noon
`` Then I will go up and speak to my boatmen . '' `` No need for that , '' said I. `` Tell us which of your men you wish to see , and I will send for him to come here . '' Poor Lobo made a gesture of impatience , but saw that I had quite determined to afford him no shadow of an opportunity to make any secret communication whatever ; so he submitted to the inevitable , and sent for one of his men , to whom he delivered such a message as I suggested , adding a request that a small supply of clothing might be sent off to him at once . This ended the matter , so far as the obtaining of an efficient interpreter was concerned ; the clothes were brought off ; and shortly after noon we weighed and , with a brisk breeze , stood out of the creek on our way up the river . For the first twelve miles or so our course was the same as that which we had followed in our memorable expedition to attack Chango Creek ; the river being , up to that point , about three miles wide , with a fine deep channel averaging perhaps a quarter of that width up as far as abreast the southern extremity of Monpanga island , where this deep channel terminates , and the average depth of the entire stream dwindles to about six fathoms for the next fourteen miles , the channel at the same time narrowing down to a width varying from about two miles to less than half-a-mile in some parts , notably at the spot where it begins to thread its devious way among the islands that cumber the stream for a length of fully thirty miles , at a distance of about twenty-eight miles from Shark Point . By carrying a press of sail , and hugging the northern bank , keeping as close to the shore as our little draught of water would permit , thus to a great extent cheating the current , we contrived to get as far as the spot where the above-mentioned chain of islands commences ; and there , the wind failing us toward sunset , we came to an anchor close to the southern shore , on a sand-bank , in three fathoms , under the lee of a large island that sheltered us from the rush of the main current ; and there we remained all night , a strict anchor-watch of course being kept not only to see that the schooner did not drive from her berth , but also to guard against possible attack on the part of the natives . In this spot , to my inexpressible chagrin , we were compelled to spend the following two days , the wind blowing down the river , when it blew at all , a little variety being infused into the weather by the outburst of a most terrific thunderstorm which brought with it a perfect hurricane of wind and a deluge of rain ; after which we again got a fair wind and were able to pursue our way for a time , getting ashore occasionally upon unsuspected sand-banks , but always contriving to heave off again , undamaged , thanks to the fact that we were proceeding up-stream against the current instead of down-stream with it .