Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/642

 518 1780 Walk from Pittwater. Camp at MidtUe Harbour. Capsized in a canoe. Walk book to Broken FROM PITTWATER TO SYDNEY IN 1789. " In the morning of the 13th [July], as we intended to land well ap this branch [Pittwater] in order to avoid the most difficult and tiresome part of the road to Port Jackson, we embarked after we had breakfasted and rowed up about a couple of miles, when Uie party for walking went on shore, each with his arms and knapsack containing two days' provisions. We were about half an hour in getting through the wood which led to the sea-coast, where we fell into our own and well-known path, and by four o'clock in the afternoon arrived at the north part of Port Jackson ; but we might as well have been fifty leagues off, for here we could have no com- munication either with the Sirius or the settlement, and no boat had been ordered to meet us. We went immediately to work and made a large fire, by which we lay all night, which happened to be very cold. '< The next day we crossed the hills and came to the mouth of the north-west harbour, but could not find the means of crossing it ; muskets had been frequently fired during the night in hopes that some boat might have been down the harbour fishing and heard them. We found this morning a canoe upon the beach, with which we had no doubt of getting two men across the water, who could in a short time walk over to the cove where the Sirius lay ; bat this prospect was disappointed by the first man who entered the canoe having overset her and she immediately sunk, and he was obliged to swim ashore. After this we went to work to make a catamaran of the lightest wood we could find, but when finished and launched it would not, although pretty large, bear the weight of one man. " It was now proposed to walk round the head of the north-west harbour, which would have been a good long journey for at least two days, and our provisions were nearly expended. To this pro- posal I was under the necessity of objecting for want of shoes, the last march having tore all but the soals from my feet, and they were tied on with spun-yarn. I therefore declined the proposed walk, and determined to go back to Broken Bay and rejoin the boats, which I had no doubt in being able to eifect in the conrse of that day, and with far more ease than I could, without shoes, climb such rocky mountains and thick woods as lay in the way round the head of the north-west harbour. But as it was likely I might fall in with some parties of the natives in the way, I wished to have a con?panion. Captain Collins preferred accompanying me on the intended walk, and we were just upon the point of setting out when two of the people who were with us proposed Digitized by Google