gather. Towards sunset a heavy storm passed over
our heads, with the rapidity almost of lightning; the wind suddenly
shifted from north-west to south-west, blowing a perfect hurricane, and
rendering it almost impossible for us to advance against it. A few
moments before we had confidently expected a heavy fall of rain; the dark
and lowering sky had gradually gathered and concentrated above and around
us, until the very heavens seemed overweighted and ready every instant to
burst. A briefer interval of time, accompanied by the sudden and violent
change of wind, had dashed our hopes to the ground, and the prospect of
rain was now over, although a few heavy clouds still hung around us.

Three miles from where we had halted during the heat of the day, we
passed some tolerable grass, though dry, scattered at intervals among the
scrub, which grew here in dense belts, but with occasional openings
between. The character of the ground was very rocky, of an oolitic
limestone, and having many hollows on its surface. Although we had only
travelled eighteen miles during the day, the overseer requested I would
stop here, as he said he thought the clouds would again gather, and that
rain might fall to-night; that here we had large sheets of rock, and many
hollows in which the rain-water could be collected; but that if we
proceeded onwards we might again advance into a sandy country, and be
unable to derive any advantage from the rain, even should it fall. I
intended to have travelled nearly the whole of this night to make up for
the time we had lost in the heat of the day, and I was the more inclined
to do this, now that the violence of the storm had in some measure
abated, and the appearance of rain had almost disappeared. The overseer
was so earnest, however, and so anxious for me to stop for the night,
that greatly against my own wishes, and in opposition to my better
judgment, I gave way to him and yielded. The native boys too had made the
same request, seconding the overseer's application, and stating, that the
violence of the wind made it difficult for them to walk against it.

The horses having been all hobbled and turned out to feed, the whole
party proceeded to make break-winds of boughs to form a shelter from the
wind, preparatory to laying down for the night. We had taken a meal in
the middle of the day, which ought to have been deferred until night, and
our circumstances did not admit of our having another now, so that the