dent that he was annoyed at the
idea of not being of the party. They worked very hard that day, and the
walls rose fast out of the water.

After supper, Ready continued his narrative. "We remained concealed
until it was dark, and then Hastings and Romer, each with a musket on
his shoulders and a ham at his back; and I, being the smallest, with the
rifle and the great loaf of bread, set off on our journey. Our
intention was to travel north, as we knew that was the road leading from
the colony; but Hastings had decided that we should first go to the
eastward, so as to make what we sailors call a circumbendibus, which
would keep us out of the general track. We passed through the deep
sands of False Bay, and after that gradually ascended, getting among
brushwood and young trees; but we saw no signs of cultivation, nor did
we pass one house after we had left False Bay astern of us. About
twelve o'clock we were very much fatigued, and longed for a drink of
water, but we did not find any, although the moon shone as bright as
day. We distinctly heard, however, what we did not much like, the
howling and cries of the wild beasts which increased as we went on;
still we did not see any, and that was our comfort. At last we were so
tired that we all sat down on the ledge of a rock. We dared not go to
sleep, so we remained there till daylight, listening to the howling of
the animals. We none of us spoke, and I presume that Hastings' and
Romer's thoughts were the same as my own, which were, that I would have
given a great deal to find myself safe and sound again within the prison
walls. However, daylight came at last; the wild beasts did not prowl
any more; we walked on till we found a stream of water, where we sat
down and took our breakfast, after which our courage revived, and we
talked and laughed as we walked on, just as we had done before. We now
began to ascend the mountains, which Hastings said must be the Black
Mountains that the soldiers had talked to us about. They were very
desolate; and when night came on we collected brushwood, and cut down
branches with our knives, that we might make a fire, not only to warm
ourselves, but to scare away the wild beasts, whose howling had already
commenced. We lighted our fire and ate our supper; the loaf was half
gone, and the hams had been well cut into--we knew, therefore, that very
soon we should have to trust to our guns for procuring food. As soon as
we had finished o