HEAD OF JARDINE TO FALSE ORFORD NESS 591 



hostilities which might result in the loss of more of our horses, 

 and we could spare no more. We had been free of the despicable 

 savage warfare ever since we left the Nisbet Valley, and I was in 

 the last degree averse to renewing the strife with a new tribe. 



The night was fine and starry. Considering the terms on 

 which we were with our neighbours, I set a WATCH of two 

 and a half hours per man, the man on duty to keep the horses 

 together and look after the safety of the camp. Macdonald 

 and I had finished our watches, and I had turned in for about 

 twenty minutes, leaving Love on guard. I was dozing off to 

 sleep, when a SPEAR came from the edge of the scrub on the other 

 side of the water-hole, pierced the fly, and crashed THROUGH MY 

 NECK above the right shoulder-blade, injuring the deltoid muscle. I 

 rose on my elbow and reached for my revolver, when a SECOND SPEAR 

 transfixed the stretcher from which I had just lifted my head. I 

 gave the alarm, and carried my sheath-knife to Macdonald, and 

 caused him to cut the flesh (about a quarter of an inch in thickness) 

 above the spear. It would, no doubt, have been better to have 

 cut the spear and drawn it out, but it was so firmly fixed by the 

 tension of the surrounding muscles that all my strength was insuffi- 

 cient to move it. The spear, besides, was of very thick hardwood, 

 and to have cut it would have taken several minutes. Naturally 

 I expected that the flight of spears would be followed up by an 

 immediate attack on the camp ; and while I had a spear 8 feet 

 in length dangling across my shoulder I could not have counted for 

 much in the defence. 



CHARLIE, it appears, had HEARD THE BLACKS stealing down into 

 the water-hole from the scrub. He had tried, as he said, to wake 

 Macdonald, who was sleeping in the same tent. He probably 

 tried, if at all, very gently. As, however, Macdonald did not wake, 

 Charlie's heart failed him, and he crept out of the tent and MADE 

 STRAIGHT FOR SOMERSET. LOVE (who had been rounding up the 

 horses), hearing the alarm at the camp and seeing a naked black 

 fellow bounding along the beach, dropped on one knee and FIRED 

 TWO SHOTS at Charlie, which pulled him up, frightened, but unhurt. 



All hands kept watch for the remainder of the night, and a 

 fusilade was kept up into the scrub. About an hour after the attack, 

 Macdonald saw two of the blacks at the edge of the scrub, and some 

 shots were fired in the direction, but I think they did no good. 

 Nero, our dog, got on the tracks of the assailants, and we heard 

 him captured by them, but he returned in about an hour. 



^ The SPEAR which struck me was 8 feet in length and an inch in 

 thickness at the shoulder. The last 2 feet of it were formed of a 

 light grasstree stem hollowed out at the end for the insertion of the 

 claw of the WIMMERA. It was BARBED WITH 7 inches of quarter- 

 inch IRON ROD, beautifully pointed at both ends. It had pene- 

 trated the side of my neck for 13 inches over the point, and rested 



