After a while he respectfully advised that it was no longer necessary for me to sit on him; that he could not possibly swim back to his town, nor walk through the mangrove swamp on either side of the river, and besides he was needed at the oar for he knew that the white man was in a hurry to reach Gaboon. As to the proposal that I change my seat I told him that what was at first a matter of necessity was now a matter of choice and that I could not be as comfortable sitting on a thwart. But one oar was idle; and besides I was deeply moved by his anxiety to get me to Gaboon as quickly as possible. So I relented and changed my seat, while he crawled out and took the oar. I had a few choice bananas, which I asked him to eat with me, and before he had finished eating we were the best of friends; and so we were ever afterwards.
The launch Dorothy (which succeeded the Evangeline) I usually kept anchored well out on the bay, giving her plenty of cable. It was always hard to get out to her in the evening and I preferred to start up the river in the quiet of the morning but that was not always possible. One evening we were going out to her in a canoe, preparatory to a journey, when the sea was rougher than usual, and we had a misadventure that was no joke at the time. In the canoe were eight natives and several trunks and other baggage. Ndong Koni was in the stern. We soon saw that we were overloaded but we went on, the canoe taking water more and more rapidly.
“We can’t make it,” said some one; “let us turn back.”
But to attempt to turn in such a sea would surely have swamped us; besides, we were more than half-way to the launch.
I gave the order to go on, and every man to pull for his life. I stood up and urged the men to their best. But it was in vain. The canoe settled deeper in the water, which soon came almost to my knees. At last it went under, in eighteen feet of water, and a rough sea that no white man could swim in. Dear reader, if you should ever find yourself in such a situation, a hopeless distance from the shore and the craft sinking into the depths beneath your feet, let me advise you above all things to be perfectly calm. Don’t worry. Worry will not help in the least.
I turned to Ndong Koni and said: “Ndong, if my life is to be saved I guess it is up to you to do it.”
There was no need to speak to him. He sprang over the heads of several boys and into the water after me, and catching me by the shoulder, fought the sea with the other arm. The canoe came to the surface bottom upwards. The natives old and young swim marvellously, and are at home in the roughest water. We tried to get to the canoe but a wave swept it away; then another dashed it towards us and against us. We clung to it as best we could but again and again we were separated from it, and again dashed against it. There was a canoe with several natives in the distance; but they either did not see us, or they were disposed to let nature take its course. We might have been devoured by sharks but for the fact that there were a number of us, and we were making plenty of noise. But some men on the shore saw us, and calling loudly for help they at last pushed off a large canoe and came towards us, the captain yelling at the men to pull and pull harder. When they reached us we had been twenty minutes in the water, and were taken out not so much the worse except Ndong Koni, who was exhausted and bruised by the canoe striking him, from which he had each time saved me.
When we reached the beach I am sure no one will wonder that I said to him: “Ndong Koni, if I had a son of my own I could only wish that he were as brave and unselfish as you are.”
I asked him what he would have as salvage for saving my life.
He replied: “A tin of corned beef for supper.” He seemed to think that was enough.