There's big mischief afoot and we've got
to keep on following, waiting our chance, which, I think, will come."
They did not start until noon the next day, in order to give the Spaniards
a longer lead, and they rounded the neck of land very slowly lest they run
into a trap. But when the river lay straight before them again they beheld
nothing. They passed the point where the Spaniards had camped and saw the
dead coals of their fires, but they did not stop, continuing instead
their steady progress down stream.
It now grew hot upon the water. They had come many hundreds of miles since
the start, and they were in a warmer climate. The character of the
vegetation was changing. The cypress and the magnolia became frequent on
the banks, and now and then they saw great, drooping live oaks. The soil
seemed to grow softer and the water was more deeply permeated with mud.
Although the flood was gone, the river spread out in places to a vast
width, and even at its narrowest it was a gigantic stream. Other great,
lazy rivers poured in their volume from east and west. Narrow, deep
inlets, half-hidden in vegetation, extended from either side. There were
bayous, although the five had not yet heard the name, and many of them
swarmed with fish.
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