314 MOTIVES FOR EXPLORING WESTWARD. 
how great was the interest felt in the progress of 
our labours, and how sanguine were the expectations 
formed as to the results; alas, how signally had 
these hopes been dashed to the ground, after the 
toils, anxieties, and privations of eight months, 
neither useful nor valuable discoveries had been 
made ; hemmed in by an impracticable desert, or 
the bed of an impassable lake, I had been baffled and 
defeated in every direction, and to have returned 
now, would have been, to have rendered of no avail 
the great expenses that had been incurred in the 
outfit of the expedition, to have thrown away the 
only opportunity presented to me of making some 
amends for past failure, and of endeavouring to 
justify the confidence that had been reposed in me, 
by carrying through the exploration which had been 
originally contemplated to the westward, now it was 
no longer possible to accomplish that to the north, for 
which it had given place ; I considered myself in 
duty and in honour bound, not to turn back from 
this attempt, as long as there was the remotest 
possibility of success, without any regard to consi- 
derations of a personal or private nature. Under 
these feelings, therefore, I resolved to remain only 
another day in depot, to reply to the letters I had 
received, and return my best thanks to the many 
friends who had expressed such kind interest on my 
behalf. 
February 25. — Having finished my letters, and 
buried all the spare stores, I sent the native boys away 
