r o'clock in the
afternoon arrived at the north part of Port Jackson; but we might
as well have been fifty leagues off, for here we could have no
communication either with the Sirius or the settlement, and no
boat had been ordered to meet us. We went immediately to work and
made a large fire, by which we lay all night, which happened to
be very cold.

The next day we crossed the hills, and came to the mouth of
the north-west harbour, but could not find the means of crossing
it; muskets had been frequently fired during the night, in hopes
that some boat might have been down the harbour fishing, and
heard them. We found this morning a canoe upon the beach, with
which we had no doubt of getting two men across the water, who
could in a short time walk over to the cove where the Sirius lay;
but this prospect was disappointed by the first man who entered
the canoe having overset her, and she immediately sunk, and he
was obliged to swim ashore: after this we went to work and made a
catamaran, of the lightest wood we could find, but when finished
and launched, it would not, although pretty large, bear the
weight of one man.

It was now proposed to walk round the head of the north-west
harbour, which would have been a good long journey for at least
two days, and our provisions were nearly expended; to this
proposal I was under the necessity of objecting, for want of
shoes, the last march having tore all but the soals from my feet,
and they were tied on with spun-yarn; I therefore declined the
proposed walk, and determined to go back to Broken-bay and rejoin
the boats; which I had no doubt of being able to effect in the
course of that day, and with far more ease than I could, without
shoes, climb such rocky mountains, and thick woods, as lay in the
way round the head of the north-west harbour. But as it was
likely I might fall in with some parties of the natives in the
way, I wished to have a companion.

Captain Collins preferred accompanying me in the intended
walk, and we were just upon the point of setting out, when two of
the people who were with us proposed swimming over the water, and
to cross through the wood to the Sirius; the distance they had to
swim was not more than two cables length, or four hundred yards;
they immediately stripped, and each having had a dram, they tied
up in a handkerchief a shirt, trowsers, and a pair of shoes each,
which was rested upon their shoulders: thus equipped, they took
the water, a