should fire a gun
on our return, which was to be answered by them.

Jackey was now head and leading man in every sense of the word, and away
we went in a westerly direction, for about, say, five or six miles;
Jackey telling us to look out behind and all about for the blacks. After
proceeding some four miles of the distance, we came to a creek where we
stopped for a few minutes; Jackey was evidently tired, not recovered, and
could not walk fast, and although we went off at first at a good pace,
Jackey was getting lame, and had been obliged to sit down three times on
the journey. About two miles beyond this creek Jackey got up into a tree,
and returned saying he could see the mountain near which the camp was,
but that it was a long way off, that we could not get there to-night, but
that we must camp in the bush, and get there to-morrow. It here became
necessary to pause. The ship was left with two hands only in her,
anchored in shallow water, and the Captain said promptly that he could
not proceed farther without great risk of losing the ship, either from
its coming on to blow, or that natives may attack her in their canoes;
(here I may say what has been omitted, namely, that in the early part of
the morning we saw and examined a canoe close to where we first landed,
and found part of a cloak in it, which Jackey immediately pronounced as
belonging to the white men at the camp) and it was determined, well
considering all circumstances, to return to the ship, which we did,
coming out on the beach under mangroves, at the very spot we told Jackey
to come out at on our leaving. We arrived at the ship at twelve minutes
before four P.M. During our absence the men in the boat had seen on the
beach from fifty to one hundred natives. We saw none. The day has been
very hot, and we are in a fix, surrounded by reefs, and some little
anxiety is existing as to how we shall get out again. We have determined
to proceed to Weymouth Bay, and in so doing I have taken everything into
consideration. We have eight men to attend to at Weymouth Bay. In all
probability the three men here are dead, for when Jackey left them,
Costigan was nearly dead, and Luff was very ill. The cloak taken from the
canoe shows that the blacks have found their camp, and had we gone on
there, which would have taken a day or two at least more, we should only
have found, I verily believe, as Jackey says, "bones belonging to
whitefellows." After getting on board, Jackey