A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



which we could not have done in the forest. It 

 is only fair to say that in most cases the trouble 

 was due to physical incapacity and want of 

 stamina. The youth who carried my husband's 

 dressing-case shed many tears, and in the end gave 

 out completely and had to be relieved. One poor 

 lad, a very plucky boy, who carried a load of salt 

 and had always hitherto been one of the first 

 in the caravan, showed me as I passed a nasty 

 punctured wound on one of his shins, which the 

 heat, fatigue, and want of water had aggravated to 

 such an extent that he was quite incapable of 

 carrying his load. That evening, for the first time, 

 he came to me to have the wound dressed, but 

 subsequently turned up most evenings during the 

 remainder of the trip. When I first saw it, the 

 wound was quite three inches deep ; but by the 

 time we reached Broken Hill it was nearly healed. 

 I ascertained that he had injured himself digging in 

 his village before he joined our caravan. 



Matters got so bad that A had to call for 



volunteers among the machilla boys, gun-bearers, 

 and servants, and the promise of a reward brought 

 forward several. With the exception of two spare 

 men per team, the machilla boys took loads, and we 

 walked a good deal to save the remainder. John 

 came out well, encouraging the men, and from time 

 to time easing them of their loads; he kept a 

 watchful eye on those who slipped from the track 

 with the intention of sleeping the day out comfort- 

 ably under a tree, so that only one man escaped 

 him, and he was caught and brought on by the 



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