CH. III.] INTERVIEW WITH THI.'EE NATIVES. 199 



them on foot, with a green branch. They seemed busy, 

 digging at the root of a large tree ; but on seeing me advance, 

 they came forward with a fire-stick and sat down ; I followed 

 their example, but the cordiality of our meeting, could be 

 expressed only by mutual laughing. 



They w^ere young men, yet one was nearly blind from 

 ophthalmia or filth. I called up one of my men, and gave a 

 tomahawk to the tallest of these youths, making what signs 

 I could, to express my thirst and want of water. Looking as 

 if they understood me, they hastened to resume their work, 

 and I discovered, that they dug up the roots for the sake of 

 drinking the sap. It appeared, that they first cut these roots 

 into billets, and then stripped oS" the bark or rind, which 

 they sometimes chew, after which, holding up the billet 

 and applying one end to the mouth, they let the juice drop 

 into it. We now understood, for what purpose the short 

 clubs, which we had seen the day before, had been cut. The 

 youths resumed their work the moment they had received 

 the tomahawk, without looking more at us or at the tool. 

 I thought this nonchalance rather singular,and attributed their 

 assiduity either to a desire to obtain for us some of the juice, 

 which would have been creditable to their feelings ; or, 

 to the necessity for serving some more powerful native, who 

 had set them to that work. One had gone, apparently to 

 call the tribe, so I continued my journey without further 

 delay. We soon regained our track of the first day, and I 

 followed it with some impatience back to the camp. My 

 horse had been ill on the second day, and as this was the 

 third, on which it, as well as the others, had gone without 

 water, they were so weak, that, had we been retarded by any 

 accident another night in the bush, we must have lost them 

 all. They could be driven on only with difficulty, neverthe- 

 less, we reached the camp before sunset. 



The tidings brought by the men sent after Mr. Cunning- 

 ham's footsteps, were still most unsatisfactory. They had fol- 

 lowed the river bed back for the first twelve miles from our 



