THEIR MISERABLE CONDITION.
The state of distress and exhaustion in which they were found on the beach was truly pitiable and moving. With scarcely strength to drag one foot after the other they had marched about a mile and a half that morning until they encountered the bold rocky projection of land at which we discovered them, and the passing of which they had given up as utterly hopeless from want of sufficient strength to climb over it. Having been three days without water except their own and the seawater, the former of which they had saved in their canteens, and emptied out before us, and their only food being such nourishment as they could obtain from chewing a coarse rushy plant which grew about high-water mark, it cannot be matter of surprise that they were almost frantic after water, and that the portions of it which we sparingly administered to them, mixed with a little brandy, were most eagerly seized. Indeed the greatest firmness and forbearance were necessary on our part to prevent the unfortunate sufferers from committing fatal excesses. They declared their extremity to have been so great that no chance had appeared to them of surviving the next awful night, or of getting a foot beyond their present position; and, to his credit be it said, one of them* had been on his knees only ten minutes before they were rescued, supplicating with uplifted hands that aid and assistance which had thus, through Divine Providence, been so opportunely afforded them.
(*Footnote. Ruston.)
SEARCH FOR MR. SMITH.
In answer to our anxious enquiries respecting Mr. Walker and Mr. Smith we learnt that the former, being much the strongest of the party, had, at their request, made the best of his way towards Perth ten days since, in order to send them out assistance, and that Mr. Smith, having been totally unable to proceed with them any further, had remained behind, in a dying state, four days ago. Touched by this distressing intelligence, and sensibly alive to the value of time, we lost not a moment in lifting our three light weights on our horses, and by supporting them in their seats conveyed them over the sandhills to the more level space behind, where sufficient brushwood was scattered about for maintaining a fire. Here Mr. Spofforth kindly undertook their charge, while I should proceed with Kinchela and Warrup in search of poor Smith.
Ruston having expressed himself very anxious to accompany us, and fearing that we might not otherwise accomplish our object, after receiving some suitable refreshment, he was mounted, and we all set off at as quick a pace as he could manage. At the end of three miles a good view of the coast to the northward was opened to us from the summit of a rising ground, and Ruston pointed out, at the distance of 24 miles, an island near which he said young Smith had been left. As this was far beyond the six or seven miles of which they had at first spoken, and totally precluded the possibility of my returning that night with the water-kegs which I had taken to be filled at some wells which they had seen in the vicinity, I relinquished all idea of proceeding, while the sun was then touching the horizon, and we accordingly rejoined Mr. Spofforth and his charge. We were now perfectly satisfied of the wandering inconsistency in the conversation of the three rescued men, who were evidently to a considerable extent delirious or light-headed. Being too sore in body and excited in mind to admit much sleep to their assistance, they were full of their expressions of thankfulness for their timely deliverance, and at length terminated a long and weary night.
DISCOVERY OF HIS BODY.
The morrow's dawn found me on my way with Kinchela and Warrup to search for poor Smith, while Mr. Spofforth proceeded with the three rescued men and Wyip to join our party at Kadjelup, 12 miles off. At the distance of a mile and a half we found the guns of Mr. Walker and Mr. Smith, which the men had buried among the sandhills from inability to carry them any further. A close scrutiny of the beach brought us, at the end of ten miles, to a spot where Warrup observed the traces of feet in the sand. Following them up, they ascended a bare sandhill to the height of twelve or fourteen feet, turned short round to the left, and there terminated at the unfortunate object of our search, extended on his back, lifeless, in the midst of a thick bush, where he seemed to have laid himself down to sleep, half-enveloped in his blanket. The poor fellow's last bed appeared to have been selected by himself; and at the distance of three or four yards from him lay all the trifling articles which had constituted his travelling equipage. These were his wooden canteen, his brown felt hat, and haversack, containing his journal, shoes, tinder, steel, gun-screw, a few small canvas bags which he had used for carrying shellfish, and a small bag with thread, needles, and buttons. Life seemed to have been extinct rather more than two days; and from the position of the head, which had fallen considerably below the level of the body, we were led to conclude that a rush of blood into the brain had caused his death, and at last without much suffering.
BURIAL OF MR. SMITH.
With the help of the soldier and Warrup we made a grave with our hands and buried poor Smith deep in a sandhill near the shore, about seventy-six miles to the north of Swan River. Even Warrup, notwithstanding the general apathy of the native character, wept like a child over the untimely fate of this young man, from whom he had formerly received kindness. Smoothing over his solitary bed, and placing at the head of his grave a piece of wood found upon the beach, we pursued our melancholy way half a mile to the northward, where we found the water to which we had been directed by digging 12 inches in the sand at the commencement of a considerable sheet of bare sand, extending at least four miles into the interior. In the course of the evening we rejoined our party on the Moore River. Next day we halted at Kadjelup; and on the 19th we separated at Neergabby once more, Mr. Spofforth to conduct the remainder of the party home with as much celerity as they could travel, whilst I proceeded with Kinchela and Warrup to examine the coast from the mouth of the Moore River for any traces of Mr. Walker, of whose fate we were in total ignorance. By noon of the 22nd we had arrived within 12 miles of Perth without remarking the least trace of the supposed absentee, when we were met by Mr. Hunt the constable with the pleasing intelligence that Mr. Walker had reached Perth on the 9th instant. In the evening we arrived at the same place, and found that Mr. Spofforth had brought in his charge the day before.