Interior of New Holland. 339 
our retreat to the creek. Long and hesitatingly I sat on that 
burning hill, but I ultimately resolved to turn for the nearest 
water. At sunset we reached the valley where we had slept, and 
I there gave the horses an hour to eat; but they collected round 
me as I sat under a tree, and the poor animal I rode pulled my 
bat off to attract attention. I had often watered them before, 
and was the only one of the party who had been constantly out 
with them; but on this occasion I had nothing wherewith to 
relieve their wants. Only one of them fed a little; he was an 
ugly cross-grained brute; and we had not proceeded from this 
point more than ten miles when he made a stop, rolled to and 
fro, and falling heavily on his side, expired without a struggle. 
We continued to travel all night to get the horses to water as 
soon as possible, but we were obliged to halt about 2 a.m. At 
4 we again mounted our horses, and I pushed on, with Mr. 
Stuart, to the little channel at which I expected relief; but, on 
reaching it, no water any longer remained. A soft mud occupied 
the bottom of the channel, in which Mr. Stuart made holes for the 
water to filter into, and thus just moistened his lips. The men 
came up whilst we were looking for water. They had left the colt 
behind, but at no great distance, and had fortunately stumbled 
on a little pool that contained water sufficient to allay their thirst, 
but not to give the horses ; and they had drank it all, thinking 
we also had plenty. Our search for a further supply would most 
probably have been unsuccessful, if it had not been for the ap¬ 
pearance of a pigeon which, flying rapidly past us, pitched at 
some distance from us in a little grass; and there we found a 
little pool of a few feet only in circumference; but it contained 
sufficient water to enable me to give the horses a day of rest; yet 
I went with Mr. Stuart to the north east, in the hope that we 
might see some changes; and it was with difficulty we found our 
way back to our solitary camp. On the 25th I crossed the re¬ 
maining twelve miles of the Desert, and gained our third well, 
but the water was putrid in it, and was unfit either for ourselves 
or our horses. We had therefore to depend on that in the little 
channel in the grassy plain, at which we arrived on the following 
day, just in time to drain it. Another day, and at the rate at 
