that there was a pa.s.sage between them. Again the thunder reared, the lightning flashed, and the wind blew with fearful force.
Maria shrieked loudly, ”The water is was.h.i.+ng over the raft!”
”Hold on! hold on!” cried John; ”we shall soon be in safety.” And in another minute we were entering the mouth of a narrow channel. ”We will turn the canoe round,” said John, ”and let the raft go first. We may thus prevent it being dashed on the bank.”
We did as he advised. Scarcely, however, had we turned the raft round when we found it had reached the sh.o.r.e.
”Do you, Domingos, help the senora and Maria to land!” shouted John.
By the light from the torch we saw a tall figure standing on the bank.
He flung the light so that it might fall across us.
”Females!” he exclaimed. ”A sorry night to be buffeting with the waves of the Amazon! Give me your hands, whoever you are. I should little have expected to find my countrymen in such a plight in this remote region.”
While he was speaking he helped Ellen and Maria up the bank, the two monkeys following, while Poll and Niger clung fast to Maria's shoulders.
Faithful True did not attempt to leap on sh.o.r.e, though he could easily have done so, but remained with me in the canoe. Domingos, meantime, was hastily throwing our goods on sh.o.r.e; while we continued exerting ourselves in preventing the raft being lifted by the force of the water and upset on the bank.
”All the things are safely landed,” cried Domingos at length.
We then, casting off the tow-rope, paddled round, and ran the bow of the canoe on sh.o.r.e. Not till then did True leap out of her. Domingos and the stranger coming down, helped us to drag her out of the water.
”We may save the raft also,” said the latter. ”You may require it to continue your voyage; as I conclude you do not intend to locate yourselves here, and compel me to seek another home in the wilderness.”
I was struck by the morose tone in which the stranger spoke. He, however, a.s.sisted us in dragging up the raft sufficiently high to prevent its being knocked about by the waves, which ran even into the comparatively smooth part of the channel in which we found ourselves.
”We heartily thank you for your a.s.sistance,” said John. ”We owe the preservation of our lives to you; for, with the increasing storm, we could scarcely have escaped destruction had we been driven further down the river.”
”You owe me no thanks, young sir. I would have done the same for a party of benighted savages, as you call them,” answered the stranger.
”Your dumb companions are equally welcome. I am not ill pleased to see them. It speaks in your favour that they follow you willingly, instead of being dragged about with ropes and chains, or confined in cages, as civilised men treat the creatures they pretend to tame. I have, however, but poor shelter to offer you from the deluge which will soon be down on our heads. Follow me; there is no time to be lost.”
”But we must not allow our goods to remain out,” said John.
”I will a.s.sist you, then, to carry them,” answered the stranger, lifting up double the number of packages which we usually carried at a time.
We then all loaded ourselves. Ellen insisted on carrying a package, and followed the stranger, who went before us with his torch. We could not even then exchange words, as we had to proceed in single file along a narrow pathway, fringed on either side with thick shrubs--apparently the after-growth of a cleared spot, soon to spring up again into tall trees.
We soon found ourselves within the forest, where, so dense was the gloom, that without the torch to guide us we could not have made our way. Its ruddy flame glanced on the trunks of the tall trees, showing a canopy of wide-spreading boughs overhead, and the intricate tracery of the numberless sipos which hung in festoons, or dropped in long threadlike lines from them. Pa.s.sing for a few yards through a jungle, the boughs spreading so closely above our heads that we often had to stoop, we found ourselves in an open s.p.a.ce, in which by the light of the torch we saw a small hut with deep eaves, the gable end turned towards us. It was raised on posts several feet from the ground. A ladder led to a platform or verandah, which projected from the wall of the gable, in which was a small door.
”Here you are welcome to stow your goods and rest for the night,” said the stranger. ”No human being but myself has ever entered it; for I seek not the society of my fellow-men, either savage or civilised, so-called. To-morrow, if the weather clears, you will, I conclude, proceed on your way; or if you insist on remaining, I must seek another home. Let that be understood, before I make you further welcome. Now, enter, and such accommodation as my hut affords shall be yours.”
There was something in the tone of the speaker which, though his dress was rough and strange, made us feel that he was a man of education.
”We cordially thank you, sir,” answered John, ”and accept your hospitality on the terms you propose; but as a portion of our goods still remain near the river, we would ask you to give us another torch to enable us to fetch them before the rain comes done.”
”I will myself accompany you,” he answered, ”when I have introduced the young people to my abode.”