were swamped, and their previously-damaged provisions suffered another soaking.  This accident kept them prisoners for a week till the wind and surf had abated.  Tired, hungry, and ill, they were here harassed by frequent threats and one actual attack by the blacks.  A slight break in the weather tempted them forth once more, and, having succeeded in righting the boats, they made for the mouth of the Gascoyne, where they re-filled their water-beakers.  On March 20th they made a desperate effort in the teeth of foul weather to fetch their depot on Bernier Island.  We may picture their dismay when they found that during their absence a hurricane had swept the island, and scattered their cherished stores to the four winds.

Their position was now as desperate as could be imagined:  the southerly winds had set in, and they had to coast along a surf-beaten shore against a head wind.  Their food was scanty, and they were weak with the constant toils they had undergone.  There was nothing for it, however, but to put to sea again, and they succeeded in reaching Gantheaume Bay on the 31st of March.  Fate had not yet spent all her wrath on them, and in attempting a landing, Grey’s boat was dashed to destruction upon a rock, and the other received such a buffeting as to place it beyond repair.  The only hope of safety lay in an overland march to Perth, three hundred miles away, upon their twenty pounds of damaged flour and one pound of salt pork per man; and yet, so wearied were they with the unceasing battle against wind and sea, that they even welcomed this hazardous prospect as a change for the better.

They had not proceeded far before differences of opinion arose.  Grey naturally wished the men to cover the ground as quickly as possible whilst their strength lasted, whilst they favoured slow marches, relieved by frequent rests.  Grey, who recognised that in their weakened condition they could not replenish their scanty food supplies from the native game, held firmly to his opinion, and made strenuous efforts to quicken their progress; but the comparative safety of the shore had lulled his followers into a feeling of false security; and after goading them along for a hundred miles, bearing the chief burden of the march and sharing much of his scanty food with the black boy, Grey left them to push onwards, and if possible send them assistance.  He took two or three picked men with him, and after terrible sufferings and privations, reached Perth, whence a rescue party was immediately despatched.  This party found only one man, Charles Wood, who by more closely following Grey’s instructions, had made better progress than the others.  The remaining five could not be found, and at the end of a fortnight the rescuers were forced to return on account of the lack of provisions.  Roe immediately left with another party, and, after experiencing trouble in tracking the erratic wanderings of the unfortunates, came upon most of them hopelessly regarding a face of rock that stopped their march along the beach, unable to muster sufficient strength to climb it.  They had then been three days without water, having nothing in their canteens but a loathsome substitute.