In a few minutes more I was in the boat, and rejoiced to find all the party safely there before me. My next question was, "Have you a little water here?" "Plenty, Sir," answered Corporal Cole as he handed me a little, which I greedily swallowed. Their adventures were soon related to me. The party under Mr. Lushington, being on an exposed part of the coast, the flash of their guns had been seen after dark, and the Captain despatched a boat from the schooner to pull along shore. This boat first of all found Coles near where I had quitted him, and he directed them to the others; the boat, having picked them up, then returned for Coles, and heard from him the intentions with which I had attempted to swim the arm of the sea; but as he had never seen me reach the opposite bank, and the inlet was of very considerable width, they had, up to the moment of finding me, felt very serious misgivings as to my fate. I did not know till afterwards that the water Corporal Coles had handed to me on entering the boat was all they had on board when he was picked up, and that, although suffering severely from thirst, Coles would not touch a drop as long as he retained any hope that I might be found and be in want of it. RETURN OF ALL ON BOARD. We were now however safe again, and as all had borne themselves well under the difficulties to which they had been exposed, more particularly Mr. Lushington, to whom the credit is due of having, by his personal example and influence, successfully brought on the party to the point of their embarkation, it was now pleasant to revert to the trials we had passed, and to recall to one another's recollection each minute circumstance of our day's adventures; and when we were again on board and had turned in for the night I could not help feeling a deep sense of gratitude to that Providence who, in so brief a space, had preserved me through so many perils. CHAPTER 5. AT HANOVER BAY. PLAGUE OF FLIES. December 4. To sleep after sunrise was impossible on account of the number of flies which kept buzzing about the face. To open our mouths was dangerous. In they flew, and mysteriously disappeared, to be rapidly ejected again in a violent fit of coughing; and into the eyes, when unclosed, they soon found their way and, by inserting the proboscis and sucking, speedily made them sore; neither were the nostrils safe from their attacks, which were made simultaneously on all points, and in multitudes. This was a very troublesome annoyance, but I afterwards found it to be a very general one throughout all the unoccupied portions of Australia; although in general the further north you go in this continent the more intolerable does the fly nuisance become.