Page:Life and Adventures of William Buckley.djvu/47

24 day and, as the nights were very cold, my sufferings were great, so much occasionally as to overpower my remaining strength and resolution. After several days I reached a stream which the natives call Dooangawn, where I made myself a sort of shelter in the scrub, and in the morning saw a mound of earth, with part of a native's spear stuck upright on the top of it, to indicate its being a grave. I took the spear out and used it as a walking-stick to help me on my journey.

The next day I reached the Kaarof at high water. In attempting to swim across I had nearly lost my life, the stream being too rapid for my enfeebled state, so that I was carried some way down by the force of the current. I however succeeded in reaching the opposite bank, and then crawled on my hands and feet into the bush, where I laid myself down nearly exhausted, and perishing with cold and hunger, not expecting to see the light of another, morning. In this state I lamented deeply the imprudence which had placed me in such a pitiable position, and prayed long and earnestly to God, for his merciful assistance and protection. All night the wild dogs howled horribly, as if expressing their impatience for my remains: even before death, I fancied they would attack me.

At daybreak I went again onward, looking for any kind of food by which to appease my hunger, and at length came to a place the natives call Maamart, where there is a lake, or large lagoon, surrounded by thickly growing scrub and timber. Whilst searching for the gum already mentioned, I was seen by two