Page:Life and Adventures of William Buckley.djvu/36

Rh earthy scrub for my resting-place. I did so this night with increased anxiety, having seen several deserted native huts in my day's march, by which I concluded they were somewhere in the neighbourhood; on this account I had avoided going into the bush as much as possible, although compelled occasionally to leave the beach, in order to ford the rivers I had met with on my journey.

The following day I came to a stream the natives call Kuarka Dorla, without having seen any living creature excepting birds, and a few wild dogs; the latter fled at my approach, but their dismal howlings, and especially during the night, added to the solitary wretchedness of my situation. Although so very short a time had elapsed since I commenced my gloomy pilgrimage, I began to find, the weather, as I thought, warmer—as if I had travelled into another climate. This increased my thirst, and the consequent distress, which I could in no way alleviate, the streams I crossed being, even at low water, all brackish from the flow of the tide water. Added to this, my only food being shell fish, I suffered much, so exceedingly indeed, that almost regardless of life, I lay myself down for the night in a state of total exhaustion. With the morning's light, however, I pursued my journey, but this day I was more unfortunate than the one preceding, for I could not find a single fish, or particle of any other kind of food or water, and in great pain and misery that day ended. The following was one which I anticipated would be my last, for I could scarcely move my limbs along, and the stages I made, were in consequence,