sion, for I had never
before come so suddenly upon so large a party. The scene was one of the
most animated description, and was rendered still more striking from the
circumstance of the native huts, at which there were a number of women
and children, occupying the whole crest of a long piece of rising ground
at the opposite side of the flat.

I checked my horse for a short time on the top of the sand hill, and
gazed on the assemblage of agitated figures below me, covering so small a
space that I could have enclosed the whole under a casting net, and then
quietly rode down into the flat, followed by Mr. Stuart and my men, to
one of whom I gave my horse when I dismounted, and then walked to the
natives, by whom Mr. Stuart and myself were immediately surrounded.

Had these people been of an unfriendly temper, we could not by any
possibility have escaped them, for our horses could not have broken into
a canter to save our lives or their own. We were therefore wholly in
their power, although happily for us perhaps, they were not aware of it;
but, so far from exhibiting any unkind feeling, they treated us with
genuine hospitality, and we might certainly have commanded whatever they
had. Several of them brought us large troughs of water, and when we had
taken a little, held them up for our horses to drink; an instance of
nerve that is very remarkable, for I am quite sure that no white man,
(having never seen or heard of a horse before, and with the natural
apprehension the first sight of such an animal would create,) would
deliberately have walked up to what must have appeared to them most
formidable brutes, and placing the troughs they carried against their
breast, have allowed the horses to drink, with their noses almost
touching them. They likewise offered us some roasted ducks, and some
cake. When we walked over to their camp, they pointed to a large new hut,
and told us we could sleep there, but I had noticed a little hillock on
which there were four box-trees, about fifty yards from the native
encampment, on which, foreseeing that we could go no farther, I had
already determined to remain, and on my intimating this to the natives
they appeared highly delighted; we accordingly went to the trees, and
unsaddling our animals turned them out to feed. When the natives saw us
quietly seated they came over, and brought a quantity of sticks for us to
make a fire, wood being extremely scarce.

The men of this tribe were, withou