proceeded more than a mile
when we found two huts (one in ruins and the other complete) of exactly
the same size and form as that which we had seen in the morning: the
recent track of a native along the beach close to these was also visible.
In another half mile our progress was arrested by an arm of the sea,
about four or five hundred yards across, from which the tide was running
out with fearful rapidity; and on the opposite cliffs we observed a
native watching our movements.

As night was coming rapidly on it was necessary for me to decide at once
what I should do. Coles was unable to swim. If therefore I crossed the
stream it must be alone: to do so with natives on the opposite bank, of
whose intentions towards us we were entirely ignorant, was not without
considerable danger; yet I was very unwilling to leave the men in such a
state of suffering from thirst when I was so near the schooner, from
whence their wants could be supplied. Whilst I was debating what to do
Coles kept firing his gun in hopes that they might hear the report on
board and send a boat to our relief; in vain however we strained our
ears, the report of Coles's gun was reverberated from cliff to cliff and
from hill to hill, but no answering sound came back across the tranquil
water.

In the meantime I felt more and more anxious about the portion of the
party who were with Mr. Lushington, having left with them certain orders
and promised to send a boat up to them; on which promise all their
further movements would be regulated. The beach near us afforded no wood
wherewith to make a fire as a signal to the schooner; the cliffs
hereabouts were too precipitous to climb; and it was evident that but
very few of the party could swim so broad a space of water; granting that
they ever reached so far as the point where Coles and myself now were.

SWIM AN INLET OF THE SEA. DANGER IN THE PASSAGE ACROSS AND AFTER LANDING.

I therefore determined to run all risks, and swim the arm of the sea
which stopped our way.

I directed Coles to wait until the others came up and then to remain with
them until I returned in a boat. From the rugged nature of the shore I
could not have walked a yard without shoes, so I kept them on, as well as
my shirt and military cap, and I took a pistol in one hand as a means of
defence against the natives, or else to fire it when I reached a spot
where it could be seen or heard from the vessel.

I plunged in and very soon found mys