After a while they saw other Indians on the shore.  They cried out to these to come and help them.  The other Indians did not know what to do.  They had no way of getting to the island.  If they had tried to get there in a canoe, they would have been carried over the falls themselves.  They went to the fort, and told the commander about it.  He had poles made, and pointed with iron.  He persuaded two Indians to take these poles, and walk with them to the island.

These two Indians took leave of all their friends as if they were going to die.  Each of them took two poles in his hands.  They set these poles against the bottom of the river to keep themselves steady, while they waded through the water.  It was a very dangerous thing to do, but at last they got to the island.  Then they gave a pole to each of the two Indians, and all four of them started back again.  By the help of the poles they managed to get to the shore in safety.

AMONG THE ALLIGATORS.

Before the Revolution there lived in Pennsylvania a man named William Bartram.  He was a botanist; that is to say, a man who knew a great deal about different kinds of plants.  Wishing to see the plants and animals of the South, he traveled through South Carolina and Georgia, and so on into Florida.

In a little canoe, Bartram set out to go up the St. Johns River.  He took an Indian along for a guide, but the Indian got tired of the trip, and left him.  Bartram kept on up the river alone.  The country was wild, and the river was filled with great alligators.

Bartram saw two large alligators fighting.  They ran at each other from opposite sides of the river.  They lashed the water with their tails.  They met in the middle of the river, and fought with great fury, making the water boil all round them.  They twisted themselves one round the other, and sank to the bottom fighting.  Their struggles at the bottom brought up a great deal of mud.

Soon they came to the top once more, clapping their great jaws together, and roaring.  They fell on each other again, and sank to the bottom.  But one of them was by this time beaten.  He swam away into the reeds on the bank.  The other rose to the top of the water, and celebrated his victory by a loud roaring sound.  All the alligators along the shore joined in the horrible roaring at the same time.

The alligators had gathered in great crowds at certain places to catch the fish that were coming up from the sea.  Bartram wanted some fish for his supper.  He took a stick to beat off the alligators, and got into his canoe.  But the farther he paddled from the shore, the more the alligators crowded round him.  Several of them tried to overturn his canoe.  Two large ones attacked him at the same time, with their heads above the water, and their mouths spouting water all over the botanist.  They struck their jaws together so close to his ears that the sound almost stunned him.