This however was a very popular doctrine for thoughtless and weary men, who were overloaded and yet from a feeling of avarice would not abandon any portion of what they were carrying.

The majority of the party not only adopted these views in theory but doggedly carried them into practice; and from this moment I abandoned all hope of getting the whole party into the settled districts in safety.

Poor fellows! most of them paid dearly for the mistaken notions they now adopted.

Mr.Smith, with his usual spirit, was for pushing on, although his strength was inadequate to the task.

I laid under the shade of a bush lost in gloomy reveries and temporary unpopularity; Kaiber by my side lulled me with native songs composed for the occasion, and in prospective I saw all the dread sufferings which were to befall the doomed men who sat around me, confident of their success under the new plan; but like all prophets I was without honour amongst my own acquaintance; and after considering the matter under every point of view I thought it better for the moment to succumb to the general feeling, yet to lose no opportunity on every subsequent occasion of endeavouring to rouse the party into a degree of energy suited to our desperate circumstances.
At the end of the three hours I again begged several of the party, who appeared to be in an exhausted state, to abandon a portion of their useless loads; but they were quite sure that by making short marches, not exhausting their strength, and now and then halting for a day or two to refresh, they could carry them into Perth, and therefore refused to part with them.