w it. The question may be asked, Why did I
settle down here? The answer is, that our white companion had become
simply an intolerable burden. He suffered from the most exhausting
attacks of dysentery, and was quite helpless. It was, of course, my
intention to have continued my march northward to my old home in the
Cambridge Gulf district, because by this time I had quite made up my mind
that, by living there quietly, I stood a better chance of escape to
civilisation by means of some vessel than I did by attempting to traverse
the entire continent. This latter idea was now rendered impossible, on
account of the poor, helpless creature I had with me. Indeed, so great
an anxiety was he to me and Yamba, that we decided we could go nowhere,
either north or south, until he had become more robust in health.
Needless to say, I never intrusted him with a weapon.

I had found a sheath-knife belonging to him, but I afterwards gave it
away to a friendly chief, who was immensely proud of it.

In making for the shores of the big lagoon we had to traverse some
extremely difficult country. In the first place, we encountered a series
of very broken ridges, which in parts proved so hard to travel over that
I almost gave up in despair. At times there was nothing for it but to
carry on my back the poor, feeble creature who, I felt, was now intrusted
to my charge and keeping. I remember that native chiefs frequently
suggested that I should leave him, but I never listened to this advice
for a moment. Perhaps I was not altogether disinterested, because
already my demented companion was looked upon as a kind of minor deity by
the natives. I may here remark that I only knew two idiots during the
whole of my sojourn. One of these had fallen from a tree through a
branch breaking, and he was actually maintained at the expense of the
tribe, revered by all, if not actually worshipped.

But the journey I was just describing was a fearful trial. Sometimes we
had to traverse a wilderness of rocks which stood straight up and
projected at sharp angles, presenting at a distance the appearance of a
series of stony terraces which were all but impassable. For a long time
our charge wore both shirt and trousers, but eventually we had to discard
the latter--or perhaps it would be more correct to say, that the garment
was literally torn to shreds by the spinifex. At one time I had it in my
mind to make him go naked like myself, but on considerat