took him nine minutes
and fifty-eight seconds. His anxious comrades saw him ascend the hillock,
and take several bearings; he then descended the farther side, and was
never seen by them again.

CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING THE LOSS OF CAPTAIN BARKER.

For a considerable time Mr. Kent remained stationary, in momentary
expectation of his return; but at length, taking the two soldiers with
him, he proceeded along the shore in search of wood for a fire. At about
a quarter of a mile, the soldiers stopped and expressed their wish to
return, as their minds misgave them, and they feared that Captain Barker
had met with some accident. While conversing, they heard a distant shout,
or cry, which Mr. Kent thought resembled the call of the natives, but
which the soldiers positively declared to be the voice of a white man.
On their return to their companions, they asked if any sounds had caught
their ears, to which they replied in the negative. The wind was blowing
from the E.S.E., in which direction Captain Barker had gone; and, to me,
the fact of the nearer party not having heard that which must have been
his cries for assistance, is satisfactorily accounted for, as, being
immediately under the hill, the sounds must have passed over their heads
to be heard more distinctly at the distance at which Mr. Kent and the
soldiers stood. It is more than probable, that while his men were
expressing their anxiety about him, the fearful tragedy was enacting which
it has become my painful task to detail.

Evening closed in without any signs of Captain Barker's return, or any
circumstance by which Mr. Kent could confirm his fears that he had fallen
into the hands of the natives. For, whether it was that the tribe which
had shown such decided hostility to me when on the coast had not observed
the party, none made their appearance; and if I except two, who crossed
the channel when Mr. Kent was in search of wood, they had neither seen nor
heard any; and Captain Barker's enterprising disposition being well known
to his men, hopes were still entertained that he was safe. A large fire
was kindled, and the party formed a silent and anxious group around it.
Soon after night-fall, however, their attention was roused by the sounds
of the natives, and it was at length discovered, that they had lighted a
chain of small fires between the sand-hill Captain Barker had ascended and
the opposite side of the channel, around which their women were chanting
their mel