As a last resort he halted, and once more sent out Captain
San Martin, with his good caravel, to seek for tidings of
the fleet.
CHAPTER IV

This time Captain San Martin was more successful in his
quest. After a day or two of sailing downstream he came
upon the vessels slowly struggling against the current, and
obliged to anchor every night for fear of Indian attacks.
They only sailed when they encountered a fair wind.
Often it blew dead ahead; and then, hugging the shore,
they progressed painfully by rowing, punting, and by towing
from the bank. Thus do the curious Colombian craft,
called "bongos," ascend the Magdalena, their high and
ornamented bows giving them an air of caravels. Their
low waists, with but a foot or so of freeboard, have a palm-
leaf awning over them, and the high stern completes the
likeness to a vessel of Quesada's time.
As a general rule, a gang of punters, standing on a plat-
form, urge them along, working like galley-slaves, to the
cadence of a chanty, the perspiration falling off their half-
naked bodies like dew falls from a corrugated-iron roof, and
with blood oozing from their right armpit, for against it
they throw their weight upon the pole.
