tasted the water in the creek, and found it
quite fresh: we had several times tried it on the river, and found it
quite salt from the tide running in. We drank plentifully, and sat
down to recover ourselves, for although we had not walked more than
half an hour, the pushing through the brushwood was very fatiguing.

"I think," said I, "that this boat will certainly betray us, and would
it not be better to take possession of it again? It will hold two
comfortably, and I think we shall get on as well, if not better, in a
boat than in the woods without compass and without guide."

"I agree with you," said the captain; "but what shall we do?"

"Let us retrace our steps; let us pull again, with the ebb-tide, for
the mouth of the river, and then coast it along shore; we may arrive
at some settlement, if we do not starve by the way."

"I agree with you," he said, "it will be the best plan; we must
conceal ourselves in the day, and coast along at night."

We waded into the river, got into the boat, and again pulled out. The
boat being light, now pulled well, and we made good speed; and at
daylight we were clear of the river, and close to a small island near
the mouth of it. Upon this, we agreed to land, to try if we could
procure food, for we were much exhausted, and also to conceal
ourselves from the natives. We ran our little boat on shore, and
concealed her among some bushes which grew down at the water's edge.
We looked well round, but could see nothing, and we then walked out in
search of food; we found some wild plums, which we eagerly devoured;
and going down again to the beach, where there were some rocks, we
found shell-fish, of which we broke the shells between two stones, and
made a meal of. After our hunger was satisfied, we lay down under the
shelter of the boat, and fell fast asleep. We were so tired that we
did not wake up till it was nearly dark, when we agreed to start
again, and pull along the coast to the northward. We were just
launching our boat, when we perceived a canoe about three miles off,
steering for the mouth of the river to the island. This stopped us,
and we remained in our hiding-place. The canoe approached, steering
directly for the spot where we lay concealed, and we imagined that
they had discovered us. Such, however, proved not to be the case, for
they ran on shore about fifty yards from us, and hauling up the canoe,
they got out and walked away on land. There were four men, but it was