ld to surpass them. The natives
once approached Major Mitchell's camp by night; and though nine
fire-sticks were seen in motion, no noise was heard. At length when the
lights had approached within 150 yards, every one suddenly disappeared;
the bearers preserving, all the while, the most perfect silence. It was
then thought advisable to scare these noiseless visitors away, and a
rocket was sent up, at which signal the English party rushed forward
with a shout; and this had the desired effect. It is said that the
natives regard, as an important matter, the falling of a star, which
would account for their alarm at the rocket. On another occasion, when
an English exploring party had discovered a few traces of natives near
their place of encampment, an active search after them immediately took
place; and it appeared that they had crept up within about one hundred
yards of the camp, after which they had been disturbed, and had made
off. Their mode of approach was by a stream of water, so as to conceal
their trail; after which they had turned out of the stream up its right
bank, and had carefully trod in one another's footmarks, so as to
conceal their number, although traces of six or seven different men
could be perceived as far as the spot where they had been disturbed.
From this point these children of the Bush had disappeared, as it were,
by magic: not a twig was broken, not a stone was turned, nor could it be
observed that the heavy drops of rain had been shaken from a single
blade of grass. All efforts to hit upon the direction in which they had
fled were to no purpose, except to put the explorers more constantly on
the watch against beings who were often near them when they least
dreamed of their presence. Human wisdom would enforce this lesson from
such circumstances; but how often does heavenly wisdom lift up its voice
to us in vain, teaching us by what is passing around us to be upon our
watch constantly over our own conduct, since we are never very far from
the Almighty presence of God himself!

To the quick-sighted natives, the surface of the earth is, in fact, as
legible as a newspaper, so accustomed are they to read in any traces
left upon it the events of the day.[68] For once, Major Mitchell informs
us, he was able to hide so that these people could not find; but then
his buried treasure was only a collection of specimens of stones and
minerals, of the use of which they could know nothing, and concerning
which