364 
PROCURE WATER. 
news, but too good to be implicitly believed, and 
though we all tasted it over and over again, we 
could scarcely believe that such really was the case. 
By sinking another foot the question was put be- 
yond all doubt, and to our great relief fresh water 
was obtained at a depth of six feet from the sur- 
face, on the seventh day of our distress, and after we 
had travelled one hundred and sixty miles since we 
had left the last water. Words would be inadequate 
to express the joy and thankfulness of my little 
party at once more finding ourselves in safety, and 
with abundance of water near us. A few hours be- 
fore hope itself seemed almost extinguished, and those 
only who have been subjeet to a similar extremity 
of distress can have any just idea of the relief we 
experienced. The mind seemed to have been 
weighed down by intense anxiety and over-wrought 
feelings. At first the gloomy restlessness of disap- 
pointment or the feverish impatience of hope had 
operated upon our minds alternately, but these had 
long since given way to that calm settled determina- 
tion of purpose, and cool steady vigour of action 
which desperate circumstances can alone inspire. 
Day by day our prospects of success had gradually 
diminished ; our horses had become reduced to so 
dreadful a state that many had died, and all were 
likely to do so soon ; we ourselves were weak and 
exhausted by fatigue, and it appeared impossible that 
either could have gone many miles further. In 
this last extremity we had been relieved. That gra- 
