Up the Tapajos; Or, Adventures in Brazil (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 edition. Excerpt: ...distance from the ground. Very likely he would have struck it but for the vine of which we have spoken. Somehow or other that got in the way, and caught the ax where the handle was inserted, just as a clothes line will sometimes catch a boy under the chin while running across the yard at night when I he ought to be in bed. The unexpected check so disarranged things that the ax was jerked out of the grasp of the amazed sailor and went spinning twenty feet away among the trees. By the great horned spoon he gasped, staring after the implement as it went bounding end-over-end; I was never more astonished in my life--who s that laughing? He turned about and saw his young friends red in the face from their efforts to restrain their mirth. The good-natured fellow could not be angry with them, and he joined in their laughter, while he slowly walked to where his ax lay and picked it up again. I ve cut the mainmast away more than once, when the gale had us, said Jack, but we didn t have any such outlandish vines twisting around it, and almost as big as the mast itself. I ll fetch the tree pretty soon. Taking lessons from his experience the sailor delivered the next blow with such care that it landed safely and inflicted a large gash on the trunk. He aimed to place the second blow in the same place, but it struck several inches above; the next was as much too low, and the fourth also missed the mark, so that Jack Blockley was certain to waste considerable strength. But he had the virtue of perseverance, and he kept at it until the tree suddenly gave up the struggle, and would have gone over but for the encircling vine which held it in place. This was speedily chopped in...