[Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And by Edward John Eyre]@TWC D-Link book
Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And

CHAPTER VI
10/15

By care and slow travelling, we reached the depot safely in the afternoon, having crossed in going and returning, upwards of 100 miles of desert country, during the last three days, in which the horses had got nothing either to eat or drink.

It is painful in the extreme, to be obliged to subject them to such hardships, but alas, in such a country, what else can be done.
In the evening, I directed the overseer to have every thing got ready for breaking up our encampment on the morrow, as the party had been fifteen days in depot, and little else than mud remained in the hole which had supplied them with water.
August 25 .-- Slight showers during the night, and the day dark and cloudy, with rather an oppressive atmosphere.

The horses had strayed during the night, so that it was nine o'clock before we got away.
We had scarcely left the place of encampment, when shoutings were heard, and signal fires lit up in every direction by the natives, to give warning I imagine of our being abroad, and to call stragglers to their camp.

These people had still remained in our immediate vicinity, and were now assembled in very considerable numbers on the brow of one of the front ridges, to watch us pass by.

They would not approach us, but as the drays moved on kept running in a line with them, at some distance, and occasionally shouting and gesticulating in an unintelligible manner.
In our first and only intercourse with these natives, we had unfortunately given them just cause of offence, and I was most anxious, if possible, before leaving, to efface the unfavourable impression which they had received.


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