I was soon got down to the boat, lifted over the ship’s side, and stretched on the poop cabin table, under the care of Mr. Bynoe, who on probing the wound gave me a cheering hope of its not proving fatal.  The anxiety with which I watched his countenance, and listened to the words of life or death, the reader may imagine, but I cannot attempt to describe.  The natives never throw a spear when the eye of the person they aim at is turned towards them, supposing that everyone, like themselves, can avoid it.  This was most fortunate, as, my side being towards them, the spear had to pass through the thick muscles of the breast before reaching my lungs.  Another circumstance in my favour was that I had been very much reduced by my late exertions.

NIGHT OF SUFFERING.

The sufferings of that night I will not fatigue my readers by describing; but I can never forget the anxiety with which Mr. Bynoe watched over me during the whole of it.  Neither can I forget my feelings of gratitude to the Almighty when my sunken eyes the next morning once more caught the first rays of the sun.  It seemed as though I could discover in these an assurance that my hour was not yet come, and that it would be my lot for some time longer to gaze with grateful pleasure on their splendour.

Several excursions were made during our stay in search of the natives, but without success.  An encampment was found in the neighbourhood, near a small freshwater swamp, and by the things that were left behind it was evident that a hasty retreat had been made.  It would have been as well if we could have punished these people in some way for their unprovoked attack; but to have followed them far into the bush would have been quite useless.  A comparison of their conduct with that of the natives of Shoal Bay, confirms what I have before stated of the extraordinary contrast presented by the dispositions of the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia; for in both instances we were the first Europeans they had ever encountered.

TREACHERY BAY.

The observations, which nearly cost me my life in endeavouring to obtain, placed Point Pearce in latitude 14 degrees 25 minutes 50 seconds, South longitude 2 degrees 49 minutes West of Port Essington.  The time of high-water, at the full and change, was seven o’clock, when the tides rose from twenty to twenty-six feet.  The cliffs forming it are of a reddish hue, from the quantity of iron the rocks in the neighbourhood contain.  To commemorate the accident which befell me, the bay within Point Pearce was called Treachery Bay, and a high hill over it Providence Hill.

In the nights of the 10th and 11th we had sharp squalls from the eastward, being early in the season for their repeated appearance.  There was the usual gathering of clouds, the hard edges of which were lit up by the constant flashing of lightning.  It is singular that all these squalls, wherever we have met them, should happen within five hours of the same time, between nine at night and two in the morning.