t, trying to dig him out, we found our strength
insufficient to do so. The evening of the second day we shot him as
he lay, and having cut off as much meat as we could, we lived on it
while we stayed to dry the remainder. Throwing all the least
necessary things away, we made one load for the remaining camel
(Rajah), and each of us carried a swag of about twenty-five pounds.
We were then tracing down the branches of the creek running south,
and found that they ran out into earthy plains. We had understood
that the creek along Gregory's track was continuous; and finding
that all these creeks ran out into plains, Mr. Burke returned, our
camel being completely knocked up. We then intended to give the
camel a spell for a few days, and to make a new attempt to push on
forty or fifty miles to the south, in the hope of striking the
creek. During the time that the camel was being rested, Mr. Burke
and Mr. Wills went in search of the natives, to endeavour to find
out how the nardoo grew. Having found their camp, they obtained as
much nardoo cake and fish as they could eat, but could not explain
that they wished to be shown how to find the seed themselves: they
returned on the third day bringing some fish and nardoo cake with
them. On the following day the camel Rajah seemed very ill, and I
told Mr. Burke I thought he could not linger out more than four
days, and as on the same evening the poor brute was on the point of
dying, Mr. Burke ordered him to be shot; I did so, and we cut him
up with two broken knives and a lancet: we cured the meat and
planted it, and Mr. Burke then made another attempt to find the
nardoo, taking me with him: we went down the creek expecting to
find the natives at the camp where they had been last seen, but
found that they had left; and not knowing whether they had gone up
or down the creek, we slept in their gunyahs that night, and on the
following morning returned to Mr. Wills. The next day, Mr. Burke
and I started up the creek, but could see nothing of them, and were
three days away, when we returned and remained three days in our
camp with Mr. Wills. We then made a plant of all the articles we
could not carry with us, leaving five pounds of rice and a quantity
of meat, and then followed up the creek to where there were some
good native huts. We remained at that place a few days; and finding
that our provisions were beginning to run short, Mr. Burke said,
that we ought to do something, and that if we