DEFENCELESS CONDITION. 3 
head of my own break wind. It was gone, as was 
also the double-barelled gun that had belonged to 
the overseer. These were the only weapons at the 
time that were in serviceable condition, for though 
there were a brace of pistols they had been packed 
away, as there were no cartridges for them, and my 
rifle was useless, from having a ball sticking fast in 
the breech, and which we had in vain endeavoured 
to extract. A few days’ previous to our leaving 
the last water, the overseer had attempted to wash 
out the rifle not knowing it was loaded, and the 
consequence was, that the powder became wetted 
and partly washed away, so that we could neither 
fire it off, nor get out the ball ; I was, therefore, 
temporarily defenceless, and quite at the mercy of 
the natives, had they at this time come upon me. 
Having hastily ripped open the bag in which the 
pistols had been sewn up, I got them out, together 
with my powder flask, and a bag containing a little 
shot and some large balls. The rifle I found where 
it had been left, but the ramrod had been taken out 
by the boys to load my double-barelled gun with, 
its own ramrod being too short for that purpose ; I 
found it, however, together with several loose car- 
tridges, lying about near the place where the boys 
had slept, so that it was evident they had delibe- 
rately loaded the fire-arms before they tried to mo ve 
away with the things they had stolen ; one barrel 
only of my gun had been previously loaded, and 
I believe neither barrels in that of the overseer. 
b 2 
