Cook Crouched
In The Stern Concentrating His Mind On Steering Only.
A most
excellent arrangement in theory and the safest practical one no
doubt, but it did not work out what you might call brilliantly well;
though each department did its best.
We dashed full tilt towards
high rocks, things twenty to fifty feet above water. Midship backed
and flapped like fury; M'bo and Pierre received the shock on their
poles; sometimes we glanced successfully aside and flew on;
sometimes we didn't. The shock being too much for M'bo and Pierre
they were driven back on me, who got flattened on to the cargo of
bundles which, being now firmly tied in, couldn't spread the
confusion further aft; but the shock of the canoe's nose against the
rock did so in style, and the rest of the crew fell forward on to
the bundles, me, and themselves. So shaken up together were we
several times that night, that it's a wonder to me, considering the
hurry, that we sorted ourselves out correctly with our own
particular legs and arms. And although we in the middle of the
canoe did some very spirited flapping, our whirlpool-breaking was no
more successful than M'bo and Pierre's fending off, and many a wild
waltz we danced that night with the waters of the River Ogowe.
Unpleasant as going through the rapids was, when circumstances took
us into the black current we fared no better. For good all-round
inconvenience, give me going full tilt in the dark into the branches
of a fallen tree at the pace we were going then - and crash, swish,
crackle and there you are, hung up, with a bough pressing against
your chest, and your hair being torn out and your clothes ribboned
by others, while the wicked river is trying to drag away the canoe
from under you.
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