At last I could bear it no longer.  Food I must have, or strength sufficient would not be left me to swim across the river.  I fully believed that the Indians had gone to a distance, and that I might therefore make the attempt without being seen by them.  However, I did not intend to swim directly across, as I had done before, but to allow myself to float down with the stream, paddling easily till I could gain the opposite bank.  I should thus be assisted rather than impeded by the current.