"Come," said I, "we may all turn in quietly for the night. The savages ashore there seem at length to be asleep." The words were scarcely out of my mouth, when a bright glare, as if a flame from a heap of dry wood chips had suddenly blazed up, once more illuminated the whole sky right over where we had seen the sparks and luminous smoke, while a loud concert of Eboe drums, horns, and wild shouts, arose in the distance. "Some vile Fetish rite is about being celebrated," said I. The noise and glare continued, and with a sickening feeling, I turned away and looked towards the rising moon. Her rays trembled on the gurgling and circling eddies of the river, making every trunk of a tree, or wreath of foam as it floated down with the current, loom clear and distinct, as they swam in black chains and dark masses past the sparkling line her chaste light illuminated. I had leaned for near a quarter of an hour with folded arms, resting my back against the lowered yard, admiring the serenity of the scene, and contrasting it with the thrilling events of the day, pondering in my own mind what the morrow was to bring forth, when a large branch of a tree, covered with foliage, floated past and attracted my attention--the black leaves twinkling in the night breeze between us and the shining river. Immediately a small canoe, with two dark figures in it, launched out from the darkness; swam down the river into the bright wake of the glorious planet, where the water flowed past in a sheet of molten silver, and floated slowly across it. The next moment it vanished in the darkness. I saw it distinctly--there could be no mistake. "I say, friend Sprawl,"--he was standing beside me enjoying the luxury of a cigar,--"did you see that?" pointing in the direction where the tiny craft had disappeared. He had also seen it. "We had better keep a bright look-out," continued I; "those savages may prove more venturesome in the darkness than we chose this morning to believe possible." I kept my eye steadily in the direction where we had seen the canoe vanish; but she continued invisible, and nothing for some time occurred to create any alarm. Every thing remained quiet and still. Even the shouting on shore had entirely ceased. On board of the felucca, the men were clustered round a blazing fire forward, that cast a bright red glare on the rushing water as it whizzed past, lap-lapping against our bows, and closing in on the rudder, making it _cheep_ as it was _jigged_ from side to side, with a buzzing gurgle; while the small round whirling eddies, visible by the tiny circles of white froth and hissing bells, where the divided waters spun away as if glad of their reunion in our wake, rolled down astern of us, blending together in one dark eddy, wherein the boats under the tafferel sheered about, with the water flashing at their bows, like so many captured hippopotami, until I expected every moment to see the taught painters torn away.