331 
Interior of New Holland. 
desert for more than 500 miles, and at the point from which we 
turned it appeared to be as far from terminating as when we first 
entered upon it. I fell back upon the creek, however, not with 
the intention of abandoning the attempt to penetrate further, but 
to try the country at different points from a fixed station. It was 
however, to no purpose that we did this. In whatever direction 
we went we were forced back, at the eleventh hour, to the only 
place of security ; and after repeated and useless journeys—after 
traversing a country in which every breeze raised a cloud of salt 
to fill our eyes, and in which no change for the better could be 
looked for, and with both men and horses exhausted, I was 
obliged to give up the point, and resolved to sit down and await 
the fall of rain whatever the consequence might be. But there 
were other considerations which subsequently induced me to 
change that resolution. I had long grieved to see Mr. Browne 
suffering, and that too silently, from the fearful malady which had 
so long before attacked us. Too generous to complain, too high 
spirited to yield, he continued to render me the most valuable 
assistance to the last; but what his firmness enabled him to con¬ 
ceal in his waking hours, he could not hide from me when in 
sleep. I expected every morning to hear that, like Mr. Poole, 
his limbs had stiffened, and that those fatal symptoms had begun 
to show themselves which would have been the forerunners of his 
death. Thus far we had journeyed together, nor had a hasty 
expression escaped either of us towards the other, even under the 
most trying circumstances. Mr. Browne’s attention to Mr. Poole 
had been such as to make me most sincerely regard him, and I 
could not bear the idea of leaving him also in that lonely desert. 
My men, moreover, as I have stated, were all knocked up, nor 
could I hope that they would stand much greater exertion. We 
were now more than 400 miles from the depbt; but I resolved to 
hurry back, and, it possible, to get Mr. Browne to enter into an 
arrangement by which I might yet retrieve our bad fortune, and 
realise the expectations with which I had commenced this journey. 
It was to send him back to Adelaide with all the men, but Mr. 
Stuart, Morgan, and Mark—to spare me all the provisions he 
could, and leave me to work my way across the desert. I 
y 2 
