about noon
But neither Stukely nor Dick was minded to delay their journey , and met the pressing invitation of the Indians to remain with them by repeating their explanation that a long journey lay before them , and that there were urgent reasons for the utmost haste . Whereupon the headman of the village , through Vilcamapata , petitioned that a party might be permitted to accompany the palefaces two days ' journey up the river , in order that they might transport their friends ' boat past certain rapids and a cataract which would be met with at that distance above the village . This statement as to the existence of the rapids and cataract being confirmed by Vilcamapata , Stukely graciously gave the required permission ; and when , after an early breakfast , the little expedition set out , it consisted not only of the two Englishmen and Vilcamapata , but also of twenty Indians in two canoes , who were vastly astonished when , a fresh and favourable breeze happening to be blowing , they saw the white men step their mast , unfurl their sail , and go scudding upstream against the current at a speed which taxed their utmost energies to keep pace with . But the wind died away about noon , and then nothing would satisfy the Indians but that they must take the boat in tow , which they did , with the result that Dick and Stukely were spared a long and hot afternoon 's paddling . Moreover , not content with this , when the time came for them to camp for the night , the friendly Indians insisted on building a hut for Dick and Phil to pass the night in , one half of the party undertaking this task while the other half plunged into the woods , to return , some three-quarters of an hour later , loaded with fruit and game of various descriptions , the choicest portions of which they placed in the white men 's hut . The next day 's journey was , in all essential particulars , the counterpart of that which preceded it , except that about mid-afternoon they arrived at the foot of the rapids , of the existence of which the Indians had warned them . These rapids were very much more formidable than those which they had first encountered , the channel being considerably narrower and the current consequently far more rapid ; also the river bed was here full of enormous rocks and boulders , over and between which the water rushed and leapt and boiled in a turmoil of fury that no boat or canoe could possibly have faced .