400 
ARRANGEMENT OF THE CAMP. 
which ought to have been deferred until night, and 
our circumstances did not admit of our having another 
now, so that there remained only to arrange the 
watching of the horses, before going to sleep. The 
native boys had watched them last night, and this 
duty of course fell to myself and the overseer this 
evening. The first watch was from six o’clock 
p. m. to eleven, the second from eleven until four 
a. m., at which hour the whole party usually arose 
and made preparations for moving on with the first 
streak of daylight. 
To-night the overseer asked me which of the 
watches I would keep, and as I was not sleepy, 
though tired, I chose the first. At a quarter before 
six, I went to take charge of the horses, having pre- 
viously seen the overseer and the natives lay down 
to sleep, at their respective break-winds, ten or 
twelve yards apart from one another. The arms and 
provisions, as was our custom, were piled up under 
an oilskin, between my break- wind and that of the 
overseer, with the exception of one gun, which I 
always kept at my own sleeping place. I have been 
thus minute in detailing the position and arrange- 
ment of our encampment this evening, because of 
the fearful consequences that followed, and to shew 
the very slight circumstances upon which the des- 
tinies of life sometimes hinge. Trifling as the 
arrangement of the watches might seem, and unim- 
portant as I thought it at the time, whether I under- 
