to the water.  With several of these they now paddled round us with the greatest care, making their spears, about ten feet in length,(which they use at once as poles and paddles,) bend nearly double in the water.  We had still the most difficult part of the rapid to ascend, where the rush of water was the strongest, and where the decline of the bed almost amounted to a fall.  Here the blacks could be of no use to us.  No man could stem the current, supposing it to have been shallow at the place, but it was on the contrary extremely deep.  Remaining myself in the boat, I directed all the men to land, after we had crossed the stream, upon a large rock that formed the left buttress as it were to this sluice, and, fastening the rope to the mast instead of her head, they pulled upon it.  The unexpected rapidity with which the boat shot up the passage astonished me, and filled the natives with wonder, who testified their admiration of so dextrous a manoeuvre, by a loud shout.

It will, no doubt, have struck the reader as something very remarkable, that the same influential savage to whom we had already been indebted, should have been present on this occasion, and at a moment when we so much needed his assistance.  Having surmounted our difficulties, we took leave of this remarkable man, and pursued our journey up the river.

It may be imagined we did not proceed very far; the fact was, we only pushed forward to get rid of the natives, for, however pacific, they were always troublesome, and we were seldom fitted for a trial of temper after the labours of the day were concluded.  The men had various occupations in which, when the natives were present, they were constantly interrupted, and whenever the larger tribes slept near us, the utmost vigilance was necessary on the part of the night-guard, which was regularly mounted as soon as the tents were pitched.  We had had little else than our flour to subsist on.  Hopkinson and Harris endeavoured to supply M’Leay and myself with a wild fowl occasionally, but for themselves, and the other men, nothing could be procured to render their meal more palatable.

Good conduct of the men.

I have omitted to mention one remarkable trait of the good disposition of all the men while on the coast.  Our sugar had held out to that point; but it appeared, when we examined the stores, that six pounds alone remained in the cask.  This the men positively refused to touch.  They said that, divided, it would benefit nobody; that they hoped M’Leay and I would use it, that it would last us for some time, and that they were better able to submit to privations than we were.  The feeling did them infinite credit, and the circumstance is not forgotten by me.  The little supply the kindness of our men left to us was, however, soon exhausted, and poor M’Leay preferred pure water to the bitter draught that remained.  I have been some times unable to refrain from smiling, as I watched the distorted countenances of my humble companions while drinking their tea and eating their damper.