Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

CEUISE OF THE " CASTOr's " BOATS. 71
courage and make a good splash in the water
with your feet, they will be afraid of you.
On the 5th of April, when entering Revooma
River against the current of about three knots,
we were taken in the heaviest squall we had
yet experienced, which literally threw the boat
on her beam-ends. It was the work of but a
few seconds; fortunately, every rope, being
pretty well worn and almost rotten by that time,
the sheets
carried away, and the main halyards
being let go, she "righted" just in time, the
weight of the provisions bringing her up again
instantly, but with the water in
her nearly up
to her thwarts ; had she sunk, not one of us
could have been saved, for the shore was a mile
off, the current running out, and the cutter not
in company with us ;
two days before, and were then
for we had lost sight of her
searching for
her.
We had now fifteen officers and men left in
the boat, including one of the engineers
of the
" Dee," Mr. Roberts, who had come with us as
an amateur ;
four more of the crew were now ill
with fever, and amongst them Roberts, who one