by Tom Bevan
Chapter XXXIII.
WANDERING IN A MAZE.
"Land ho!"
The idlers on deck sprang to their feet, and the cabins were speedilyemptied of their occupants. All eyes turned southwards. Nothingvisible save the horizon, gray with the heat-haze of noon, and thegray-blue waters that heaved up to meet it. But the sailor in thecrosstrees could see what was invisible to those on the deck. Thegazers looked at him. He extended his forefinger over their heads.
"Land ho!" he cried again; "leagues of it, stretching east and west!"
The adventurers crowded into the bow of the boat, leaning over thebulwarks to larboard and starboard. Presently a sinuous line, darkergray than the rest of the horizon, could be discerned above the surfaceof the ocean. It lifted, cleared; the gray deepened to black; the lowcoast of the Orinoco delta was revealed. The crew raised a resoundingcheer, and the gentlemen of the company waved their caps in the air.Yacamo, the guide, stood in the forepeak of the ship, the centre of aneager group. Yonder was land; for what point of it should they steer?Master Jeffreys was endeavouring to settle that question. The Indianwas pouring out a torrent of coast Spanish, and gesticulating withevery sentence. The Devonian explained the situation to his comrades.
"From what I can gather," he said, "the arms of the river embrace aboutfifty leagues of coastline similar to that which confronts us. In thisstretch there are at least a hundred mouths, connected one with theother by thousands of cross channels. The whole delta is a bewilderingmaze of waterways. Some of these are deep enough to carry our shipwell into the country; others are too shallow to float a ship's boat.Moreover, the guide says that he has had a free passage up a channel onone occasion that was impassable on another because of the shiftingsandbanks. One of the main mouths is very deep, but the current isalso of great strength. We take risks whatever we do."
"Is he sure that we are approaching the Orinoco coast?"
"Quite."
"That will do, then. We will skirt it until he recognizes a landmark."
The light breeze held steady, the tide was running in; so fair progresswas made. The land now stood out quite distinct from the water. Darkmasses of woodland could be discerned standing back on the fringe ofthe tidal mud, but no opening was visible in the low, dark line.Without going farther in, the ship's course was altered until it wasparallel with the coast, and all the afternoon they held steadilyalong, looking for some landmark familiar to the Indian. But the coastwas so monotonous in its regularity that distinguishing features werenot plentiful. It was nearly sunset when, following an inward curve ofthe shore, they discovered that they were in the mouth of a wideestuary. The banks were miles apart, but, the tide being out, a turbidcurrent was distinguishable, flowing in great volume seawards. Thewind, for the time, had practically died down, and the current began toswing the ship round, and bear her back to the Atlantic. Soundingswere taken, and about three fathoms of water discovered, where at leasttwenty times that depth had been anticipated. This was disappointing,for it was evident that they had turned into one of the shallow mouths,and navigation might come to an end a few miles up. Captain Drakedropped anchor well away from the shore and its pestilential nightmists, and made all snug against the morning. He recognized that thenavigation of the river was going to be no easy matter, and he decidedto go warily.
The tide ran again about midnight, and on the early morning ebb the_Golden Boar_ stood out to sea once more, and went in search of a morepromising opening. They found one that Yacamo thought he knew, and,taking advantage of the afternoon tide, they ran up nearly twentymiles. The current was almost as strong as the tide, and they had toanchor against the ebb, or be swept out to sea quicker than they hadcome in. The next morning they went on again, and were fifty miles upthe channel by nightfall. Away to right and left were masses of flat,swampy land, the intersecting waterways reddening and glistening in thesetting sun.
The numerous channels and jutting stretches of land so broke the forceof the tide that hardly any headway was made the next day, and acouncil was held to determine methods for further progress.
Captain Drake was of opinion that it was impossible to continue thepassage of the river in the ship. Rigorous questioning andcross-questioning of Yacamo brought out further ugly reports of theshifting nature of the river-bed, and of the frequency of shallows. Astay of a couple of days in the anchorage was resolved upon, and duringthat time exploration by means of boats was to be pushed alongvigorously.
