dge it to be between Murchison and Newcastle ranges. The
country in which the operations took place was a fine open grassy plain,
thinly skirted with trees and with mountains almost encircling it in the
distance.

I ought here to describe my personal appearance on this important day,
when, for the first time, I posed as a great chief, and led my people
into battle, filled with the same enthusiasm that animated them. My hair
was built up on strips of whalebone to a height of nearly two feet from
my head, and was decorated with black and white cockatoo feathers. My
face, which had now become very dark from exposure to the sun, was
decorated in four colours--yellow, white, black, and red.

There were two black-and-white arched stripes across the forehead, and a
yellow curving line across each cheek under the eye. I also wore a
fairly long beard, moustache, and side-whiskers. There were four
different-coloured stripes on each arm, whilst on the body were four vari-
coloured stripes, two on each side; and a long, yellow, curving stripe
extended across the stomach, belt-wise. Around my middle I wore a kind
of double apron of emu skin, with feathers. There were other stripes of
different-coloured ochres on my legs, so that altogether you may imagine
I presented a terrifying appearance. Of this, however, I soon grew quite
oblivious--a fact which I afterwards had occasion bitterly to regret. It
were, indeed, well for me that I had on subsequent occasions realised
better the bizarre nature of my appearance, for had I done so I would
probably have reached civilisation years before I did.

At this period, then, you find me a fully equipped war chief of the
cannibal blacks, leading them on to battle attired as one of their own
chiefs in every respect, and with nearly all their tribal marks on my
body. When we reached the battle-ground, my men sent up smoke-signals of
defiance, announcing the fact of our invasion, and challenging the enemy
to come down from the mountains and fight us. This challenge was
promptly responded to by other smoke-signals, but as at least a day must
elapse before our antagonists could arrive I spent the interval in
devising a plan of battle--oddly enough, on the lines of a famous
historic Swiss encounter at Grandson five or six centuries ago.

I arranged that fifty or sixty men, under the leadership of a chief,
should occupy some high ground in our rear, to form a kind of ambush.

They were al