DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS OF THE RETURN. 177 
through the natives, I had every reason to believe that 
many of the tribes with which we had communicated on 
apparently friendly terms, regretted having allowed us to 
pass unmolested ; nor was I at all satisfied as to the treat- 
ment we might receive from them, when unattended by 
the envoys who had once or twice controlled their fury. Our 
best security, therefore, against the attacks of the natives 
was celerity of movement ; and the men themselves seemed 
to be perfectly aware of the consequences of delay. Our 
provisions, moreover, being calculated to last to a certain 
point only, the slightest accident, the staving-in of the boat, 
or the rise of the river, would inevitably be attended with 
calamity. To think of reducing our rations of only three quar- 
ters of a pound of flour per diem, was out of the question, or 
to hope that the men, with less sustenance than that, would 
perform the work necessary to ensure their safety, would have 
been unreasonable. It was better that our provisions should 
hold out to a place from which we might abandon the boat 
with some prospect of reaching by an effort a stock station, 
or the plain on which Robert Harris was to await our return, 
than that they should be consumed before the half of our 
homeward journey should be accomplished. Delay, there- 
fore, under our circumstances, would have been imprudent 
and unjustifiable. 
On the other hand, it was sufficiently evident to me, that 
the men were too much exhausted to perform the task that 
was before them without assistance, and that it would be 
necessary both for M'Leay and myself, to take our share of 
VOL. II. 
N 
