SHOOTING PARTY. 71 



awning and sails ashore, and wrapping our- 

 selves completely up in them, we managed to 

 get two or three hours sleep in spite of the mus- 

 quitoes. 



May 11. — At 6 a. m., after a cup of tea, we set 

 off for a walk. On getting through the skirt of 

 mangroves we found our friends of last night where 

 they had been sleeping, in a little hollow, and they 

 followed us into the country in single file. Presently 

 the Captain's pointer, Don, pointed at a quail, which 

 on its rising was shot, and fell among the grass. 

 They started, and held back at the report of the 

 gun ; but seeing us looking for the bird, two or 

 three came to help us, and on the dog finding him 

 they took it up, examined it attentively all over, and 

 handed it from one to the other with many excla- 

 mations of wurrhh, and much earnest conversation 

 arose among them on the circumstance. They pre- 

 sently entered into the spirit of the thing, however, 

 and seeing a flight of crows coming over, they 

 pointed to them, and begged us to shoot them. We 

 took care not to fire except at easy shots, and, 

 luckily, never missed one, which gave them, 1 have 

 no doubt, a high opinion of our guns. We crossed 

 a very pleasant grassy country towards the hills in 

 the north-west, but in about a mile were stopped 

 by a deep creek, ten yards wide, with muddy banks 

 ten feet high, and a strong tide running up. The 

 water was salt, with patches of mangrove here and 

 there, and the creek fifteen or twenty yards wide. 

 We came here on a native path, following which it 



