Accordingly, as soon as the sun got low, having little or nothing more
to hope for from our friendly wind, we started. For the first hour or so
we managed to row the boat, though with great labour; but after that the
weeds got too thick to allow of it, and we were obliged to resort to the
primitive and most exhausting resource of towing her. For two hours we
laboured, Mahomed, Job, and I, who was supposed to be strong enough to
pull against the two of them, on the bank, while Leo sat in the bow of
the boat, and brushed away the weeds which collected round the cutwater
with Mahomed's sword. At dark we halted for some hours to rest and enjoy
the mosquitoes, but about midnight we went on again, taking advantage
of the comparative cool of the night. At dawn we rested for three hours,
and then started once more, and laboured on till about ten o'clock, when
a thunderstorm, accompanied by a deluge of rain, overtook us, and we
spent the next six hours practically under water.
I do not know that there is any necessity for me to describe the next
four days of our voyage in detail, further than to say that they were,
on the whole, the most miserable that I ever spent in my life, forming
one monotonous record of heavy labour, heat, misery, and mosquitoes.
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