was
quite spoilt and fermented, and smelt like beer; yet this, under present
circumstances, was more valuable than its weight in gold. Just after I
had found this bag, I met Ruston and another man coming from the boats to
the depot; I at once told them exactly how matters stood; they bore the
announcement better than I could have hoped for, and when I showed them
that their safety altogether depended on their good conduct they promised
the most implicit obedience and a ready cheerful demeanour. I must do
Ruston the justice to say that under every trial he most scrupulously
adhered to the promise he then made, and never infringed upon it in the
slightest degree.

CONDUCT OF THE MEN.

When I reached the party and told the tale of the total disappearance of
all we had left at the depot blank and dismayed faces met me on all
sides. Mr. Walker and Corporal Auger set an excellent example to the
others; but two men, of the names of Harry and Charley Woods, seized the
first convenient opportunity of walking off to the place where our
miserable remnant of damper was deposited with the intention of
appropriating it to themselves. I only waited till they actually laid
their hands upon it, when I stopped them, placed a sentry over what
provisions were left, ordered a survey of all stores to be held, and a
report to be made to me; and then went off with a party to search the
shore in the hope of finding any other things which might have been
washed up: our search however proved quite unsuccessful.

CHOICE OF PLANS.

I had warned the men that at sunset I would inform them what my
intentions were with regard to our future movements; and in the meantime
all hands were employed in searching for provisions or in preparing the
boats for sea. A very gloomy prospect was before us: the men were already
much reduced from illness, from using damaged provisions, and from hard
work and exposure combined: our boats were in a very leaky unsound state,
whilst all means of efficiently repairing them had been swept away in the
hurricane. Add to this that the only provisions we had left really fit to
eat were about nine days' salt meat, at the rate of a pound a man per
diem, and about sixty pounds of tolerably good flour.

It would be useless to detail the different reasons which induced me to
adopt the plan of endeavouring to make Swan River in the whale boats;
this was however the course I resolved to pursue. Its principal
advantages were tha