154 
OBLIGED TO TAKE REPOSE. 
tressing to pull against the heavy breezes that swept up the 
valley, and bent the reeds so as almost to make them kiss 
the stream. 
We communicated on the 6th and 7th with several large 
tribes of natives, whose manners were on the whole quiet and 
inoffensive. They distinctly informed us, that we were fast 
approaching the sea, and, from what I could understand, 
we were nearer to it than the coast line of Encounter Bay 
made us. We had placed sticks to ascertain if there was 
any rise or fall of tide, but the troubled state of the river 
prevented our experiments from being satisfactory. By se- 
lecting a place, however, that was sheltered from the effects 
of the wind, we ascertained that there was an apparent rise 
of about eight inches. 
It blew a heavy gale during the whole of the 7th ; 
and we laboured in vain at the oar. The gusts that 
swept the bosom of the water, and the swell they caused, 
turned the boat from her course, and prevented us from 
making an inch of way. The men were quite exhausted, 
and, as they had conducted themselves so well, and had 
been so patient, I felt myself obliged to grant them every 
indulgence consistent with our safety. However precarious 
our situation, it would have been vain, with our exhausted 
strength, to have contended against the elements. We, 
therefore, pulled in to the left bank of the river, and 
pitched our tents on a little rising ground beyond the reeds 
that lined it. 
I had been suffering very much from tooth-ache for the 
