ng aware that when we
came into a country where game was to be found I could, by means of my
gun, provide enough amply to repay this lad, I took it, after several
refusals and having it as often warmly pressed upon me.

I was much affected by the kindness of Hackney, who was a young American;
and I regret to add that I felt more hurt than I ought to have done at
the remark of Woods.

CHAPTER 4. FROM GAIRDNER'S RANGE TO PERTH.

THE HILL RIVER.

Sunday April 14.

We travelled about fourteen miles due south over a range of high
ironstone hills which were occasionally clothed with grass-trees. The
scrub was however still thick, prickly, and very difficult to penetrate;
the heat was intense and the whole party were getting very weak. About
noon, and when we had just gained a commanding summit, I looked back at
Mount Perron, now several miles in our rear; from this point we began to
descend into an extensive valley, and at the end of fourteen miles
reached a small river which I named the Hill.

DISCOVERY AND PILLAGE OF A NATIVE PROVISION STORE.

We halted at the first pool we came to and the men, who had a little
flour left, boiled two tablespoonfuls of this in about a pint and a half
of water, thus making what they called soup. In the meantime Kaiber came
in and told me that he had found some holes in which the natives had,
according to their custom, buried a store of By-yu nuts,* and he at the
same time requested permission to steal them.

(*Footnote. The nut of the Zamia tree.)

I reflected for some time on his proposal; I was reluctant to mark the
first approach of civilized man to this country of a savage race by an
unprovoked act of pillage and robbery; yet we were now in the desert, on
the point of perishing for want of food, the pangs of hunger gnawing us
even in our very sleep, and with the means of temporary relief at hand. I
asked myself if I should be acting justly or humanely by the others,
whose lives were at stake if I allowed them to pass by the store, which
seemed providentially offered to us, without pointing it out.

In my perplexity I turned to Kaiber: his answer was, "If we take all,
this people will be angered greatly; they will say, 'What thief has
stolen here: track his footsteps, spear him through the heart; wherefore
has he stolen our hidden food?' But if we take what is buried in one hole
they will say, 'Hungry people have been here; they were very empty, and
now their bellies are full