SEARCH FOR WATER. 97 



capricious with respect to the supply of what is 

 ordinarily her most common, as it is ever one of her 

 most precious gifts. A few wretched mud-holes 

 might serve for a time to content the savages 

 trained to privation from their earliest infancy, but 

 for ourselves it was clear, either that a reasonable 

 supply of fresh water must be found here, or we 

 must not calculate upon remaining beyond the time 

 which would leave us sufficient to proceed to 

 Hanover Bay, where this most needful commodity 

 was, upon the authority of Captain King, to be 

 found. No sooner, therefore, was the Beagle 

 properly secured in her new berth, than a party 

 was despatched in the boats to commence a search 

 for water, and to fix upon a spot for carrying on 

 the necessary observations : scarcely, however, had 

 we pushed off from alongside, before the white 

 ensign at our main warned us that the natives were 

 in sight from the ship,* and, on turning our eyes to 

 the shore, we beheld it thronged with savages : the 

 rapidity of whose movements, as they shouted in 

 apparent defiance, brandishing their spears, and 

 whirling their arms round and round with windmill- 

 like velocity, as though to threaten our advance, 

 rendered it impossible to estimate their number 

 with any confidence, but they were evidently in 

 considerable force. However, we pulled to the 

 shore, a measure against which the valiant Miago 



* This signal was always made when natives were seen from 

 the ship, if any parties were away. 



VOL. I. H 



