OPINION OF THE OVERSEER. 377 
more favourable than we were now in, was so strong 
that I never for a moment entertained the idea 
myself. I knew the many and frightful pushes with- 
out water we should have to make in any such 
attempt, and though the country before us was 
unknown, it could not well be worse than that we 
had passed through, whilst the probability was, that 
after the first long stage was accomplished, and 
which would take us beyond the western boundary 
of the Great Bight, we should experience a change 
in the character of the country, and be able to ad- 
vance with comparative ease and facility. Unhap- 
pily my overseer differed from me in opinion upon 
this point. 
The last desperate march we had made, had pro- 
duced so strong an impression upon his mind, that 
he could not divest himself of the idea that the 
further we went to the westward the more arid the 
country would be found, and that eventually we 
should all perish from want of water; on the 
other hand, the very reduced allowance of food we 
were compelled to limit ourselves to, made his 
thoughts always turn to the depot at Fowler’s Bay, 
where we had buried a large supply of provisions of 
all kinds. In vain I pointed out to him the certain 
difficulties we must encounter in any attempt to 
return, the little probability there was of a single 
horse surviving even the first of those dreadful stages 
we should have to make, and the utter impossibility of 
