carting of the necessary goods. This proposal being joyfully accepted the Fathers Serra and Salvado, with the French Benedictine novice and an Irish catechist, repaired to church at sundown on the 16th of February, previous to commencing their night journey through the bush.
They were in marching order, crucifix on breast, staff in hand, and breviary under the arm, as they made their way to the altar with some difficulty through a crowd of persons, Protestant as well as Catholic, who had assembled in the little building to bid the missionaries a farewell which all supposed would probably be for ever. On leaving the church a brilliant moon shone down upon the travellers, who were escorted along the road for some distance by their bishop and other friends; after a time these turned back, and the four pursued their way in company with the drivers of Captain Scully's wagons, one of which contained the property of the Mission.
A journey on foot of sixty-eight miles, undertaken in a Swan River summer and with long tracts of deep sand to be waded through, required five days to accomplish; the first of which was sufficient to give the pedestrians an appearance so dusty and travel-stained that, as Father Salvado says, they might have been mistaken for the savages whom they were hoping to convert. The party reached Captain Scully's house in safety, and having remained there three days to recruit both men and oxen, they again went forward, in a northerly direction, under the guidance of his two servants.
The heat was most intense, and during their last day's journey it was aggravated by a total absence of water
