e if the two boys had passed, but there were no traces of
them to be found, and I now felt that we were secure from all further
interruption from them. Three days we had been in camp at the water,
making altogether a period of six since we last saw them. 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. This
would necessarily retard their progress, and lengthen out the period
which must elapse before they could obtain water in any direction. On the
night of the 29th April they must have had one gallon of water with them,
but when we saw them on the 30th, I have no doubt, that with their usual
improvidence, they had consumed the whole, and would thus have to undergo
the fatigue of carrying heavy weights, as well as walking for a
protracted period, without any thing to relieve their thirst. Their
difficulties and distress would gradually but certainly increase upon
them, and they would then, in all likelihood, throw away their guns or
their provisions, and be left in the desert unarmed, without food or
water, and without skill or energy to direct them successfully to search
for either. A dreadful and lingering death would in all probability
terminate the scene, aggravated in all its horrors by the consciousness
that they had brought it entirely upon themselves. Painfully as I had
felt the loss of my unfortunate overseer, and shocked as I was at the
ruthless deed having b