FUTURE PLAN. 
297 
pack-horses, was completely overturned, and it be- 
came now a matter of very serious consideration to 
decide what I should do under the circumstances. 
It was impossible for me to take my whole party 
and the drays overland through the dreadful 
country verging upon the Great Bight ; whilst if I 
took the party, and left the drays, it was equally 
hopeless that I could carry upon pack-horses a 
sufficiency of provisions to last us to King George’s 
Sound. There remained, then, but two alterna- 
tives, either to break through the instructions I had 
received with regard to the Hero, or to reduce my 
party still further, and attempt to force a passage 
almost alone. The first I did not, for many reasons, 
think myself justified in doing — the second, there- 
fore, became my dernier resort , and I reluctantly 
decided upon adopting it. 
It now became my duty to determine without 
delay who were to be my companions in the perilous 
attempt before me. The first and most painful 
necessity impressed upon me by the step I contem- 
plated, was that of parting with my young friend, 
Mr. Scott, who had been with me from the com- 
mencement of the undertaking, and who had always 
been zealous and active in promoting its interests as 
far as lay in his power. I knew that, on an occasion 
like this, the spirit and enterprise of his character 
would prompt in him a wish to remain and share the 
difficulties and dangers to which I might be exposed : 
but I felt that I ought not to allow him to do so ; I 
