0 
APPALLING SITUATION. 
faithfully served me for many years, who had fol- 
lowed my fortunes in adversity and in prosperity, who 
had accompanied me in all my wanderings, and 
whose attachment to me had been his sole induce- 
ment to remain with me in this last, and to him 
alas, fatal journey, was now no more. For an 
instant, I was almost tempted to wish that it had 
been my own fate instead of his. The horrors of 
my situation glared upon me in such startling 
reality, as for an instant almost to paralyse the mind. 
At the dead hour of night, in the wildest and most 
inhospitable wastes of Australia, with the fierce wind 
raging in unison with the scene of violence before 
me, I was left, with a single native, whose fidelity I 
could not rely upon, and who for aught I knew 
might be in league with the other two, who perhaps 
were even now, lurking about with the view of 
taking away my life as they had done that of the 
overseer. Three days had passed away since we 
left the last water, and it was very doubtful when 
we might find any more. Six hundred miles of 
country had to be traversed, before I could hope 
to obtain the slightest aid or assistance of any 
kind, whilst I knew not that a single drop of 
water or an ounce of flour had been left by these 
murderers, from a stock that had previously been 
so small. 
With such thoughts rapidly passing through my 
mind, I turned to search for my double-barelled 
gun, which I had left covered with an oilskin at the 
