We had marched for about an hour and a quarter and in this time had only made two miles, when we suddenly arrived upon the edge of a dried-up bed of a sedgy swamp, which lay in the centre of a small plain, where we saw the foot-mark of a native imprinted on the sand, and again our hearts beat with hope, for this sign appeared to announce that we were once more entering the regions of animal life. We soon found that another part of the swamp was thickly marked with the footsteps of women and children; and as no water-baskets were scattered about no doubt could exist but that we were in the vicinity of water. We soon discovered several native wells dug in the bed of the swamp; but these were all dry, and I began again to fear that I was disappointed, when Kaiber suddenly started up from a thick bed of reeds and made me a sign which was unobserved by the others, as was evidently his intention.
FORTUNATE DISCOVERY OF A MOIST MUD-HOLE. PROVIDENTIAL SUPPLY.
I hurried up and found him with his head buried in a small hole of moist mud, for I can call it nothing else. I very deliberately raised Kaiber by the hair, as all expostulations to him were useless, and then called up the others.
Kaiber had completely swelled himself out with this thick muddy liquid, and from the mark upon the sides of the hole had evidently consumed more than half of the total supply. I first of all took some of this moist mud in my mouth, but finding a difficulty in swallowing it, as it was so thick, I strained a portion through a handkerchief. We had thirsted with an intense and burning thirst for three days and two nights, during the greater portion of which time we had been taking violent exercise under a fierce sun. To conceive the delight of the men when they arrived at this little hole of mud would be difficult. Each, as he came up and cast his wearied limbs on the ground beside the hole, uttered these words: "Thank God;" and then greedily swallowed a few mouthfuls of the liquid mud, protesting that it was the most delicious water and had a peculiar flavour which rendered it far superior to any other he had ever tasted.
DANGER OF PERISHING FROM HUNGER.
But it required some time before their faculties were sufficiently recovered to allow them duly to estimate the magnitude of the danger they had escaped. The small portion of muddy water in the hole was soon finished, and then by scraping it out clean we found that water began slowly to trickle into it again. The men now laid themselves down almost in a state of stupefaction, and rested by their treasured pool. I felt however that great calls upon my energies might still arise, and therefore, retiring a little apart with the native, I first of all returned hearty thanks to my Maker for the dangers and sufferings he had thus brought me through, and then tottered on with my gun in search of food. As might have been expected, game was here plentiful: numerous pigeons and other birds came down at nightfall (which was now the hour) for the purpose of drinking at this lone pool, and the numbers of birds of different kinds that congregated here was a most convincing proof of the general aridity of this part of the country. Indeed the natives subsequently reported that the tract we had just traversed was at this season of the year totally devoid of water. It was in vain now that I raised the gun, for my tremulous hand shook so that I could not for a moment cover the bird I aimed at, and after one or two ineffectual attempts to kill something I was obliged to desist in despair.
PANGS OF HUNGER.
I now dreaded that I had only escaped the pains of death by thirst in order to perish of hunger, and for a moment regretted that I had not died ere I found water, for I firmly believed, from the state of weakness I was then reduced to, that the bitterness of death had passed. But a short period sufficed to smother these unmanly and unchristian feelings in my breast, and, seeing a flight of black cockatoos soaring about in the air, I determined to watch them to their roosting-place, and then favoured by the darkness of night to steal upon them. On my return to the party I found the men sitting by the hole of water, anxiously watching until they again saw a little black mud in it, which they then eagerly swallowed.
I found some difficulty in inducing them to light their fire and to choose a situation where they could repose for the night, but, having accomplished this, I sat down by my own, hand-rubbing my limbs until it should grow rather darker. At length I had the pleasure of seeing that the black cockatoos, who found we were not likely to leave them in possession of the water, had taken up their position for the night in a large clump of trees distant not more than half a mile, and I hereupon started with Kaiber to try and get a shot at them.
SHOOT AND COOK A COCKATOO.