ank in such deep
draughts of comfort that my spirits were always good.

DANGER OF PERISHING FOR WANT OF WATER.

April 17.

About an hour and a half before dawn we started in a south by east
direction, the native leading the way, for it was yet too dark for me to
select points to march upon. As we moved along we moistened our mouths by
sucking a few drops of dew from the shrubs and reeds, but even this
miserable resource failed us almost immediately after sunrise. The men
were so worn out from fatigue and want of food and water that I could get
them but a few hundred yards at a time, then some one of them would sit
down and beg me so earnestly to stop for a few minutes that I could not
refuse acceding to the request; when however I thus halted the native in
every instance expressed his indignation, telling me that it was
sacrificing his safety as well as those of the others who were able to
move, for that if we did not find water ere night the whole party would
die. He was indeed as weak from want of food as any of us, for we had
made such rapid and lengthy marches in the hope of speedily forwarding
assistance to those left behind that when we came at night to the
conclusion of our day's journey Kaiber was too much exhausted to think of
looking for food.

About two o'clock in the afternoon the men were so completely exhausted
that it was impossible to induce them to move, and at this period I found
that we had only made about eight miles in a south by east direction,
over plains studded with small sandy hills and the beds of dried up
tea-tree swamps.

When I halted the sun was intensely powerful; the groans and exclamations
of some of the men were painful in the extreme; but my feelings were
still more agonized when I saw the poor creatures driven, by the want of
water, to drink their own ----, the last sad and revolting resource of
thirst!

UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH FOR WATER WITH KAIBER.

Unable to bear these distressing scenes any longer I ordered Kaiber to
accompany me, and notwithstanding the heat and my own weariness I left
the others lying down in such slight shade as the stunted banksias
afforded, and throwing aside all my ammunition, papers, etc., started
with him in search of water, carrying nothing but my double-barrelled
gun. We proceeded towards the sea. As the natives have the faculty, even
in the trackless woods which they have never before been in, of returning
direct to any spot they have left by howe