Well, We Had Followed These Directions For Some Way, As Far In Fact As
The Terrace, When, The River Coming Into Full View, I Saw That The
Rangitata Was Very High.
Worse than that, I saw Mr. Phillips and a
party of men who were taking a dray over to a run just on the other side
of the river, and who had been prevented from crossing for ten days by
the state of the water.
Among them, to my horror, I recognised my
cadet, whom I had left behind me with beef which he was to have taken
over to my place a week and more back; whereon my mind misgave me that a
poor Irishman who had been left alone at my place might be in a sore
plight, having been left with no meat and no human being within reach
for a period of ten days. I don't think I should have attempted
crossing the river but for this. Under the circumstances, however, I
determined at once on making a push for it, and accordingly taking my
two cadets with me and the unfortunate beef that was already putrescent-
-it had lain on the ground in a sack all the time - we started along
under the hills and got opposite the place where I intended crossing by
about three o'clock. I had climbed the mountain side and surveyed the
river from thence before approaching the river itself. At last we were
by the water's edge. Of course, I led the way, being as it were
patronus of the expedition, and having been out some four months longer
than either of my companions; still, having never crossed any of the
rivers on horseback in a fresh, having never seen the Rangitata in a
fresh, and being utterly unable to guess how deep any stream would take
me, it may be imagined that I felt a certain amount of caution to be
necessary, and accordingly, folding my watch in my pocket-handkerchief
and tying it round my neck in case of having to swim for it
unexpectedly, I strictly forbade the other two to stir from the bank
until they saw me safely on the other side. Not that I intended to let
my horse swim, in fact I had made up my mind to let my old Irishman wait
a little longer rather than deliberately swim for it. My two companions
were worse mounted than I was, and the rushing water might only too
probably affect their heads. Mine had already become quite indifferent
to it, though it had not been so at first. These two men, however, had
been only a week in the settlement, and I should have deemed myself
highly culpable had I allowed them to swim a river on horseback, though
I am sure both would have been ready enough to do so if occasion
required.
As I said before, at last we were on the water's edge; a rushing stream
some sixty yards wide was the first instalment of our passage.
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