PRECAUTIONS ON REACHING HANOVER BAY.

April 13.

After digging up our supply of preserved meats yesterday we had made rather more free with them than was prudent in men who had been for so long a time compelled to subsist upon very scanty fare, and in consequence had been nearly all affected with violent sickness; and, as six of the party, including Mr. Lushington and myself, were now ill, we did not start very early; the remaining ponies were also so weak that they could scarcely carry themselves, and we therefore were only able to place very light loads upon them.

I have already described the very difficult nature of the country we had to traverse; but the roads we had previously constructed through it proved extremely serviceable.  So little had they been injured that they formed a very fair and passable line of communication.  Early in the evening we crossed the Lushington and halted at the summit of the cliffs which formed its northern bank.

April 14.

I sent the most efficient of the party back with the horses for the remaining stores whilst with four men I remained in charge of the tents.

ANXIETY ON APPROACHING HANOVER BAY.

Sunday April 15.

Our anxiety to ascertain if any accident had happened to the schooner now became very great:  since such a circumstance was of course by no means impossible.  As our position would then have been very precarious, and our only chance of ultimate safety have rested on the most exact discipline and cautious rules of conduct being observed from the very first, I thought it would be most prudent not to allow such a calamity (had it occurred) to burst too suddenly upon the men when they were quite unprepared for it.

Two of them were therefore selected and, accompanied by these, I started before daylight for the sandy beach in Hanover Bay; leaving the party to make the best of their way to the heights above the valley where we had first encamped, and where plenty of food and water could be found for the ponies; these, in the event of anything having happened to the schooner, would become the mainstay of our hopes.

These arrangements having been made we moved off through the rocky difficult country we had first encountered:  every step we took was over well-known ground, in which no change had taken place save that there were evident marks of bodies of natives having been in the neighbourhood since our departure.

As I proceeded nearly in a direct line to Hanover Bay we encountered some difficulty from the broken character of the ground, but about eleven o’clock had gained the hilly country at the back of the beach, from whence however we could not obtain a view of the spot where the vessel lay.  On emerging from the mangroves upon the beach we saw painted upon the sandstone cliffs, in very large letters, “Beagle Observatory, letters south-east 52 paces.”

REJOIN THE LYNHER.  MEETING WITH THE BEAGLE.