He Came Up, Thanks Be, But His Load Is Down
There Now, Worse Luck.
Then I said we must get the rubber carriers
who were coming this way to show us the ford; and so we sat down on
the bank a tired, disconsolate, dilapidated-looking row, until they
arrived.
When they came up they did not plunge in forthwith; but
leisurely set about making a most nerve-shaking set of preparations,
taking off their clothes, and forming them into bundles, which, to
my horror, they put on the tops of their heads. The women carried
the rubber on their backs still, but rubber is none the worse for
being under water. The men went in first, each holding his gun high
above his head. They skirted the bank before they struck out into
the swamp, and were followed by the women and by our party, and soon
we were all up to our chins.
We were two hours and a quarter passing that swamp. I was one hour
and three-quarters; but I made good weather of it, closely following
the rubber-carriers, and only going in right over head and all
twice. Other members of my band were less fortunate. One and all,
we got horribly infested with leeches, having a frill of them round
our necks like astrachan collars, and our hands covered with them,
when we came out.
We had to pass across the first bit of open country I had seen for a
long time - a real patch of grass on the top of a low ridge, which is
fringed with swamp on all sides save the one we made our way to, the
eastern.
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