twelve miles.

MEMORIAL ON INDIAN HILL.

I left here a paper in a bottle, giving an account of our proceedings,
and should have been sorry to think, as Wallis did when he left a similar
document on a mountain in the Strait of Magellan, that I was leaving a
memorial that would remain untouched as long as the world lasts. No, I
would fain hope that ere the sand of my life-glass has run out, other
feet than mine will have trod these distant banks; that colonization
will, ere many years have passed, have extended itself in this quarter;
that cities and hamlets will have risen on the banks of the new-found
river, that commerce will have directed her track thither, and that smoke
may rise from Christian hearths where now alone the prowling heathen
lights his fire. There is an inevitable tendency in man to create; and
there is nothing which he contemplates with so much complacency as the
work of his own hands. To civilize the world, to subdue the wilderness,
is the proudest achievement to which he can look forward; and to share in
this great work by opening new fields of enterprise, and leading, as it
were, the van of civilisation, fills the heart with inexpressible
delight. It is natural, therefore, as I traced the record of our visit
and deposited it on Indian Hill, that I should look forward in a mood
very far different from that of Wallis, to the speedy fruition of my
hopes.

October 27.

The winds for the last few days had been from West-North-West to
North-West, light after midnight to near noon, then moderate and
sometimes fresh. The tides, as they approached the springs, increased
their velocity, occasionally coming down in bores at the rate of four and
five knots.

RETURN OF CAPTAIN WICKHAM.

Captain Wickham returned this morning, having discovered the river to be
fresh about seventy miles above the ship. For some distance it had not
decreased in size, which was very delightful news. I had been several
times on the point of inquiring on this subject; but fearing an
unfavourable reply, hesitated. Now my hopes were at their highest pitch,
and I was quite impatient to start on an expedition up the river.

On the 29th the ship was taken under my guidance up the river, as far as
the commencement of the long southerly reach. As the shoals in that part
had not been sufficiently examined, we proceeded to do so in the evening,
and two channels were discovered; one between a bank, dry at low-water,
and a covered patch