“Slipping, sliding, swinging ourselves forward sometimes by the branches of the trees from one foothold to another, but still ever descending, we made our way down the side of the mountain for ever so long, going on till we thought we must be diving into the heart of the earth, the gorge was so deep. Occasionally, when we arrived at some little open space, we could see the tops of the trees underneath us, as if under our feet, and felt inclined to jump on them and go right through to the ground below with a crash, and have done with it at once. The work, however, was so different to the climbing we had the day before that the men went at it more cheerily, besides which it was like running downhill, and when once they had begun descending they could not stop themselves, but had to go on like a rolling ball.
“Thank God, though, it was toil well spent! As we got nearer the bottom, I could fancy I heard the noise of water running, the sound coming to my ear in the silence of the still solemn forest when the noise we made crashing through the brushwood had ceased. I couldn’t believe it, however, at first, and thought it was a dream, or arose out of the delirium occasioned by the thirst from which I was suffering; but it grew clearer and more distinct as we proceeded, and being assured of this I halted of a sudden.
“‘Jem,’ I sang out to Magellan, who was still in front forcing a way for us, ‘stop a minute! Don’t you hear anything?’
“He therefore halted like myself, and so did the rest, who were pressing on between us, he leading and I bringing up the rear, the other four being in the middle like a wedge.
“‘Listen!’ I cried. All was stillness for a moment, but soon, above the hush that succeeded the noise of our movement through the bush, we could hear a faint silvery trickling sound that was sweeter than the sweetest music to our ears. It was the murmur of running water, with an occasional splash as it leaped over a stone.
“‘Hooray, boys!’ exclaimed Jem. ‘We’ve fetched the water at last—follow my leader now, and we’ll be able to slake our thirst!’
“So saying, he plunged again downwards through the jungle, and we after him, helter skelter through the forest in our mad race for the precious element of which we had been so long deprived, and whose real value we did not properly appreciate till we had lost it. Our rush must have resembled what I’ve read takes place on the prairies of America when there is a stampede of the wild animals frightened by the forests catching fire or some other scare.
“Thank God, as I said then, it was not another deception this time like the salt lagoon that had disappointed us so sorely that time when we thought we had a drink at last!
“As we got nearer and nearer the bottom of the valley, the sound of the running water increased, and mingled with it was heard that bubbling and splashing that echoes so delightfully on one’s ears on a warm summer day in England from a garden fountain; so you can imagine how it appealed to our parched senses. Why, we wouldn’t have stopped then in our progress towards it if a fiery volcano lay between us, or if a thousand bayonets tried to arrest our movement!
“Another moment of suspense, and then, there lay the stream before us. I never experienced before that saying in Scripture so thoroughly, about the sight of the water in a thirsty land. It was like heaven to us!