"Nothin' at all, sir," was the reply.  "We just pulled into the river, and as soon as we was fairly inside we started to look round for a spot where we could get ashore; but, try where we would, we couldn't find nothin' but soft mud that wouldn't have bore the weight of a cat, much less of a man.  But while we was huntin' for a place we came across a narrer creek, just wide enough for us to pull into; and Tonkin up's hellum and says as we'll try in there.  So we pulled along for a matter of nigh upon a mile, when all at once the creek comes to an end, and we find the boat's nose jammed in among a lot of mangrove roots.  Then pore Jim Nesbitt ups and volunteers to try and scramble along the mangroves and see if he can find a spot firm enough for us to land upon; and when he'd been gone about a quarter of a hour he comes back again and says he've found a place.  So, actin' upon Tonkin's orders, each one of us grabs a fowl, or a bottle, or what not, and away we goes in pore Jim's wake; and presently out we comes at a place where the mangroves stopped and the bush began, and where the mud was hard and firm enough to walk upon, and a little later we comes upon a sort of path through the bush, follerin' which we presently comes into a little open space where there was nothin' but grass, with big trees growin' all round it, and there we brought ourselves to an anchor, and cried `Spell ho!'