Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/Crossing River Problems

Henry Ernest Dudeney: Modern Puzzles: Crossing River Problems

Six persons, all related, have to cross a river in a small boat that will only hold two.

Mr. Webster, who had to plan the little affair, had quarrelled with his father-in-law and his son,

and, I am sorry to say, Mrs. Webster was not on speaking terms with her mother or her daugther-in-law.

In fact, the relations were so strained that it was not safe to permit any of the belligerents to pass over together

or to remain together on the same side of the river.

And to prevent further discord, no man was to be left with two women or two men with three women.

How are they to perform the feat in the fewest possible crossings?

No tricks, such as making use of a rope or current, or swimming across, are allowed.

There is a strange story of three missionaries and three cannibals,

who had to cross a river in a small boat that would only carry two men at a time.

Being acquainted with the peculiar appetites of the cannibals,

the missionaries could never allow their companions to be in a majority on either side of the river.

Only one of the missionaries and one of the cannibals could row the boat.

How did they manage to get across?