As night was coming rapidly on it was necessary for me to decide at once what I should do. Coles was unable to swim. If therefore I crossed the stream it must be alone: to do so with natives on the opposite bank, of whose intentions towards us we were entirely ignorant, was not without considerable danger; yet I was very unwilling to leave the men in such a state of suffering from thirst when I was so near the schooner, from whence their wants could be supplied. Whilst I was debating what to do Coles kept firing his gun in hopes that they might hear the report on board and send a boat to our relief; in vain however we strained our ears, the report of Coles's gun was reverberated from cliff to cliff and from hill to hill, but no answering sound came back across the tranquil water. In the meantime I felt more and more anxious about the portion of the party who were with Mr. Lushington, having left with them certain orders and promised to send a boat up to them; on which promise all their further movements would be regulated. The beach near us afforded no wood wherewith to make a fire as a signal to the schooner; the cliffs hereabouts were too precipitous to climb; and it was evident that but very few of the party could swim so broad a space of water; granting that they ever reached so far as the point where Coles and myself now were. SWIM AN INLET OF THE SEA. DANGER IN THE PASSAGE ACROSS AND AFTER LANDING. I therefore determined to run all risks, and swim the arm of the sea which stopped our way. I directed Coles to wait until the others came up and then to remain with them until I returned in a boat. From the rugged nature of the shore I could not have walked a yard without shoes, so I kept them on, as well as my shirt and military cap, and I took a pistol in one hand as a means of defence against the natives, or else to fire it when I reached a spot where it could be seen or heard from the vessel. I plunged in and very soon found myself caught in a tideway so violent that resistance to its force, so as either to get on or return, appeared at the moment hopeless.* My left hand, in which I held the pistol, was called into requisition to save my life; for the stream washed the cap from my head and, the cap then filling with water, and being carried down by the strong current, the chin-strap caught round my neck and nearly throttled me as I dragged it after me through the water; whilst the loose folds of my shirt, being washed out to seawards by the tide, kept getting entangled with my arm. I grew weak and faint but still swam my best, and at last I providentially reached a reef of rocks which projected from the opposite shore, and to which I clung until I had somewhat regained my strength. (*Footnote. I should state that the rise and fall of tide here is thirty-eight feet.) DANGER FROM NATIVES.