Seeing that his only chance of reaching West Australia was
to push rapidly forward with a simple and light equipment, he sent back
the whole of his party except Mr. Baxter, his black servant Wylie, and
the other two natives; and taking with him a few horses, carrying a
supply of water and provisions for several weeks, he set out to follow
the coast along the Great Australian Bight. His party had to scramble
along the tops of rough cliffs which everywhere frowned from three
hundred to six hundred feet above the sea; and if they left the coast to
travel inland they had to traverse great stretches of moving sands,
which filled their eyes and ears, covered them when asleep, and, when
they sat at meals, made their food unpleasant. But they suffered most
from want of water; for often they were obliged to walk day after day
beneath a broiling sun when all their water was gone, and not a drop to
be seen on the burning soil beneath them. On one occasion, after they
had thus travelled 110 miles, the horses fell down from exhaustion, and
could not be induced to move. Eyre and a native hastened forward; but,
though they wandered for more than eighteen miles, they saw no sign of
water, and when darkness came on they lay down, with lips parched and
burning, and tossed in feverish slumber till morning. At early dawn they
perceived a ridge of sand-hills not far away, and making for them they
found a number of little wells--places where the natives had dug into
the sand for six or eight feet, and so had reached fresh water. Here
Eyre and his black companion drank a delicious draught, and hastened
back with the precious beverage to revive the horses. The whole party
was then able to go forward; and there, around these little waterholes,
Eyre halted for a week to refresh his men and animals before attempting
another stretch of similar country. They saw some natives, who told them
that there was plenty of water farther on, and when Eyre set out again
he carried very little with him, so as not to overburden the horses. But
after sixty miles of the desert had been traversed without meeting any
place in which water was to be found, he became alarmed, and sent back
Mr. Baxter with the horses to bring up a better supply, whilst he
himself remained to take charge of the baggage. When Baxter returned
they all set forward again, and reached a sandy beach, where they had
great difficulty in preventing the horses from drinking the sea-water,
which wo