Miscellanea. 
435 
as that into which I had penetrated, from which the very birds 
of the air shrank away, should continue much further; but 
whether such really was the case, remains yet to be ascertained. 
It may not be necessary for me to detail to His Excellency, 
for the information of Lord Stanley, the several minor excursions, 
of from eighty to ninety miles, that I have made to examine the 
country, and to break our confinement. We have been locked 
up here as securely as if we had wintered at the Poles, and have 
remained until we have been deserted by every beast of the field, 
and by every fowl of the air. We have witnessed migration after 
migration to that point to which I have ever looked for success; 
and every observation I have made, and every occurrence that 
has taken place, has tended to confirm the impressions I had 
received of the nature and character of the interior. So far, 
however, from repining at our position, we have only to be 
thankful to Providence, in that we have been guided to the only 
spot in these lonely and desolate regions, in which we could have 
remained with safety. 
We have seen very few natives, but our kindness to those 
few has been such that I had hoped it would have engendered 
a confidence; but they have not dared to approach us. Aware 
that there was a general scarcity of water in the country, I could 
not but think that we were putting them to great inconvenience 
by occupying so important a post. I had found a large sheet of 
water at the termination of a large creek near us; and, in hopes 
that I should have found nearly the whole of the population of 
these regions assembled there, I rode with Mr. Browne to it, but 
was disappointed in finding any number of natives; and it was 
clear that they were dispersed in families, at the different water- 
holes that remained unexhausted, as the country is too poor to 
maintain any number of inhabitants in any one place. One 
family, indeed, came in from the south whilst we were at this 
water; having been driven in from the failure of their own 
supplies. 
About three weeks ago, a solitary native came to the camp, and 
remained with us for a week. He was a stranger, from the 
northward and westward, and spoke a different language to the 
