Sturt thereupon turned the drays, which were already in difficulties in the loose soil, sharp round to the right, and finally came to the river again, where they camped to discuss the untoward circumstance.
At daylight the next morning, Sturt and MacLeay rode along its bank, whilst Clayton, the carpenter, was set to work felling a tree and digging a sawpit.

Progress along the bank with the whole party was evidently impossible.

Sturt, however, had faith in the continuity of the river, and announced to MacLeay his intention to send back most of the expedition, and with a picked crew to embark in the whaleboat, committing their desperate fortunes to the stream, and trusting to make the coast somewhere, and leaving their return in the hands of Providence.
The more one regards this heroic venture, the more sublime does it appear.

The whole of the interior was then a sealed book, and the river, for aught Sturt knew, might flow throughout the length of the continent.
But the voyage was commenced with cool and calm confidence.
In a week the whaleboat was put together, and a small skiff also built.
Six hands were selected for the crew, and the remainder, after waiting one week in case of accident, were to return to Goulburn Plains and there await events.

It would be as well to embody here the names of this band.
John Harris, Hopkinson, and Fraser were the soldiers chosen, and Clayton, Mulholland, and Macmanee the prisoners.