Consulting with the overseer, I resolved to leave our baggage
where we were, whilst the horses were sent back to the water (forty
miles) to rest and recruit for three or four days; by this means I
expected they would gather strength, and as they would have but little
weight to carry until they reached our present position, when they
returned we should be better able to force a passage through the waste
before us, at the same time that we should be able to procure a fresh and
larger stock of water for ourselves. At midnight I sent the whole party
back to the last water, but remained myself to take care of the baggage
and sheep. I retained an allowance of a pint of water per day for six
days, this being the contemplated period of the overseer's absence. My
situation was not at all enviable, but circumstances rendered it
unavoidable.

From the departure of my party, until their return, I spent a miserable
time, being unable to leave the camp at all. Shortly after the party
left, the sheep broke out of the yard, and missing the horses with which
they had been accustomed to travel and to feed, set off as rapidly as
they could after them; I succeeded in getting them back, but they were
exceedingly troublesome and restless, attempting to start off, or to get
down to the sea whenever my eye was off them for an instant, and never
feeding quietly for ten minutes together; finding at last that they would
be quite unmanageable, I made a very strong and high yard, and putting
them in, kept them generally shut up, letting them out only to feed for
two or three hours at once. This gave me a little time to examine my
maps, and to reflect upon my position and prospects, which involved the
welfare of others, as well as my own. We had still 600 miles of country
to traverse, measured in straight lines across the chart; but taking into
account the inequalities of the ground, and the circuit we were
frequently obliged to make, we could not hope to accomplish this in less
than 800 miles of distance. With every thing in our favour we could not
expect to accomplish this in less than eight weeks; but with all the
impediment and embarrassments we were likely to meet with, it would
probably take us twelve. Our sheep were reduced to three in number, and
our sole stock of flour now amounted to 142 pounds, to be shared out
amongst five persons, added to which the aspect of the country before us
was disheartening in the extreme; the places at which the