in no way mitigated my
acute grief at being obliged to decline what would probably be my only
chance of returning to civilisation. For this I had pined day and night
for four or five years, and now that escape was within my grasp I was
obliged to throw it away. For let me emphatically state, that even if
civilisation had been but a mile away, I would not have gone a yard
towards it without that devoted creature who had been my salvation, not
on one occasion only, but practically every moment of my existence.

With passionate eagerness I tried to persuade Yamba to change her mind,
but she remained firm in her decision; and so, almost choking with bitter
regret, and in a state of utter collapse, I had to decline the offer of
the Malays. We stayed with them, however, a few weeks longer, and at
length they accompanied me to a camp of black fellows near some lagoons,
a little way farther south of their own camp. Before they left, they
presented me with a quantity of _beche-de-mer_, or sea-slugs, which make
most excellent soup. At the place indicated by the Malays, which was in
Raffles Bay, the chief spoke quite excellent English. One of his wives
could even say the Lord's Prayer in English, though, of course, she did
not know what she was talking about. "Captain Jack Davis," as he called
himself, had been for some little time on one of her Majesty's ships, and
he told me that not many marches away there was an old European
settlement; he even offered to guide me there, if I cared to go. He
first led me to an old white settlement in Raffles Bay, called, I think,
Fort Wellington, where I found some large fruit-trees, including ripe
yellow mangoes. There were, besides, raspberries, strawberries, and Cape
gooseberries. Needless to remark, all this made me very happy and
contented, for I felt I must now be getting near the home of some white
men. I thought that, after all, perhaps Yamba's refusal to go with the
Malays was for the best, and with high hopes I set out with Captain Davis
for another settlement he spoke of. This turned out to be Port
Essington, which we reached in two or three days. Another cruel blow was
dealt me here.

You can perhaps form some idea of my poignant dismay and disappointment
on finding that this dreary-looking place of swamps and marshes was quite
deserted, although there were still a number of ruined brick houses,
gardens, and orchards there. The blacks told me that at one time it had