OF THE TWO BOYS. 
25 
hungry, thirsty, and tired, and without the prospect 
of satisfying fully their appetites, or obtaining rest 
for a long period of time, they probably thought, 
that bad and inhospitable as had been the country 
we had already traversed, we were daily advanc- 
ing into one still more so, and that v e never could 
succeed in forcing a passage through it ; and they 
might have been strengthened in this belief by the 
unlucky and incautiously-expressed opinions of the 
overseer. It was natural enough, under such cir- 
cumstances, that they should wish to leave the 
party. Having come to that determination, and 
knowing from previous experience, that they could 
not subsist upon what they could procure for them- 
selves in the bush, they had resolved to take with 
them a portion of the provisions we had remaining, 
and which they might look upon, perhaps, as their 
share by right. Nor would Europeans, perhaps, 
have acted better. In desperate circumstances men 
are ever apt to become discontented and impatient of 
restraint, each throwing off the discipline and con- 
trol he had been subject to before, and each con- 
ceiving himself to have a right to act independently 
when the question becomes one of life and death. 
Having decided upon leaving the party, and 
stealing a portion of the provisions, their object 
would be to accomplish this as effectually and as 
safely as they could ; and in doing this, they might, 
without having had the slightest intention origi- 
nally, of injuring either myself or the overseer. 
