244 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



December, and what little horseflesh remained was almost unfit to 

 eat. A midday shade temperature of 110 F. prevailed. The 

 RAINS set in on the 2jth and continued for three days, and the heat 

 and humidity, together with the absence of salt, made it difficult to 

 preserve the meat, some of which was eaten in a putrid condition. 

 The men were now face to face with STARVATION, twenty-one days 

 after they had settled in camp. The flour had been consumed at 

 the rate of less than a quarter of a pound per man per day, so that 

 evidently an economical regimen had been submitted to. 



DOUGLAS DIED on the i6th and TAYLOR on the 2Oth November, 

 and they were buried side by side. CARPENTER died on the 26th 

 and was buried in the bed of the creek, the survivors being too weak 

 to carry the body to the resting-place of his companions. In all 

 three cases, however, Carron read the burial service. Carron says 

 that Carpenter " did not suffer very acutely on the approach of 

 death, but the animal energies were destroyed, and they withered 

 away one after another, without pain or struggle." 



The stores of the party included a fair amount of ammunition, 

 but it had to be used with economy in view of the requirements of 

 defence. There were plenty of fish-hooks, but the eager anglers 

 never got so much as a bite. A small bag of shell-fish was brought 

 up from the beach by Carron and Goddard on the 4th December, 

 and another on the 7th by Carron and Mitchell, but after the latter 

 date none of the party had sufficient strength for such work. A few 

 small pigeons, a heron and a small wallaby fell to the guns, up to the 

 29th December, but these were far below the food requirements of 

 the men. The kangaroo dog was killed on the 2ist December and 

 furnished two days' food for the survivors, then four in number. 

 The sheep-dog was only saved from the same fate by the arrival of 

 the rescue party. 



There was at first a disposition to TRUST TO THE NATIVES FOR FOOD. 

 The men were afraid to leave the camp and for the most part were 

 unable to go far from it. Some natives came to the camp, on the 

 1 6th November, bringing " a few small pieces of fish, old and hardly 

 eatable." Two days later they returned, this time with women, 

 and " brought some fish, but it was such as they would not eat 

 themselves ; also a kind of paste, made of different kinds of leaves 

 and roots, mixed with the inside of the roasted mangrove seeds, all 

 pounded up together, then heated over a fire in a large shell. 

 Although we did not much like the taste of the paste, and it was very 

 full of sand, we ate some of it as a vegetable." 



There can be no doubt that the visits of the natives under 

 a pretence of offering food, which was always in such quantities 

 and of such a quality as to suggest a spirit of mockery, were 

 prompted by a desire to spy on the camp and ascertain the defensive 

 capacity of its inhabitants. 



On 19^ November FIFTY OR SIXTY ARMED MEN came up and made 



