92 A DESERTER. 



immediately despatched in quest of him, and at 

 length, after an arduous search, he was found be- 

 hind a large sandstone rock on the side of a hill ; 

 having revisited the spot where the provisions had 

 been concealed for the use of my party, in the hope 

 of obtaining possession of his god the rum-keg. He 

 had evidently prepared for desertion : clothing, bis- 

 cuit, and fishing-tackle being among the stores with 

 which he had made off. This despicable wretch — 

 for such must every one consider the man who would 

 steal his shipmates' provisions, when each had only his 

 bare allowance— had nothing to say, either in extenu- 

 ation or explanation of his conduct. Most fortunate 

 for him was it that our humane exertions to discover 

 his retreat were successful; he could not long have 

 subsisted by himself, and even had he been so 

 happy as to fall in with, and receive hospitable 

 welcome from the natives, he must of necessity have 

 lingered out a life of toilsome, cheerless hardship 

 while a companion of their wanderings, and when 

 unfitted for this by old age, he would, according to 

 the custom of the country, have been left to die, 

 unfriended and alone, upon the spot where his last 

 weary efforts failed. The delay occasioned by this 

 extraordinary and unlooked-for event, made it late 

 by the time all the boats were fairly on their way 

 down the river. The wind was light from the 

 north-east, and the temperature about 90", at 9 

 o'clock. I pushed on to gain a station at the com- 

 mencement of the hills on the eastern side of 



