many of my party were suffering acute bodily pain from the badness of the provisions on which they were compelled to subsist; the weakness of most of them, and myself amongst the number, precluded the possibility of any distant explorations being made, and we were kept in a constant state of watchfulness in order to prevent the natives from again surprising us; for they repeatedly showed themselves in our vicinity, hovering about with no friendly intentions.  All that was left therefore for us was to sit upon the lonely beach, watching the winds and the waters until some favourable moment might enable us to get off and once more engage in that task of which so small a portion was as yet accomplished.

Day after day did we sit and wait for this favourable moment until the noise of the hoarse breaking surf had become a familiar sound to our ears; but the longer the men watched the more dispirited did they become; each returning day found them more weak and wan, more gloomy and petulant, than the preceding one; and when the eighth day of constant and fruitless expectation slowly closed upon us I felt a gloomy foreboding creeping over me.

By making observations, drawing, writing up my journal, etc.  I had managed hitherto to keep my mind employed.  I had also tasked my ability to the utmost to constantly invent some occupation for the men, but my resources of this nature were now all exhausted; and on Friday night I stretched myself on the sand, not to sleep, but to brood, throughout the weary night, on our present position.

CONSOLATIONS OF RELIGION.

It may be asked if, during such a trying period, I did not seek from religion that consolation which it is sure to afford?  My answer is, Yes; and I farther feel assured that, but for the support I derived from prayer and frequent perusal and meditation of the Scriptures, I should never have been able to have borne myself in such a manner as to have maintained discipline and confidence amongst the rest of the party:  nor in all my sufferings did I ever lose the consolation derived from a firm reliance upon the goodness of Providence.  It is only those who go forth into perils and dangers, amidst which human foresight and strength can but little avail, and who find themselves, day after day, protected by an unseen influence, and ever and again snatched from the very jaws of destruction by a power which is not of this world, who can at all estimate the knowledge of one’s own weakness and littleness, and the firm reliance and trust upon the goodness of the Creator which the human breast is capable of feeling.  Like all other lessons which are of great and lasting benefit to man this one must be learnt amid much sorrowing and woe; but, having learnt it, it is but the sweeter from the pain and toil which are undergone in the acquisition.

PUT TO SEA.

March 16.