EXPLORE THE WAY--PULLINGO
DISPOSES OF HIS GARMENTS--CROSS A RIVER--REACH THE FOOT OF THE RANGE--
PULLINGO MEETS HIS SON QUAQUAGMAGU--HIS DETERMINATION TO LEAVE US--THE
CAVERN OF THE MOON--A NATIVE LEGEND--OBSERVE THE NATIVES WORSHIPPING
BEFORE THE CAVERN--DESERTED BY PULLINGO--WE PROCEED WITHOUT HIM--ENTER A
RUGGED REGION--SKELETON OF THE BUSHRANGER--CAMP UNDER A ROCK--OUR WATER
EXHAUSTED.

We travelled on for several days, happily escaping any molestation from
the natives. A few came near us, to whom Pullingo explained that we
were merely passing through the country, and that we wished to be on
friendly terms with the black men,--but at the same time that we
possessed the power, with our wonderful thunder-makers, of destroying
all our enemies. Now and then an individual bolder than his companions
would come up to us while we were on the march, or when we were
encamped, for the purpose of examining the said thunder-makers, as they
called our firearms, more closely; but when they did so they gazed at
them with the utmost astonishment and awe in their countenances, and
quickly took their departure, evidently thinking it not safe to remain
in the neighbourhood of such formidable beings. All this time even
Pullingo himself had never ventured to touch a firearm, so that he had
no idea how the explosion was produced. The greater number of the
blacks we saw, however, scampered off as soon as they caught sight of
us.

The country over which we passed was very similar to that I have before
described. One evening, as we were passing over a higher hill than
usual, we caught sight in the far distance of a blue range of mountains,
which it was very clear we must cross to get to the southward. How high
it really was we could not decide, but it appeared of considerable
elevation, and, we feared, would prove rugged and barren.

When we were encamped that evening, after my mother and Edith had
retired to their hut, my father expressed his fears to Mudge and me that
they might suffer much inconvenience and hardship, if not danger, in
passing over it. "I wish that I had shown more resolution in preventing
my poor mates from going away in the long-boat," he observed; "had I
induced them to wait till the stormy season was over, they might have
accomplished the voyage in safety, and we should by this time probably
have been succoured by a vessel from Sydney, and saved the fatigue of
this long journey."

"You acted for the best,