/ 
^ Interior of New Holland. 341 
was the saving of all our horses. We reached the creek at 
10 p. m., when the night had set in ; but two of the horses fell 
and were left behind, although we recovered them in the morning. 
Those only who have traversed such deserts as those I have been 
describing, can imagine the feelings of the traveller when lie 
reaches a place of safety. It is as his home to the school-boy_ 
as the harbour to the mariner—as a reprieve to the criminal—as 
an escape from death to life—so we felt it; and so feeling it, did 
I acknowledge the goodness of that all pervading Power, whose 
Eye had been upon—whose Hand had guarded—and whose Pro¬ 
vidence had saved us. I might have laid down calmly to sleep, 
but if more immediate causes of anxiety ceased, distant ones rose 
before me. Again had I been driven back from the wilderness. 
Still did the drought prevail, and daily was the country getting 
drier and drier. I felt assured that if rain did not fall in a month 
Mr. Browne would be forced to retreat, and that I myself should 
be cut off from all hope of rejoining him. I was now about 130 
miles from the stockade with only one water-hole intervening, 
and, large as that was, it was doubtful how long it would stand 
against the excessive heat which now prevailed. Yet I had done 
nothing worthy the occasion, and had still some few weeks 
provisions to spare, with which I now purposed prosecuting my 
examination up the creek, and of the mountain ranges to the 
north-east. To lose no time I started eastwards on the 29th Oct., 
but did not go more than six miles. Before I went I hid all my 
superfluous stores and instruments in a thick rhagodia bush. We 
had seen several natives, but I did not anticipate that their quick 
eye would detect my treasure; and I was too glad to relieve my 
suffering animals of a pound even of their loads. Our progress 
up the creeks was in all respects gratifying. Splendid sheets of 
water from six to eight miles long; a cheerful open grassy forest, 
varying in breadth from half a mile to a mile, repaid us for the 
lonely and inhospitable desert from which we had returned. The 
only drawback to my hopes of this creek’s originating in the hills 
was its course, which was far to the south of east. We shortened 
our journeys by running on the broad paths of the natives, parties 
of whom we now daily saw. On the 31st of October we passed 
