urvy which had so long hung upon me. The day after I arrived
in camp I was unable to walk: in a day or two more, my muscles became
rigid, my limbs contracted, and I was unable to stir; gradually also my
skin blackened, the least movement put me to torture, and I was reduced
to a state of perfect prostration. Thus stricken down, when my example
and energies were so much required for the welfare and safety of others,
I found the value of Mr. Browne's services and counsel. He had already
volunteered to go to Flood's Creek to ascertain if water was still to be
procured in it, but I had not felt justified in availing myself of his
offer. My mind, however, dwelling on the critical posture of our affairs,
and knowing and feeling as I did the value of time, and that the burning
sun would lick up any shallow pool that might be left exposed, and that
three or four days might determine our captivity or our release, I sent
for Mr. Browne, to consult with him as to the best course to be adopted
in the trying situation in which we were placed, and a plan at length
occurred by which I hoped he might venture on the journey to Flood's
Creek without risk. This plan was to shoot one of the bullocks, and to
fill his hide with water. We determined on sending this in a dray, a day
in advance, to enable the bullock driver to get as far as possible on the
road, we then arranged that Mr. Browne should take the light cart, with
36 gallons of water, and one horse only; that on reaching the dray, he
should give his horse as much water as he would drink from the skin,
leaving that in the cart untouched until he should arrive at the
termination of his second day's journey, when I proposed he should give
his horse half the water, and leaving the rest until the period of his
return, ride the remainder of the distance he had to go. I saw little
risk in this plan, and we accordingly acted upon it immediately: the hide
was prepared, and answered well, since it easily contained 150 gallons of
water. Jones proceeded on the morning of the 27th, and on the 28th Mr.
Browne left me on this anxious and to us important journey, accompanied
by Flood. We calculated on his return on the eighth day, and the reader
will judge how anxiously those days passed. On the day Mr. Browne left
me, Jones returned, after having deposited the skin at the distance of 32
miles.

On the eighth day from his departure, every eye but my own was turned to
the point at which they had see