and
strained the brig considerably.")

As we had now arrived at the point from which we anticipated carrying on
our most important operations, it became of paramount interest to know
whether we could rely for that indispensable article, fresh water, upon
the resources of the wild and barbarous shores. The vast extent of
country; the delightful verdure which clothed great portions of it; nay,
even the evidences of a people living upon its shores, would, under any
other circumstances, and on any other coast, have been deemed
conclusively to decide this point in the affirmative: but the voyager
knows, from the best authority, that upon the coasts, and within the
heart of Australia, nature seems to delight in contradiction, and that
she is more than usually capricious with respect to the supply of what is
ordinarily her most common, as it is ever one of her most precious gifts.
A few wretched mud-holes might serve for a time to content the savages
trained to privation from their earliest infancy, but for ourselves it
was clear, either that a reasonable supply of fresh water must be found
here, or we must not calculate upon remaining beyond the time which would
leave us sufficient to proceed to Hanover Bay, where this most needful
commodity was, upon the authority of Captain King, to be found.

SEARCH FOR WATER.

No sooner, therefore, was the Beagle properly secured in her new berth,
than a party was despatched in the boats to commence a search for water,
and to fix upon a spot for carrying on the necessary observations:
scarcely, however, had we pushed off from alongside, before the white
ensign at our main warned us that the natives were in sight from the
ship,* and, on turning our eyes to the shore, we beheld it thronged with
savages: the rapidity of whose movements, as they shouted in apparent
defiance, brandishing their spears, and whirling their arms round and
round with windmill-like velocity, as though to threaten our advance,
rendered it impossible to estimate their number with any confidence, but
they were evidently in considerable force. However, we pulled to the
shore, a measure against which the valiant Miago stoutly protested, and
landed in a position not directly commanded by the natives. They made no
attempt to prevent us, but anxious to avoid hostilities--in every event
almost equally deplorable--we deferred any distant search for water; and
having fixed on a spot for our temporary observatory, returned to