ed to do so until too late to be of use.]

Having congratulated each other on our escape from this 'Serbonian Bog,'
and wiped our arms (half of which were rendered unserviceable by the mud)
we once more pushed forward to our object, within a few hundred yards of
which we found ourselves about half an hour before sunrise. Here I formed
the detachment into three divisions, and having enjoined the most perfect
silence, in order, if possible, to deceive Indian vigilance, each division
was directed to take a different route, so as to meet at the village at the
same moment.

We rushed rapidly on, and nothing could succeed more exactly than the
arrival of the several detachments. To our astonishment, however, we found
not a single native at the huts; nor was a canoe to be seen on any part of
the bay. I was at first inclined to attribute this to our arriving half an
hour too late, from the numberless impediments we had encountered. But
on closer examination, there appeared room to believe, that many days had
elapsed since an Indian had been on the spot, as no mark of fresh fires, or
fish bones, was to be found.

Disappointed and fatigued, we would willingly have profited by the
advantage of being near water, and have halted to refresh. But on
consultation, it was found, that unless we reached in an hour the rivers
we had so lately passed, it would be impossible, on account of the tide,
to cross to our baggage, in which case we should be without food until
evening. We therefore pushed back, and by dint of alternately running and
walking, arrived at the fords, time enough to pass with ease and safety.
So excessive, however, had been our efforts, and so laborious our progress,
that several of the soldiers, in the course of the last two miles, gave up,
and confessed themselves unable to proceed farther. All that I could do for
these poor fellows, was to order their comrades to carry their muskets, and
to leave with them a small party of those men who were least exhausted, to
assist them and hurry them on. In three quarters of an hour after we
had crossed the water, they arrived at it, just time enough to effect a
passage.

The necessity of repose, joined to the succeeding heat of the day, induced
us to prolong our halt until four o'clock in the afternoon, when we
recommenced our operations on the opposite side of the north arm to that
we had acted upon in the morning. Our march ended at sunset, without
our seeing a single native