144 
FORTIFY THE TENT. 
them through the underwood to warn them of the 
danger of intruding upon me again ; I then put every 
thing which had been left outside, into the tent, and 
kept watch for an hour or two, but my visitors came 
no more. The shots, or the blue light, had effec- 
tually frightened them. They had, however, in their 
turn, produced as great an effect upon me, and had 
at least deprived me of one night’s rest. 
September 20. — Rising very early I set to work, 
with an axe, to clear away the bushes from around 
my tent. I now discovered that the natives had 
been concealed behind a large tea-tree not twenty 
yards from the tent ; there were numerous foot- 
marks there, and the remains of fire-sticks which 
they had brought with them, for a native rarely 
moves at night without fire. 
By working hard I cleared a large circle with a 
radius of from thirty to forty yards, and then piling 
up all the bushes outside and around the tent, which 
was in the centre, I was completely fortified, and 
my sable friends could no longer creep upon me to 
steal without my hearing them. I spent great part 
of the day in charting, and took a few angles from 
the tent, but did not dare to venture far away. At 
night, when it was dark, I mounted guard with 
my gun for three hours, walking round outside 
the tent, and firing off my gun before I lay down, 
which I did with my clothes on, ready to get up at 
a moment’s notice. Nothing, however, disturbed 
me. 
