t and resignation were thus in some degree
gained, and he soon joined the rest of the party, having resolved upon
that plan, which God's providence and mercy finally enabled him to carry
out, without losing, from a party of twelve, constantly exposed during a
very long journey to most dreadful toils, hunger, and thirst, more than
one man only, who died at no great distance from the English colony.
That one person was a youth of eighteen years of age, who had come out
from England, led solely by an enterprising spirit, and not with any
view of settling. On the return of the party under Captain Grey towards
Swan River, they were so sadly pinched by want of provisions, and by
thirst, that five of them were obliged to start with their leader, in
order to reach the British colony by forced marches, and Frederick
Smith, the youthful adventurer, was one of those that remained behind.
After undergoing extreme trials, which from his age he was less able to
bear than the others, he, at last, became quite worn out, and sat down,
one evening, on a bank, declaring that he could go no further. He was
behind the rest of the party, and the man who was with him went and told
his companions that he thought Smith was dying. The next morning that
man went back for him; but, being himself very weak, he did not go far
enough, at all events he did not find him. Probably, the poor sufferer
had crawled a little out of the track, for, afterwards, when a party was
sent from Swan River in search of him, they traced, with the help of a
native, his footsteps up a bare sand hill to the height of twelve or
fourteen feet, and there, turning about to the left, they found the
object of their search stretched lifeless upon his back, in the midst of
a thick bush, where he seemed to have laid down to sleep, being half
wrapped up in his blanket.[11] All his little articles of baggage were
very near him, and, from the posture in which he was found, it appeared
that the immediate cause of his death was a rush of blood to the head,
which would occasion no great suffering in his last moments. A grave was
scraped in the sand by the searching party, and Frederic Smith was
buried in the wilderness wherein he had died, and which he had been
among the first to explore, about seventy-six miles northward of the
Swan River. The grave was made smooth, and a piece of wood found upon
the neighbouring beach was placed at its head, and then the solitary
spot was forsaken for e