They themselves had often tried to kill buffalo with their spears, but had never succeeded.

I removed the bull's hide, and made a big rug out of it, which I found very serviceable indeed in subsequent wet seasons.

It was as hard as a board, and nearly half an inch thick.
When I returned to "Captain Davis" and the rest of my friends at Raffles Bay, I was quite well and strong once more, and I stayed with them three or four months, hunting almost every day (there were even wild ponies and English cattle--of course, relics of the old settlement), and picking up all the information I could.

I had many conversations with Davis himself, and he told me that I should probably find white men at Port Darwin, which he said was between three and four hundred miles away.

The tribe at Port Essington, I may mention, only numbered about fifty souls.
This was about the year 1868.