the party, in retaining under every difficulty, possession of that which they had promised to preserve for me.”[337] Impeded by natural obstacles, their progress was tediously slow. The Hutt River was reached on the 5th. A few days after they touched the Bowes River, and then journeying through the province of Victoria, rested by the rivers Buller and Chapman.[338] ----- Footnote 337: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 6. Footnote 338: Ibid., ii. p. 1-31. ----- On the banks of the latter a man was found missing; and Dr. Walker and corporal Auger were sent in search of him. They ascended the cliffs and tracked him to the sea; but as a large party of natives were near them, they gave up the pursuit, and, unobserved, retreated. The missing man turned up next day.[339] ----- Footnote 339: Ibid., ii. p. 31-37. ----- While this party was out, corporal Coles, who was posted as sentry on a high terrace difficult of access, saw natives on the opposite cliffs brandishing their spears in the manner they do before a fight. Captain Grey clambered up the height, but as he could not make them out, he thought Coles had made a mistake. “When I told him this,” writes the Captain, “he merely said, Look there, then, sir,” and pointed to the top of Mount Fairfax. There, indeed, they were, going through a series of enigmatical ceremonies. The disposition which the Captain made of his men, being observed by the natives, at first excited them to furious gestures, but by degrees, they calmed down and suddenly withdrew. “The British soldiers and sailors with me,” proceeds the chief, “were surprisingly calm.”[340] ----- Footnote 340: Ibid., ii. p. 31-33. ----- The Greenough River was reached on the 8th April. Here some of the men became sullen and would not proceed. In the mean time corporal Auger went alone to search for water, and soon finding it, the party was moved to the stream. Revived in spirits by the supply, all readily resumed the march, and before nightfall, had travelled seven miles further on their journey.[341] But the wish for short marches and long halts which prevailed from the first, and in which Dr. Walker coincided, was now exhibited in discontent. The Captain, however, wisely persisted in following his own plan. On the 9th April the want of water was much felt; and late in the day corporals Auger and Coles and three others went in search of some. They had made about seven miles, “when the keen eye of Coles,” says the Captain, “discovered a beautiful spring under a hill, which was then named the Water Peak.” Why this designation? Indebted to the corporal for finding the spring, it would not surely have been irrelevant to associate the humble name of the faithful discoverer with this interesting feature of the hard journey. In returning to the party, they wandered over a rough country full of crevices, sustaining some serious falls, and, being benighted, did not reach their companions till the next morning.[342] ----- Footnote 341: