oad. Having continued to push
along the river-bank very briskly for three quarters of an hour, we were
suddenly stopped by a creek, about sixty yards wide, which extended to our
right, and appeared dry from the tide being out: I asked if it could be
passed, or whether it would be better to wheel round the head of it. Our
guides answered that it was bad to cross, but might be got over, which
would save us more than a quarter of a mile. Knowing the value of time, I
directly bade them to push through, and every one began to follow as well
as he could. They who were foremost had not, however, got above half over
when the difficulty of progress was sensibly experienced. We were immersed,
nearly to the waist in mud, so thick and tenacious, that it was not without
the most vigorous exertion of every muscle of the body, that the legs could
be disengaged. When we had reached the middle, our distress became not only
more pressing, but serious, and each succeeding step, buried us deeper. At
length a sergeant of grenadiers stuck fast, and declared himself incapable
of moving either forward or backward; and just after, Ensign Prentice and
I felt ourselves in a similar predicament, close together. 'I find it
impossible to move; I am sinking;' resounded on every side. What to do
I knew not: every moment brought increase of perplexity, and augmented
danger, as those who could not proceed kept gradually subsiding. From our
misfortunes, however, those in the rear profited. Warned by what they saw
and heard, they inclined to the right towards the head of the creek, and
thereby contrived to pass over.

Our distress would have terminated fatally, had not a soldier cried out
to those on shore to cut boughs of trees*, and throw them to us--a lucky
thought, which certainly saved many of us from perishing miserably; and
even with this assistance, had we been burdened by our knapsacks, we could
not have emerged; for it employed us near half an hour to disentangle some
of our number. The sergeant of grenadiers in particular, was sunk to his
breast-bone, and so firmly fixed in that the efforts of many men were
required to extricate him, which was effected in the moment after I had
ordered one of the ropes, destined to bind the captive Indians, to be
fastened under his arms.

[*I had often read of this contrivance to facilitate the passage of a
morass. But I confess, that in my confusion I had entirely forgotten it,
and probably should have continu