Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/242

 and murdered us in detail; pleasant, kind creatures, certainly! I confess I should not like to be eaten by very ugly savages. The idea is not agreeable; bad enough if you were sure two or three pretty young females of the wild tribes had the picking of your bones; and even then, living a little longer is preferable; and "so said all of us." So they were frustrated this time. Had they come in for a good fight, I should have more to write about. They have a wholesome dislike and dread of fire-arms; moreover, essentially cowards. If they can catch you "on the hop," well and good; but for anything like a fair stand-up fight, they don't believe in it.

Washing clothes to-day—a job which everybody detests, though it must be done. Cutting down and burning scrub behind our camp, as it affords too good an ambush for our sable friends; and it is not worth while giving them a chance of surprising us, which they might have done easily from behind. About 5 Mr. McKinlay and party returned from the eastward, having ascertained that there are lakes there, for which you will search his journal; or, rather, the following extract: —

"'Dec. 30th. Sky very much overcast and very sultry; wind from north-east. Started at 8·10 with two camels and five horses, and a week's provisions. At four and a half miles got to Appam-barra, near old camp, at the"