e many hours I had spent wading in the
swamps at Port Essington. There were the usual symptoms--quick flushings
and fever heats, followed by violent fits of shivering, which no amount
of natural warmth could mitigate. My faithful Yamba was terribly
distressed at my condition, and waited upon me with most tender devotion;
but in spite of all that could be done for me, I grew gradually weaker,
until in the course of a few days I became wildly delirious. The blacks,
too, were very good to me, and doctored me, in their quaint native way,
with certain leaves and powders. All to no purpose, however; and for
several days I was even unable to recognise my Yamba. Then the fever
subsided somewhat, and I was left as weak and helpless as a little child.

It was some time before I quite recovered from the fever; and I was
frequently seized with distressing fits of shivering. I also experienced
an overwhelming desire for a drink of milk; why, I am unable to say.
Therefore, when some of the blacks told me that wild buffalo were to be
found in the neighbourhood--beasts which had formerly belonged to
settlers, but were now run wild--I resolved, when sufficiently strong, to
try and capture one of the cows for the sake of its milk. Captain Davis
ridiculed the idea, and assured me that it was only possible to slay one
with a rifle; but I determined to see what I could do.

Yamba, of course, accompanied me on my expedition, and her bushmanship
was altogether quite indispensable. We came upon buffalo tracks near a
large water-hole, and here we each climbed a gum-tree and awaited the
arrival of our prey. We waited a long time, but were at length rewarded
by seeing a big cow buffalo and her calf wandering leisurely in our
direction. My only weapons were a lasso made out of green kangaroo hide,
fixed to the end of a long pole; and my bow and arrows. I slid down the
tree a little way, and when the calf was near enough, I gently slipped
the noose over its neck, and promptly made it a prisoner under the very
nose of its astonished mother, who bellowed mournfully. My success so
elated Yamba that she, too, slid down from her hiding-place, and was
making her way over to me and the calf, when suddenly an enormous bull,
which we had not previously seen, rushed at her at full speed. Yamba
instantly realised her danger, and swarmed up a tree again like
lightning, just as the great brute was upon her. I called out to her to
attract the atten