er, we had the new one added of being on hostile terms with the
surrounding aborigines. It moreover set in to rain hard and to blow
fresher than ever just as we reached the boats. I saw that all that could
be done for Ruston had been attended to, and then, lying down, tried to
forget my troubles in sleep.

CONTINUED DETENTION FROM FOUL WEATHER. DESOLATE AND GLOOMY SITUATION.

From this period up to Friday the 15th of March the wind blew strong from
the southward, accompanied with such a heavy sea and tremendous surf that
to move was impossible. Our position was very trying; inactivity, under
the circumstances in which we were situated, was most difficult to
support; for the mind, ever prone to prey upon itself, does so far more
when you are compelled to sit down and patiently submit to misfortunes
against which there are no means of resistance. Such was the state to
which we were now reduced, on a barren and unknown coast which the foot
of civilized man had never before trodden: 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, no