Saturday 30 July 1836

to trace the River Bank, intending to return to our boat to breakfast, but at ½ past 3 finding that we had suddenly and most unexpectedly lost the river (by turning a little from the bank into a bed of small tall brushwood in order to avoid climbing over a quantity of log timber) and being unable to recover it for want of an elevated spot of land or a tree from which to get a look out, we judged it best to lay-to till day-light, so made a fire and sat round it wondering no less how we lost the river, than how we were to find it again. At 6a.m. having held a council as to what should be done and having found the bearings of the sea by a small chart and compass which most providentially I brought with me and without which we should most probably have been lost we decided it would be best to shape our course due N.N.E. in hope of gaining the shore as we had no chance of finding our way back to the river. The only provision we had was 3 biscuits amongst us all. After various perplexities such as it is impossible to describe we reached the sea at 5p.m. and made a fire to dry ourselves and cook a Crow which I had shot and which was the only living creature we had been able to get near. The Captain and myself divided a leg of this small bird between us and let the men have the rest. We had just day light enough to examine the shore and found by the chart and bearings that we were in Napean Bay 12 miles west of our ship and hid from the sight of her by a projecting point of land. At 6p.m. we started again and at ¼ to 10p.m. we reached our tents where our men got food water and fire and from which we hailed the ship and got a boat sent off for us. On our way to the tents we found fresh water in the well I had left the men digging and drank of it with avidity and now I found that our Barque, “Lady Mary Pelham”, had that morning arrived from Liverpool and was anchored in safety by the “Duke of York”.