by Daniel Defoe
they were on,than ran into that; but, after this, it contracted itself again, thoughstill it was to be supposed near a mile and a half over.
They were far from being pleased at this conjunction of the waters,because the great water being thus joined, they found the stream orcurrent more violent, and the water, upon the least stirring of thewind, more turbulent than it was before, and as their great float drewbut little water, and swam flat upon the surface, she was ready tofounder upon every occasion. This obliged them almost every night toseek for some little cove or creek to run her into, as into a harbour,to preserve her; for, when the wind blew from shore, they had enough todo to keep her from driving off from the river, and, when there was butlittle wind, yet it made a rippling or chopping of the waves, that theyhad much difficulty to keep them from filling her.
All the country on the side of this river was a little higher groundthan ordinary, which was its security from land-floods, and theirsecurity too; for sometimes the river was seen to rise, and that so muchas to overflow a great extent of land on the other side. Hence, perhaps,the other side might be esteemed the most fruitful, and perhaps might bethe better land, if it had but half the art and industry of an Europeannation to assist the natural fertility of the soil, by keeping the waterin its bounds, banking and fencing the meadows from the inundations andfreshes, which were frequently sent down from the Andes and from thecountry adjoining.
But, as it now was, those lower lands lay great part of the year underwater; whether it was the better or worse for the soil, that no judgmentcan be made of, till some people come to settle there to whom it may beworth while to make experiments of that kind.
This part of the country they were now in resembled, as they hinted, thecounty of Dorsetshire and the downs about Salisbury, only not lying sohigh from the surface of the water, and the soil being a good fruitfuldark mould, not a chalky solid rock, as in the country about Salisbury,and some other parts.
Here they found a greater quantity of deer than they had seen in alltheir journey, which they often had the good luck to kill for theirsupply of food, the creatures not being so shy and wild as they hadfound farther within the country.
It may be noted here, and it is very observable, that in all thisjourney I could not learn that they saw either wolf or fox, bear orlion, or, indeed, any other ravenous creature, which they had the leastreason to be shy or afraid of, or which, indeed, were frightful to thedeer; and this, perhaps, may be the reason why the number of the latteranimals is so great, which, as I have said, is greater there than atother places.
After they had feasted themselves here for some days, they resolved tobegin their new kind of navigation, and to see what they could make ofit; but they went very heavily along, and every now and then, as I havesaid, the water was too rough for them, and they were fain to put intoharbour, and sometimes lie there two or three days. However, they plyedtheir time as well as they could, and sometimes the current setting overto their side, and running strong by the shore, they would go at a greatrate, insomuch that one time they said they went about thirty miles in aday, having, besides the current, a little gale of wind right astern.
They reckoned that they went near two hundred miles in this manner, forthey made the best of it; and at the end of these two hundred miles, itwas, by their reckoning, that our five men who travelled into thecountry so far, found them, when they saw the hat swimming down thestream; which hat, it seems, one of them let fall overboard in thenight.
They had, I say, travelled thus far with great difficulty, the riverbeing so large; but, as they observed it growing larger and larger thefarther they went, so, they said, they did not doubt, but that, in alittle more, they should come to the sea.
They also observed, that now, as they found the waters larger and therivers wider, they killed more fowls than formerly, and, particularly,more of the duck-foot kind, though they could not perceive anysea-fowls, or such as they had been used to. They saw a great many wildswans, and some geese, as also duck, mallard, and teal; and these, Isay, increased as they drew nearer the sea.
They could give very little account of the fish which the riversproduced, though they sometimes catched a few in the smaller river; but,as they had neither fishing-hook or nets, which was the only omission inmy fitting them out, they had no opportunity to furnish themselves.
They had, likewise, no salt, neither was it possible to furnish themwith any, so they cured their meat in the sun, and seasoned it with thatexcellent sauce called hunger.
The account they gave of discovering our five men was thus. They hadbeen, for two days, pretty successful in their navigation, as I havedescribed it, but were obliged to stop, and put in at the mouth of alittle river, which made them a good harbour. The reason of their staywas, they had no victuals, so by consent they all went a-hunting, and,at night, having shot two guinacoes and a deer, they went to suppertogether in their great tent; and, having fed heartily on such goodprovisions, they began to be merry, and the captain and officers, havinga little store left, though not much, they pulled out their bottles, anddrank every one a dram to their good voyage, and to the merry meeting oftheir ships, and gave every man the same.
But their mirth was increased beyond expressing, when two of the men,who were without the tent door, cried out, it lightened. One said he sawthe flash, he was sure, and the other said, he thought he saw it too;but, as it happened, their backs were towards the east, so that they didnot see the occasion.
This lightning was certainly the first flash of one of our five men'srockets, or the breaking of it, and the stars that were at the end ofit, up in the air.
When the captain heard the men say it lightened, he jumped from hisseat, and called aloud to them to tell which way; but they foolishlyreplied, to the north-west, which was the way their faces were when theysaw it; but the word was no sooner spoken but the two fellows fella-hallooing and roaring, as if they were distracted, and said they sawa rocket rise up in the air to the eastward.
So nimble were the men at this word, that they were all out of the tentin a moment, and saw the last flash of the rocket with the stars, which,spreading themselves in the air, shone with the usual bright light thatit is known those fireworks give.
This made them all set up a shout of joy, as if they imagined theirfellows, who were yet many miles from them, should hear them; but thecaptain and officers, who knew what they were to do on this occasion,ran to their baggage, and took out their own rockets, and othermaterials, and prepared to answer the signal.
They were on a low ground, but, at less than a mile distant, the landwent ascending up to a round crown or knoll, pretty high; away they ranthither, and set up a frame in an instant. But, as they were makingthese preparations, behold, to confirm their news, they saw a thirdrocket rise up in the air, in the same place as before.
It was near an hour from the first flash, as they called it, before theycould get all things ready; but then they fired two rockets from theadjoining hill, soon after one another, and, after that, at about tenminutes' distance of time, a third, which was just as by agreement, andwas perfectly understood, the rockets performing extremely well.
Upon this they saw another single rocket rise up, which was to let themknow that their former was seen and understood.
This was, you will conclude, a very joyful night, and the next morningthey went all hands to work at the boats, getting out of the creekearly, and made the best of their way. However, with all they could do,they could not go above twelve miles that day, for the current settingover to the other shore, had left them, and in some places, they wouldrather have an eddy stream against them, and this discouraged them alittle, but, depending that they were near their port, and that theirfriends were not far off, they were very cheerful. At night they lookedout again for rockets, the sight of which failed not to rejoice theirhearts again, and with this addition, that it appeared their friendswere not above four or five miles off; they answered the rocketspunctually, and proceeding early the next day, they met in the mo
rningjoyfully enough, as has been said.
We were overjoyed at meeting, as may be easily conceived; but, to seethe pitiful boat, or periagua, they came on board in, a little surprisedus; for, indeed, it was a wonder they should be able to make it swimunder them, especially when they came out into the open sea.
As soon as we had the boat in reach, we hauled it up into the ship for arelic, and, taking two of the men with us, we manned out all our ship'sboats to go and fetch the rest, for they were, as these men told us,about seventeen miles up the river still, and could not come anyfarther, their boats being not able to bring them along, and the rivergrowing very broad and dangerous. The eldest of my midshipmen came inthis first boat, but the captain and the other stayed with the men, whowere very unruly, and frequently quarrelling and wrangling about theirwealth, which, indeed, was very considerable; but they were above twiceas far up the river as the men told us, having halted after the boatleft them.
When our boats came to them, and took them in, I ordered they
