This was great getting along
for a small canoe. Going at the same high rate of speed on the second
night in the stream, the canoe struck a spar and went over it with a
bound. Her keel was shattered by the shock, but finally shaking the
crippled timber clear of herself she came on quite well without it. No
other damage was done to our craft, although at times her very ribs were
threatened before clearing this lively ocean river. In the middle of the
current, where the seas were yet mountainous but regular, we went along
with a wide, swinging motion and fared well enough; but on nearing the
edge of the stream a confused sea was met with, standing all on end, in
every which way, beyond a sailor's comprehension. The motion of the
_Liberdade_ was then far from poetical or pleasant. The wind, in the
meantime, had chopped round to the nor'east, dead ahead; being thus
against the current, a higher and more confused sea than ever was heaped
up, giving us some uneasiness. We had, indeed, several unwelcome
visitors come tumbling aboard of our craft, one of which furiously
crashing down on her made all of her timbers bend and creak.
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