rder you home." "I cannot
go," he replied; "I do not care for any pecuniary reward for my services,
and will give it up: I want no pay, but desert you I will not." The
reader will better imagine than I can describe, such a scene passing in
the heart of a wilderness, and under such circumstances I may not state
all that passed; suffice it to say, that we at length separated, with an
assurance on Mr. Browne's part, that he would consider what I had
proposed, and speak to me again in the morning. The morning came, and
after breakfast, he said he had endeavoured to force himself into a
compliance with my wishes, but to no purpose;--that he could not leave
me, and had made up his mind to take the consequences. It was in vain
that I remonstrated, and I therefore ceased to importune him on a point
which, however much I might regret his decision, I could not but feel
that he was influenced by the most disinterested anxiety for my safety.
But it became necessary to make some other arrangements; I had already
been four days idle, and it was not my intention to let the week so pass
over my head. Mr. Browne was too ill to accompany me again into the
field. I sent, therefore, for Mr. Stuart, and told him to put up ten
weeks provisions for four men,--to warn Morgan and Mack that I should
require them to attend me when I again left the camp,--and to hold
himself and them in readiness to commence the journey the day but one
following; as I felt the horses required the rest I should myself
otherwise have rejected.

I then sent for Mr. Browne, and told him that I proposed leaving the
stockade in two days, by which time I hoped the horses would in some
measure have recovered from their fatigues,--that as he could not attend
me, I should take Mr. Stuart with two fresh men,--that in making my
arrangements I found that I should be obliged to take all the horses but
two, the one he rode and a weaker animal; to this, however, he would by
no means consent--entreating me to take his horse also, as he felt
assured I should want all the strength I could get.

No rain had as yet fallen, but every day the heat was increasing: the
thermometer rising, even thus early in the season, to 98 degrees and 100
degrees in the shade, and the wind keeping steadily to the E.S.E. The
country was so dry, and the largest pools of water had so diminished in
quantity, that I doubted whether or not I should be able to get on, since
as it was I should have to travel t