For three or four miles the river dashed onward here over its rocky bed, with a noise like distant thunder, a chafing, boiling, angry stream, which but to look at caused the eyes to swim and the senses to reel.
There are stretches of comparatively calm water between the rapids, and glad indeed were Roland's brave fellows to reach these for a breathing-spell.
In the afternoon, before they were half-way through these torrents, a halt was called for the night in a little bay, and the baggage was brought up.
They fell asleep that night with the roar of the rapids in their ears, and the dreams of many of them were far indeed from pleasant.
Morning brought renewal of toil and struggle. But "stout hearts to stey braes" is an excellent old Scottish motto. It was acted on by this gallant expedition, and so in a day or two they found themselves in a fresh turmoil of water beneath the splendid waterfalls of Theotonia.
The river was low, and in consequence the cataract was seen at its best, though not its maddest. Fancy, if you can, paddling to keep your way--not to advance--face to face with a waterfall a mile at least in breadth, and probably forty feet in height, divided into three by rocky little islands, pouring in white-brown sheets sheer down over the rock, and falling with a steady roar into the awful cauldrons beneath. It is like a small Niagara, but, with the hills and rocks and stately woods, and the knowledge that one is in an uncivilized land, among wild beasts and wilder men, far more impressive.
Our young heroes were astonished to note the multitudes of fish of various kinds on all sides of them. The pools were full.
The larger could be easily speared, but bait of any kind they did not seem to fancy. They were troubled and excited, for up the great stream and through the wild rapids they had made their way in order to spawn in the head-waters of the Madeira and its tributaries. But Nature here had erected a barrier.
Yet wild were their attempts to fling themselves over. Many succeeded. The fittest would survive. Others missed, or, gaining but the rim of the cataract, were hurled back, many being killed.
Another halt, another night of dreaming of all kinds of wild adventures. The Indians had told the whites, the evening before, strange legends about the deep, almost bottomless, pools beneath the falls.