374 EMBARRASSING CIRCUMSTANCES, 
I had sent for were still thirty-eight miles back, hav- 
ing only been brought twelve miles from where they 
had originally been left ; the rest of the things were 
ten miles away, and as nearly all our provisions, 
and many other indispensable articles were among 
them, it became absolutely necessary that they 
should be recovered in some way or other, but how 
that was to be accomplished was a question which 
we could not so easily determine. Our horses w^ere 
quite unfit for service of any kind, and the late 
unfortunate attempt had but added to the difficul- 
ties by which we were surrounded, and inflicted 
upon us the additional loss of another valuable 
animal. Many and anxious were the hours I spent 
in contemplating the circumstances we were in, and 
in revolving in my mind the best means at our 
command to extricate ourselves from so perilous a 
situation. We were still 650 miles from King 
George’s Sound, with an entirely unknown country 
before us. Our provisions, when again recovered, 
would be barely sufficient to last us for three weeks 
and a half, at a very reduced rate of allowance. Our 
horses were jaded and miserable beyond all concep- 
tion ; they could literally scarcely crawl, and it 
was evident they would be unable to move on again 
at all without many days’ rest where we were. On 
the other hand we had still the prospect of another of 
those fearful pushes without water to encounter, as 
soon as we left our present encampment, and had 
first to recover the provisions and other things yet 
