e was a probability of our
having passed unknowingly some place where water might have been
procured. The overseer had now travelled over the same ground in
daylight, with renovated strength, and in a condition comparatively
strong, and fresh for exertion. He had dug wherever he thought there was
a chance of procuring water, but without success in any one single
instance.

After learning all the particulars of the late unlucky journey, I found
that a great part of the things I had sent for were still thirty-eight
miles back, having only been brought twelve miles from where they had
originally been left; the rest of the things were ten miles away, and as
nearly all our provisions, and many other indispensable articles were
among them, it became absolutely necessary that they should be recovered
in some way or other, but how that was to be accomplished was a question
which we could not so easily determine. Our horses were quite unfit for
service of any kind, and the late unfortunate attempt had but added to
the difficulties by which we were surrounded, and inflicted upon us the
additional loss of another valuable animal. Many and anxious were the
hours I spent in contemplating the circumstances we were in, and in
revolving in my mind the best means at our command to extricate ourselves
from so perilous a situation. We were still 650 miles from King George's
Sound, with an entirely unknown country before us. Our provisions, when
again recovered, would be barely sufficient to last us for three weeks
and a half, at a very reduced rate of allowance. Our horses were jaded
and miserable beyond all conception; they could literally scarcely crawl,
and it was evident they would be unable to move on again at all without
many days' rest where we were. On the other hand we had still the
prospect of another of those fearful pushes without water to encounter,
as soon as we left our present encampment, and had first to recover the
provisions and other things yet so far away. Nothing could be more
disheartening than our situation, and it was also one in which it was
difficult to decide what was best to be done. Aware that a single false
step would now be fatal to us all, I saw that our circumstances required
promptness and decision. With every thing depending upon my sole
judgment, and the determination I arrived at, I felt deeply and anxiously
the over-whelming responsibility that devolved upon me.

We were now about half way between F