I determined not to decide hastily between these plans and, in order more fully to compose my mind, I sat down and read a few chapters in the Bible. By the influence these imparted I became perfectly contented and resigned to our apparently wretched condition and, again rising up, pursued my way along the beach to the party. It may be here remarked by some that these statements of my attending to religious duties are irrelevant to the subject, but in such an opinion I cannot at all coincide. In detailing the sufferings we underwent it is necessary to relate the means by which those sufferings were alleviated; and after having, in the midst of perils and misfortunes, received the greatest consolation from religion, I should be ungrateful to my Maker not to acknowledge this, and should ill perform my duty to my fellow men did I not bear testimony to the fact that, under all the weightier sorrows and sufferings that our frail nature is liable to, a perfect reliance upon the goodness of God and the merits of our Redeemer will be found a sure refuge and a certain source of consolation. In pursuing my route along the beach I carefully examined every heap of seaweed which the waves had thrown up, and was fortunate enough to find a bag of flour which had been washed up by the tide and held there by some rocks; though from daily soaking in salt water for several weeks it was quite spoilt and fermented, and smelt like beer; yet this, under present circumstances, was more valuable than its weight in gold. Just after I had found this bag, I met Ruston and another man coming from the boats to the depot; I at once told them exactly how matters stood; they bore the announcement better than I could have hoped for, and when I showed them that their safety altogether depended on their good conduct they promised the most implicit obedience and a ready cheerful demeanour. I must do Ruston the justice to say that under every trial he most scrupulously adhered to the promise he then made, and never infringed upon it in the slightest degree. CONDUCT OF THE MEN. When I reached the party and told the tale of the total disappearance of all we had left at the depot blank and dismayed faces met me on all sides. Mr. Walker and Corporal Auger set an excellent example to the others; but two men, of the names of Harry and Charley Woods, seized the first convenient opportunity of walking off to the place where our miserable remnant of damper was deposited with the intention of appropriating it to themselves. I only waited till they actually laid their hands upon it, when I stopped them, placed a sentry over what provisions were left, ordered a survey of all stores to be held, and a report to be made to me; and then went off with a party to search the shore in the hope of finding any other things which might have been washed up: our search however proved quite unsuccessful. CHOICE OF PLANS.