Mr. Banks returns disappointed. 103 
ting their difappointment, they repaired to their quarters, 
which- -was a broad band bank, under the fhelter of a bufh. 
Their beds were plantain leaves, which they fpread upon the 
fand, and which were as foftas a mattrefs ; their cloaks ferved 
them for bed-cmthes, and fome bunches of grafs for pillows : 
with thefe accommodations they hoped to pafs a better night 
than the lad, efpe ially as, to their great- comfort, not a muf- 
quito was to be feen. Here then they lay do.wn, and, luch is 
the force of habit, they refigned themfelves to fleep, without 
once reflecting upon the probability and danger of being found 
by the Indians in that fituation. If this appears ftrange, let 
us for a moment reflefl, that every danger, and every cala- 
mity, after a time becomes familiar, and lofes its effeCt upon 
the mind. If it were poffible --hat a man Ihould fird be made 
acquainted with his mortality, or even with the inevitable 
debility and infirmities of old age, when his underftanding 
had arrived at its full drength, and life was endeared by the en- 
joyments of youth, and vigour, and health, with what an ago- 
ny of terror and didrefs would the intelligence be received 1 
yet, being gradually acquainted with thefe mournful truths, by 
infenfible degrees, we fcarce know when they lofe all their 
force, and we think no more of the approach of old age and 
death, than thefe wanderers of an unknown defart did of a 
lefs obvious and certain evil, the approach of the native fa- 
vages, at a time vvhe ' they mud have fallen an eafy prey to 
their malice or their fears. And it is remarkable that the 
greater part of thofe who have been condemned to fuller a vio- 
lent death, have dept the night immediately preceeding their 
execution, though there is perhaps no indance of aperfon ac- 
cufed of a capital crime having dept the fird night of his 
confinement. Thus is the evil of life in fome degree a reme- 
dy for itfeif, and though every man at twenty deprecates four- 
fcore, almod every man is as tenacious off life at fourfcore as at 
twenty ; and if he does not differ under any painful diforder, 
lofes as little of-the comforts that remain by reflecting that he 
is upon the brink of the grave, where the earth already crumb- 
les under his feet, as he did of the pleafures of his better days, 
when his diffolution, though certain, was fuppofed to be at a- 
difiance. 
Our travellers having dept, without once awaking, till 
the morning, examined the river, and finding the tide favour- 
ed their return, and the country promifed nothing worthy of 
a further fearch, they reimbarked in their boat, and made the 
bed of their way to the jfhip. 
Soon after the arrival of this party, the mafier alfo re- 
turned, having been fev'en leagues out to fea, and he was now 
of opinion, that there was no getting out where before he 
fought there had been apaifege ■, his expedition however was- 
