ated in
this remarkable cruise have not been preserved. Bass had no occasion in
his diary to mention any man by name, but it is quite evident that they
were a daring, enduring, well-matched and thoroughly loyal band, facing
the big waters in their small craft with heroic resolution, and never
failing to respond when their chief gave a lead. When, after braving foul
weather, and with food supplies running low, the boat was at length
turned homeward, Bass writes "we did it reluctantly," coupling his
willing little company with himself in regrets that discovery could not
be pushed farther than they had been able to pursue it. Throughout his
diary he writes in the first person plural, and he records no instance of
complaint of the hardships endured or of quailing before the dangers
encountered.

It is likely enough that the six British sailors who manned Bass's boat
had very little perception that they were engaged upon a task that would
shine in history. An energetic ship's surgeon whom everybody liked had
called for volunteers in an affair requiring stout arms and hearts. He
got them, they followed him, did their job, and returned to routine duty.
They did not receive any extra pay, or promotion, or official
recognition. Neither did Bass, beyond Hunter's commendation in a
despatch. He wrote up his modest little diary, a terse record of
observations and occurrences, and got ready for the next adventure.

We will follow him on this one.

On the evening of Sunday, December 3, 1797, at six o'clock, Bass's men
rowed out of Port Jackson heads and turned south. The night was spent in
Little Bay, three miles north of Botany Bay, as Bass did not deem it
prudent to proceed further in the darkness, the weather having become
cloudy and uncertain, and things not having yet found their proper place
in the boat. Nor was very much progress made on the 4th, for a violent
wind was encountered, which caused Bass to make for Port Hacking. On the
following day, "the wind headed in flurries," and the boat did not get
further than Providential Cove, or Watta-mowley, where the Tom Thumb had
taken refuge in the previous year. On the 7th, Bass reached Shoalhaven,
which he named. He remained there three days, and described the soil and
situation with some care. "The country around it is generally low and
swampy and the soil for the most part is rich and good, but seemingly
much subject to extensive inundation." One sentence of comment reads
curi