ESCAPE POINT. 131 



anticipated, what was it at that exciting moment 

 when the eventful hour which should give us the 

 triumph of such a discovery as that we now fairly 

 anticipated, seemed within our grasp ? I cannot 

 answer for others, but for myself I had never known 

 a sensation of greater delight. Doubt, disappoint- 

 ment, difficulty, and danger ; all, all were unheeded 

 or forgotten in the one proud thought that for us 

 was reserved an enterprise the ultimate results 

 of which might in some future year affect the 

 interests of a great portion of the world ! Presently, 

 as if to recall to their routine of duty, these upward 

 springing thoughts, the boats were found to be 

 rapidly carried by the stream towards an extensive 

 flat, which appeared to extend right across the 

 opening towards which all eyes had been turned 

 with so much eagerness, and over which the tide 

 was boiling and whirling with great force. To 

 attempt to cross would have been madness ; there 

 was nothing, therefore, to be done but patiently 

 await the rising of the tide. The nearest land, a 

 mangrove point bearing S.S.E. one mile, we after- 

 wards named Escape Point, in grateful memory of 

 the providential escapes we experienced in its vici- 

 nity. Where the boats were anchored we had nearly 

 five feet at low water, and the tide ran past them at 

 the rate of five miles an hour. As soon as possible we 

 again started, in a south by west direction, and pro- 

 ceeded for about five miles, when the boats were 

 anchored, near the western shore, which we pro- 



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