should use it in such excess when the opportunity
of indulgence occurs to them, yet such have I frequently observed to be
the case, and especially on those occasions where they have least food.
It would seem that, accustomed generally to have the stomach distended
after meals, they endeavour to produce this effect with water, when
deprived of the opportunity of doing so with more solid substances. At
night the natives all encamped with us in the plain.

January 2.--Having watered the horses early, we left the encampment,
accompanied by some of the natives, to push once more to the north-west.
On the dray we had eighty-five gallons of water; but as we had left all
our flour, and some other articles, I hoped we should get on well. The
heavy nature of the road, however, again told severely upon the horses:
twice we had to unload the dray, and at last, after travelling only
fourteen miles, the horses could go no further; I was obliged, therefore,
to come to a halt, and decide what was best to be done. There appeared to
be a disastrous fatality attending all our movements in this wretched
region, which was quite inexplicable. Every time that we had attempted to
force a passage through it, we had been baffled and driven back. Twice I
had been obliged to abandon our horses before; and on the last of these
occasions had incurred a loss of the three best of them; now, after
giving them a long period of rest, and respite from labour, and after
taking every precaution which prudence or experience could suggest, I had
the mortification of finding that we were in the same predicament we had
been in before, and with as little prospect of accomplishing our object.
Having but little time for deliberation, I at once ordered the overseer
and man to take the horses back to the water, and give them two days rest
there, and then to rejoin us again on the third, whilst I and the native
boy would remain with the dray, until their return. The natives also
remained with us for the first night; but finding we still continued in
camp, they left on the following morning, which I was sorry for, as I
hoped one would have been induced to go with us to the Great Bight.

On the fifth of January, the overseer and man returned with the horses;
but so little had they benefited by their two days rest, that upon being
yoked up, and put to the dray, they would not move it. We were obliged,
therefore, to unload once more, and lighten the load by burying a cask