That Is, After A Day
Of Severe Fatigue, To Pass A Night Of Restless Inquietude, When Weariness
Is Denied Repose By Swarms Of Mosquitoes And Sandflies, Which In The Summer
Months Bite And Sting The Traveller, Without Measure Or Intermission.
Next morning we bent our steps homeward; and, after wading breast-high
through two arms of the sea, as broad as the Thames at Westminster, were glad
to find ourselves at Sydney, between one and two o'clock in the afternoon.
The few remarks which I was able to make on the country through which we
had passed, were such as will not tempt adventurers to visit it on the score
of pleasure or advantage. The soil of every part of the peninsula,
which we had traversed, is shallow and sandy, and its productions meagre
and wretched. When forced to quit the sand, we were condemned to drag through
morasses, or to clamber over rocks, unrefreshed by streams, and unmarked
by diversity. Of the soil I brought away several specimens.
Our first expedition having so totally failed, the governor resolved to try
the fate of a second; and the 'painful pre-eminence' again devolved on me.
The orders under which I was commanded to act differing in no respect
from the last, I resolved to try once more to surprise the village
beforementioned. And in order to deceive the natives, and prevent them
from again frustrating our design by promulgating it, we feigned that
our preparations were directed against Broken Bay; and that the man who had
wounded the governor was the object of punishment. It was now also determined,
being full moon, that our operations should be carried on in the night,
both for the sake of secrecy, and for avoiding the extreme heat of the day.
A little before sun-set on the evening of the 22nd, we marched.
Lieutenant Abbot, and ensign Prentice, of the New South Wales corps,
were the two officers under my command, and with three sergeants,
three corporals, and thirty privates, completed the detachment.
We proceeded directly to the fords of the north arm of Botany Bay,
which we had crossed in our last expedition, on the banks of which we were
compelled to wait until a quarter past two in the morning, for the ebb
of the tide. As these passing-places consist only of narrow slips of ground,
on each side of which are dangerous holes; and as fording rivers in the night
is at all times an unpleasant task, I determined before we entered the water,
to disburthen the men as much as possible; that in case of stepping wrong
every one might be as ready, as circumstances would admit, to recover himself.
The firelock and cartouche-box were all that we carried, the latter tied fast
on the top of the head, to prevent it from being wetted. The knapsacks,
etc. I left in charge of a sergeant and six men, who from their low stature
and other causes, were most likely to impede our march, the success of which
I knew hinged on our ability, by a rapid movement, to surprise the village
before daybreak.
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