ANCHOR OFF MANGROVE CREEK FOR THE NIGHT.

When we had gone as far to the southward as I thought prudent I stood out from the shore for about a mile so as to have a good peep in amongst the mangrove bushes in the morning for the other boat, and having dropped our anchor we laid down as we best could for the night; and, speculating upon what explanation the native wise men would give to their fellows of the unknown and novel sounds they had this night heard upon the coast, I soon fell asleep.

CHAPTER 15.  THE GASCOYNE RIVER.

REACH AND ENTER A MANGROVE CREEK.

March 4.

Early in the morning I had a good lookout kept for the other boat, which I was very anxious to see in order that I might have a sufficiently numerous party for the purpose of landing and looking for water; as I always held it to be better, upon first appearing amongst natives who had never before seen Europeans, to show such strength as might impress them with a certainty that we were well able to resist any attack which they might naturally feel inclined to make on such strange and incomprehensible intruders as white men must necessarily appear to them.  Soon after the sun rose we descried the other boat about three miles to the southward of us; and I despatched two men to wade along the flats and communicate with Mr. Walker:  they were to direct him to get under weigh and to make the best of his course, either by tracking, pulling, or sailing, until he reached the point where I might land.

The men whom I sent quickly made his boat, which I perceived moving slowly up the flats; and as soon as the men rejoined me we started.  The wind was fair, being from the southward, and I wished to reach some gently elevated hills which I saw about eight miles to the north by east of our present position.

SEARCH FOR AND COMPLETE OUR WATER.

We soon came to a very promising opening which proved to be a creek, with a mouth of about two hundred yards wide, running up in a north-east direction, and having five fathoms of water inside, but with a bar entrance.  When we had proceeded up it about two miles it became so narrow that there was not sufficient space left for the men to use their oars; therefore, making fast the two boats, I landed with a party to look for water.

I stepped very gingerly and cautiously on the mud, for shore there was none; and I had the satisfaction of descending at once, mid-leg deep in the odious slime; but this being endured the worst was over, and, at the head of my sticking and floundering party, I waded on, putting to flight whole armies of crabs who had taken up their abode in these umbrageous groves, for such they certainly were.  The life of a crab in these undisturbed solitudes must be sweet in the extreme; they have plenty of water, mud, and shade; their abodes are scarcely approachable by the feet of men, and they can have but little to disturb their monotonous existence save the turmoils of love and domestic war.