204 
FRASER IN DANGER. 
they were apparently asleep, I watched them narrowly. 
Macnamee was walking up and down with his firelock, and 
every time he turned his back, one of the natives rose 
gently up and poised his spear at him, and as soon as 
he thought Macnamee was about to turn, he dropped as 
quietly into his place. When I say the native got up, I do 
not mean that he stood up, but that he raised himself suffi- 
ciently for the purpose he had in view. His spear would 
not, therefore, have gone with much force, but I determined 
it should not quit his hand, for had I observed any actual 
attempt to throw it, 1 should unquestionably have shot 
him dead upon the spot. The whole of the natives were 
awake, and it surprised me they did not attempt to plunder 
us. They rose with the earliest dawn, and crowded round 
the tents without any hesitation. We, consequently, 
thought it prudent to start as soon as we had breakfasted. 
We had all of us got into the boat, when Fraser remem- 
bered he had left his powder-horn on shore. In getting out 
to fetch it, he had to push through the natives. On his 
return, when his back was towards them, several natives 
lifted their spears together, and I was so apprehensive they 
would have transfixed him, that I called out before I seized 
my gun; on which they lowered their weapons and ran 
away. The disposition to commit personal violence was 
evident from these repeated acts of treachery ; and we 
should doubtless have suffered from it on some occasion or 
other, had we not been constantly on the alert. 
We had been drawing nearer the Morumbidgee every 
