DISASTROUS NIGHT STORM 165 



they can invent. In this nonsense they are aided and 

 abetted by the blackfellows themselves, who are proud of 

 their uncouth titles. 



In the night between the 27th and 28th April there 

 was a terrific thunderstorm, with streams of rain. I have 

 thought since that quite possibly this timely downpour 

 saved our lives ; for even if we had started back at once 

 for the settlements — and such action had already been dis- 

 cussed among us — it is doubtful if we could have 

 survived the want of water so long. The horses would 

 have broken down ; and our fate would then have been 

 that of so many unfortunate bushmen who have perished 

 from time to time ever since the first colonists " dumped 

 down " on our arid shores. This desert is one of the few 

 places in Australia where even an old bushman would find 

 his usual expedients to obtain water fail him. 



But, for the hour, our plight was a trying one. The 

 fires, of course, were extinguished, and we, lying in the 

 open, without shelter of any kind, were drenched to the 

 skin, through blankets and clothing, in the first ten minutes 

 of rain. The thunder was so terrific, the lightning so 

 appallingly brilliant, that the horses became mad with terror, 

 and two of them contrived to break, or slip their hobbles 

 and scampered away into the darkness. It was a night of 

 wretchedness. The wind blew with piercing coldness from 

 a south-west point ; and the storm, I thought, came up 

 from the sea coast. An hour before sunrise the rain ceased 

 to fall ; the wind did not moderate until nearly noon. A 

 good deal of our stores was spoilt or damaged by the wet ; 

 but so awful is the thirst-craving, that we thought nothing 

 for the present of losses : our hearts were too full of joy at 

 sight, as the day broke, of the large pools of good water 

 which were lying on the surface of the earth. The country 

 was not flooded : far from it. But shallow pools, seldom 

 more than three or four inches deep and an acre 

 or more in extent, lay on the land as far as the eye 

 could reach. Horses and men were satisfied with the 

 precious fluid, which we perceived was soaking into the 

 ground with a rapidity that threatened a speedy end to 



