On arriving at the boats I found that the water had not been completed, nor had three days’ provisions (such as they were) been cooked, although I had left orders when I went away that these necessary preparations for our moving should immediately be made; this gave me another reason to suspect that, during my temporary absence from the party, discipline was now altogether neglected, and indeed treated as an unnecessary restraint under existing circumstances.  Mr. Smith had warned me that such was the case, and I therefore never separated myself from any portion of the party without great anxiety; for I well knew that the safety of all depended upon preserving the strictest subordination.

In this instance however I merely ordered the boats to be instantly launched; for I knew that to lose a fair wind in our present situation would be rashness; and we were soon bounding before the breeze.  The wind now continued fair and at nightfall we landed on the main in such a position as to look out to the open sea, through the passage between Steep Point and Dirk Hartog’s Island.

PERILOUS COASTING.

March 30.

This morning we pulled up the opening and found a perfect bubble of a sea running into it and breaking on the various reefs which lie in its mouth.  We then made an attempt to pull round Steep Point and succeeded in getting out to sea; but there was a formidable swell setting dead on the shore and drifting us rapidly in towards it, whilst in the event of being stranded nothing could have saved our lives for the surf was so tremendous that the boat must instantly have gone to pieces, and the lofty limestone cliffs were perfectly inaccessible, being hollowed out into deep caverns by the action of the waves.  The attempt to get along this coast appeared indeed to be so hazardous that even the old sailors who were with me begged me not to risk it, but rather to allow them to endeavour to walk overland to Perth.  I was well aware that had I attempted to do this at least half the party would have been lost; for but few men can support the fatigue of making long and continuous marches in a very warm climate in which a great scarcity of water prevails.

SHELTER UNDER A REEF.

I however humoured them so far as to put back for the mouth of the opening, where, under the shelter of a reef, we could lie at anchor for a few hours in the hope that the sea would lull a little; we however only just cleared Steep Point, and whilst doing so I felt certain for two or three minutes that we must have gone ashore, for each breaker lifted the boat bodily towards the cliffs; as it was however it pleased Providence to bring us safe to our anchorage.

We were now about to enter on the most perilous part of our journey homewards.  For the next one hundred and twenty miles along the coast I could not hope to find a place whereon to beach the boats, in the event of our meeting with those unfavourable winds which we had hitherto found so prevalent.  It would, in the present weak state of the party, take us many successive days to make this passage; and, should the weather be really foul, accompanied by strong gales from the south-west, our fate would soon have been decided.  Nevertheless our hope of ultimate safety rested altogether upon the accomplishment of the difficult task we were about to commence.