By sunset on September 20th the raft—strengthened by sundry knots all over—was ready to be launched. I was more proud of her than if I had built a Dreadnought. There we all sat by the side of her, my men looking at her in a sceptical way, saying that it was just as well, perhaps, to try and die drowned instead of dying of starvation.
We took a last glance around to see if we could discover some other fruit or something to eat, but we found nothing. We postponed the launching of our vessel—which I named the Victory—until the next morning, as had she perchance had an accident that night—accidents at night seem so much worse than in the daytime—it would have been too severe a blow for us, from which we never could have recovered.
My feet were in such a terrible condition—so full of thorns, so swollen with numberless jiggers which had bored channels under my nails and under the soles—that I really felt I could not walk another step. If that raft did not float I knew that we were lost for good.
The entire night I could not sleep, speculating on whether the raft would float or not. As far as I could judge, she seemed to me to have just capacity enough to keep afloat with all of us on board.
CHAPTER XXI
The Launching of the Glass Raft—Accidents—The Raft sinking—Saved—Our First Solid Meal—Its Consequences—The Canuma and Secundury Rivers—Marching Back across the Forest to the Relief of the Men left behind—A Strange Mishap—A Curious Case of Telepathy
On September 21st my men had a great discussion. Their courage failed altogether, as they said they had never before seen a boat of that kind, made of glass bottles, and that, even allowing that she would float at all, if we struck a rock where should we be? They declared that, tired as they were, they preferred to go on struggling on foot through the forest rather than get drowned. With his peculiar reasoning, Benedicto said that it was bad enough to die of starvation, but to die of starvation and get drowned as well was too much for him!
It was decided that we should first of all try whether the raft would bear our weight or not. If she did, we would sail in her. If she did not, I would navigate her and they might go on foot.