But it was easier to decide this matter than to carry the decisionsinto practice. Three boats were sent out the next day just aftersunrise. All pursued a more or less southerly course through thechannels, and by noon all three crews had lost themselves in the maze.The waterways were all alike, muddy, tree-bordered, steamy,oppressively malodorous, and swarming with reptiles. Moreover, theylaced and interlaced so frequently, crossing like the threads in awoven fabric, that any idea of direction was impossible. The gianttrees shut in the channels from one another, and no boat's crew couldsee many yards ahead. In the afternoon, gun-fire from the ship gavethe voyagers a cue to their whereabouts, and a guide back to safety.The scheme of exploration in order to find a safe passage for the shiphad failed.
An anxious day followed. Would the mighty river never yield up itsgolden secret? Were the adventurers to be baffled and foiled aftertheir thousands of leagues of journeying? The guide declared that theSpaniards had got hundreds of miles farther up the river, but by meansof galleys of forty to sixty oars apiece. The _Golden Boar_ had nosuch craft aboard. Three good ships' boats she had, the largestcapable of holding about a score of men with arms and provisions, theothers with capacity for about half that number. The largest boat wasfitted with a mast, and a gun might be mounted in the bow.
No man was in the mind to turn back, and progress by boat was resolvedupon. What should be done with the ship? She must not be whollyabandoned, for she was wanted for the voyage home. Some counselledthat she should be taken back to Trinidad and harboured there for threemonths, coming back to the river again at the end of that period.Others were for hiding her, as Oxenham had hidden his ship; but Nickand Ned Johnson were loud against any such proceeding. A plansuggested by Trelawny was to the effect that half the company should gobuccaneering amongst the islands in the _Golden Boar_, whilst the otherhalf should try for "El Dorado's" land, the spoils of each expeditionto be put into the common fund, and then shared according to the termsof the cruise. A few reckless spirits agreed to this, but CaptainDrake would make no such division of his forces. To do so, he argued,would be to weaken both parties to the verge of powerlessnesa.
Matters were at a deadlock. Then Dan Pengelly went hunting, and caughta native canoe and two natives. He brought them to the ship. Yacamocould make himself understood. He persuaded the Indians that hismasters were not Spaniards, but tender-hearted white men, who loved thebrown man like a brother. Generosity in the matter of presents helpedthe faith of the two men. They declared their willingness to help thewhite strangers. Their own village was near at hand, hidden in thewooded recesses of an island, and they had intercourse with othervillages along the delta, and could guide the adventurers through thenetwork of channels to the main stream.
But the problem what to do with the ship remained unsolved. The twonatives declared that it was impossible to get her into the main river;and even if that could be done, her voyage up-stream would be short, aswaterfalls blocked the passage.
Captain Drake and a small retinue proceeded to the Indian village, andtalked with the chief. He proved friendly enough, and quite willing tohelp, when he found that the newcomers were foes to his oppressors, theSpaniards. He paid a return visit to the ship, and, learning thedifficulty concerning her, offered to hide her in a deep pool on theeastern side of his own island. She could there be effectivelyscreened. A survey of the spot and the channels leading to it showedthat the plan was feasible; and, with ship's boats and native canoes,the _Golden Boar_ was towed to
her anchorage, and preparations for theboat journey were at once begun. The vessel was dismasted, her gunsburied, and the ammunition safely stowed in an empty hut. Masts andsails were fitted to the two smaller boats, and the chief furnished alarge canoe and rowers for the carriage of stores. Two other canoes ofstronger make were constructed, and at the end of twelve days CaptainDrake had a flotilla of five boats under his command. Sixty men wereto form the expeditionary force; one gentleman adventurer, one ship'sofficer, two soldiers, and two seamen--all chosen by lot--being leftbehind in the native village in charge of ship and stores.
