Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/240

 look over the days and nights we have spent and wasted thoughtlessly, we might, perhaps, like to blot out the remembrance! but it is idle regretting. This wont bring back the days gone by; but we may, by "overhauling" a little our faults and failings, benefit somewhat, and render a better account at the close of 1862, by avoiding the follies of the past year.

Jan. 1st, 1862. All hail to the new year! May we have a more jolly and a happier one than the last, and may it also prove more profitable to us all than the last! This year opens bright and fair—the sky without a cloud, and millions of stars out. I sit at 1 ruminating on the past, and hoping for the future, for it is my sentry from 12 to 2.

The blacks had annoyed us much during the first part of the night, numerous fire-sticks being seen in various parts, through the bushes and scrub, which kept us on the alert, in case they had intended anything in a hostile way. I believe they had some notion that way, as our black came into camp, and slept by the fire all night. Nothing happened, and the others turned in at 12 o'clock, having fired once or twice into the bushes at the sight of the fire-sticks. Nothing, however, was seen between 12 and 2, not a stick. Another very significant thing occurred. The fair deceivers decamped from their domicile, where they had been