Had they continued their course to the westward, they must have arrived long before this, and I now felt satisfied that they had turned back to Fowler's Bay for the sake of the provisions buried there, or else they had fallen in with the natives, whose traces we had so repeatedly seen, and either joined them, or been killed by them.
It was now apparent to me beyond all doubt, that in following us on the 30th of April, so far out of the direction they ought to have taken if they intended to go to the eastward, their only object had been to get Wylie to accompany them.

As he was the eldest of the three, and a strong full grown man, they would have found him a protection to them from his superior age, strength and skill.

As it was they had but little chance of making their way safely either to the east or west.

At the time I last saw them they were sixty-three miles from the nearest water in the former direction, and eighty-seven miles from that in the latter.

They were tired and exhausted from previous walking, and in this state would have to carry the guns, the provisions, and other things they had taken.