DESTITUTE SITUATION. 209 



out for a place to sleep, and after some time, selected 

 nearly as good a bed as the one I had the first night. 

 My exertions in pulling the long coarse grass nearly ren- 

 dered my hands useless, by severely cutting all the joints 

 of the fingers. 



I rose before the sun on the morning of the 19th, and 

 pursued an easterly course all the day. I at first felt 

 very hungry, but after walking a few miles, and taking 

 a drink of water, I got a little refreshed. The general 

 appearance of the country was still flat, with burned grass, 

 and sandy soil, which blistered my feet. The scorching 

 influence of the sun obliged me to stop for some hours in 

 the day; during which I made several ineffectual attempts 

 to construct a covering for my head. At times I thought 

 my brain was on fire from the dreadful effects of the heat. 

 I got no fruit those two days, and towards evening felt 

 very weak for the want of nourishment, having been 

 forty-eight hours without food ; and to make my situation 

 more annoying, I slept that evening on the banks of a 

 pretty lake, the inhabitants of which* would have done 

 honor to a royal table. With what an evil eye, and a 

 murderous heart, did I regard the stately goose, and the 

 plump waddling duck, as they sported on the water, un- 

 conscious of my presence ! Even with a pocket-pistol I 

 could have done execution among them. The state of 

 my fingers prevented me from obtaining the covering of 

 grass which I had the two preceding nights ; and on this 

 evening I had no shelter whatever to protect me from 

 the heavy dew. 



On the following day, the 20th, my course was nearly 



northeast, and lay through a country more diversified by 

 14 



