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Accordingly, having carefully fitted the mast, restowed
the boat, and got out our rifles, we embarked. Fortunately the wind
was blowing on shore from the ocean, so we were able to hoist the sail.
Indeed, we afterwards found out that as a general rule the wind set on
shore from daybreak for some hours, and off shore again at sunset, and
the explanation that I offer of this is, that when the earth is cooled
by the dew and the night the hot air rises, and the draught rushes in
from the sea till the sun has once more heated it through. At least that
appeared to be the rule here.
Taking advantage of this favouring wind, we sailed merrily up the river
for three or four hours. Once we came across a school of hippopotami,
which rose, and bellowed dreadfully at us within ten or a dozen fathoms
of the boat, much to Job's alarm, and, I will confess, to my own. These
were the first hippopotami that we had ever seen, and, to judge by their
insatiable curiosity, I should judge that we were the first white men
that they had ever seen.


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