Day after day did we sit and wait for this favourable moment until the noise of the hoarse breaking surf had become a familiar sound to our ears; but the longer the men watched the more dispirited did they become; each returning day found them more weak and wan, more gloomy and petulant, than the preceding one; and when the eighth day of constant and fruitless expectation slowly closed upon us I felt a gloomy foreboding creeping over me.
By making observations, drawing, writing up my journal, etc. I had managed hitherto to keep my mind employed. I had also tasked my ability to the utmost to constantly invent some occupation for the men, but my resources of this nature were now all exhausted; and on Friday night I stretched myself on the sand, not to sleep, but to brood, throughout the weary night, on our present position.
CONSOLATIONS OF RELIGION.
It may be asked if, during such a trying period, I did not seek from religion that consolation which it is sure to afford? My answer is, Yes; and I farther feel assured that, but for the support I derived from prayer and frequent perusal and meditation of the Scriptures, I should never have been able to have borne myself in such a manner as to have maintained discipline and confidence amongst the rest of the party: nor in all my sufferings did I ever lose the consolation derived from a firm reliance upon the goodness of Providence. It is only those who go forth into perils and dangers, amidst which human foresight and strength can but little avail, and who find themselves, day after day, protected by an unseen influence, and ever and again snatched from the very jaws of destruction by a power which is not of this world, who can at all estimate the knowledge of one's own weakness and littleness, and the firm reliance and trust upon the goodness of the Creator which the human breast is capable of feeling. Like all other lessons which are of great and lasting benefit to man this one must be learnt amid much sorrowing and woe; but, having learnt it, it is but the sweeter from the pain and toil which are undergone in the acquisition.
PUT TO SEA.
March 16.
A great portion of Friday night was passed by me in walking up and down the beach, anxiously looking out seaward; and it appeared to me about three o'clock that the wind had much abated; from this period until dawn it continued gradually to subside: and as daylight stole in I saw that the surf had somewhat fallen. I resolved at all events to lose no single chance that offered itself in our favour, so I turned all hands out, and in a few minutes the boats rode triumphantly beyond the surf, which was indeed much heavier than I expected to have found it, and my boat was nearly filled in passing the outer bar: but now the surf was behind us, and it is the nature of man to laugh at perils that are past. Our thoughts too were soon called to present difficulties, for a tremendous sea was running outside, the wind directly in our teeth, and every moment freshening again. Throughout the whole of Saturday the men toiled incessantly at their oars, and when it wanted about an hour to sunset we had only made about seven miles and a half of southing.
COMPELLED AGAIN TO BEACH THE BOATS.
The wind had again increased to such a degree as to endanger our safety, and it appeared to freshen as the night came on. I therefore had no resource left but again to beach the boats on this dangerous coast. Once more, then, was the scene repeated of dancing in a boat with maddening speed upon furious rollers, until these break and it is borne in, followed by a mass of foam far higher than the stern, which appears eagerly to pursue for the purpose of engulfing it.
BEACHING BOATS.