CARRON'S PARTY AT THE PASCOE RIVER 247 



we KILLED and lived on him for two days. There was very little flesh on his bones, 

 but our dried meat was so bad that we very much enjoyed the remains of our old 

 companion, and drank the water in which we boiled him. 



" 2^th December. The NATIVES took a tin case from Wall whilst he was talking to 

 them, he not being able to resist them. My legs had swelled very much, and I was 

 able to walk but a very short distance. 



" 26th December. The NATIVES brought in a few pieces of fish and turtle, but both 

 were almost rotten. They also gave us a blue-tongued lizard, which I opened, and 

 took out eleven young ones, which we roasted and ate. There was nothing but 

 scales on the old one, except in its tail. 



" We always divided whatever we got from the natives, be it what it might ; but 

 they brought us very little that was eatable. I could easily perceive that their pretended 

 good feeling towards us was assumed for the sake of fulfilling their own designs upon 

 us. Although they tried to make us believe they were doing all in their power to 

 benefit us, THEIR OBJECT was to obtain an opportunity of coming upon us by surprise 

 and DESTROYING us. They had at many times seen the fatal effect of our firearms, 

 and I believe that it was only the dread of these that prevented them from falling upon 

 us at once and murdering us. ... It would be almost impossible for any class of 

 men to excel these fellows in the scheming and versatile CUNNING with which they 

 strove to DISGUISE THEIR MEDITATED TREACHERY. In fine weather I always had our 

 firearms standing out for them to see, and once or twice every night I fired off a pistol 

 to let them know we were on the look out by night as well as by day. 



" 2%th December. NIBLET AND WALL both DIED this morning. Niblet was quite 

 dead when I got up, and Wall, though alive, was unable to speak. They were neither 

 of them up the day previous. I had been talking with them both, endeavouring to 

 encourage them to hope on to the last ; but sickness, privation and fatigue had over- 

 come them, and they abandoned themselves to a calm and listless despair. We had 

 got two pigeons the day before, which in the evening were boiled and divided between 

 us, as well as the water they were boiled in. Niblet had eaten his pigeon and drank 

 the water, but Wall had only drunk the water and eaten part of his half pigeon. 



" About eleven o'clock as many as FIFTY NATIVES, armed with spears, and some of 

 them painted with a yellowish earth, made their appearance in the vicinity of our 

 camp. There were natives of several STRANGE TRIBES amongst them. They were 

 well aware that neither Niblet nor Wall was able to resist them, if they did not know 

 they were dead. They also knew that we were very weak, although I always endeavoured 

 as much as possible to keep that fact from them. This morning, when I made signs 

 to them to lay down their spears, they paid no attention, with the exception of two, 

 who had been in the habit of coming very frequently to the camp. These two came 

 running up quite close to us, without their spears, and endeavoured to persuade one 

 of us to go across a small dry creek for a fish which another of the rascals was holding 

 up to tempt us. They tried various methods to draw our attention from the rest, 

 who were trailing their spears along the ground with their feet, closing gradually round 

 us, and running from tree to tree, to hide their spears behind them. Others lay on 

 their backs on the long grass, and were working their way towards us, unnoticed as 

 they supposed. GODDARD AND MYSELF stood with our guns in readiness and our 

 pistols by our sides for about two hours, when I fell from excessive weakness. When 

 I got up we thought it best to send them away at once, or stand our chance of being 

 speared in the attempt, both of us being unable to stand any longer. We presented 

 our guns at the two by our side, making signs to them to send the others away, or we 

 would shoot them immediately. This they did, and they ran off in all directions, 

 without a spear being thrown or a shot fired. 



" As the evening came on, there came with it the painful task of removing the 

 bodies of our unfortunate companions who had died in the morning. We had not 

 strength to make the smallest hole in the ground as a grave ; but after great exertion 

 we succeeded in removing the bodies to a small patch of phyllanthus scrub, about 

 four feet high, and eighty yards from the tent. We then laid them side by side and 



