Volume II Part 5 (1/2)
Thither, mother oh, I return again, Thither oh, I return again.
The other had been sung by the mother of Miago, a native who had accompanied Captain Wickham in the Beagle from the Swan River, and it had made a great impression on the natives.
Whither does that lone s.h.i.+p wander, My young son I shall never see again.
Whither does that lone s.h.i.+p wander.
EXTREME FEEBLENESS OF THE PARTY.
The night wore heavily on; sleepless sufferers were around me, and I myself began to feel very anxious as to what the next day might bring.
The men had now been already one night and two days without tasting a single drop of water or food of any kind whatever, for as the only provisions they had left was a spoonful or two of flour each it was impossible for them to cook this without water; indeed only two of them had even this small supply of flour left, and the rest were wholly dest.i.tute.
I personally suffered far less than any of the others with the exception of the native, and this for several reasons. In the first place I had been long accustomed to subsist on a very small quant.i.ty of water, and secondly I had always kept my mind occupied and amused instead of giving way to desponding or gloomy thoughts. When we halted and the others laid wearily down, brooding over their melancholy situation, I employed myself in writing up my journal, which was most scrupulously kept; and this duty being concluded I had recourse to a small New Testament, my companion throughout all my wanderings, and from this latter I drank in such deep draughts of comfort that my spirits were always good.
DANGER OF PERIs.h.i.+NG FOR WANT OF WATER.
April 17.
About an hour and a half before dawn we started in a south by east direction, the native leading the way, for it was yet too dark for me to select points to march upon. As we moved along we moistened our mouths by sucking a few drops of dew from the shrubs and reeds, but even this miserable resource failed us almost immediately after sunrise. The men were so worn out from fatigue and want of food and water that I could get them but a few hundred yards at a time, then some one of them would sit down and beg me so earnestly to stop for a few minutes that I could not refuse acceding to the request; when however I thus halted the native in every instance expressed his indignation, telling me that it was sacrificing his safety as well as those of the others who were able to move, for that if we did not find water ere night the whole party would die. He was indeed as weak from want of food as any of us, for we had made such rapid and lengthy marches in the hope of speedily forwarding a.s.sistance to those left behind that when we came at night to the conclusion of our day's journey Kaiber was too much exhausted to think of looking for food.
About two o'clock in the afternoon the men were so completely exhausted that it was impossible to induce them to move, and at this period I found that we had only made about eight miles in a south by east direction, over plains studded with small sandy hills and the beds of dried up tea-tree swamps.
When I halted the sun was intensely powerful; the groans and exclamations of some of the men were painful in the extreme; but my feelings were still more agonized when I saw the poor creatures driven, by the want of water, to drink their own ----, the last sad and revolting resource of thirst!
UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH FOR WATER WITH KAIBER.
Unable to bear these distressing scenes any longer I ordered Kaiber to accompany me, and notwithstanding the heat and my own weariness I left the others lying down in such slight shade as the stunted banksias afforded, and throwing aside all my ammunition, papers, etc., started with him in search of water, carrying nothing but my double-barrelled gun. We proceeded towards the sea. As the natives have the faculty, even in the trackless woods which they have never before been in, of returning direct to any spot they have left by however circuitous a course they may have travelled after quitting it, I paid no attention to the direction we were moving in but followed Kaiber, who roamed from spot to spot in the vain search of water; but we found not a drop. The same arid barren country seemed spread on every side; and when at length I began occasionally to stumble and fall from weakness hope abandoned me, and I determined to return direct to my comrades and get them to make one more effort to proceed and search for it in a southerly direction.
TREACHEROUS INTENTIONS OF KAIBER, THE NATIVE.
I therefore told Kaiber that such was my intention, and directed him to guide me to the party. With apparent alacrity he obeyed my orders; but after leading me about some time in an extraordinary manner he told me that he had lost his way and could not find them. His look was so very plausible when he said this, and he seemed so grieved at the circ.u.mstance, that for a moment I believed his tale; but I felt convinced that we could not be at any very great distance from them and therefore fired one barrel of my gun; the echo of this sound, never heard in these solitudes before, rang loudly through the woods, remoter distances caught it up, and at length it gradually died away: anxiously did I now listen for a repet.i.tion of the report, for I knew, were they within hearing, the men would instantly fire again to acknowledge the signal I had made; but minute after minute pa.s.sed on and no answering signal struck my ear. I sat down and applied my ear to the ground; every sense became absorbed in the single one of hearing, but not the remotest sound that I could distinguish broke the frightful solitude of these vast woods. I remained seated on the ground for a few minutes, still hearing no answer to my shot, till the conviction gradually forced itself on my mind that the native had been leading me astray. Only two cases could have occurred: either he had done so purposely, for he could not, by any accidental mistake, have taken me to such a distance as to prevent the party in these silent woods hearing the report of my gun, or otherwise the men had of themselves moved away from the place where I had left them. But I felt a.s.sured that this latter supposition was not correct, for ever since I quitted the other portion of the party I had maintained so strict a discipline that no man ever separated from the rest without my permission; indeed I had increased my strictness in these respects exactly in proportion to our increasing difficulties; and I moreover felt sure that some of the men were by far too much attached to me ever to abandon me in such a manner.
My situation however was undoubtedly very critical, not as far as regarded my own safety, for I was not now more than eighty miles from the nearest settler's hut; but was it possible for me to return alone to my countrymen and to say that I had lost all my comrades? that I had saved myself and left the others to perish? Yet I knew that unless I sent a.s.sistance to the first party I had left the majority of them could not survive; and from the state I had, about an hour and a half ago, left the others in, it appeared more than probable that they might wait and wait anxiously, expecting my return, until too weak to move, and thus die miserably in the woods.
These thoughts thronged rapidly through my mind. Indeed I was obliged to do all things quickly now for I felt that my existence depended upon my finding water within the next three or four hours. The native sat opposite to me on the ground, his keen savage eye watching the expression of my countenance, as each thought flitted across it. I saw that he was trying to read my feelings; and he at length thus broke the silence:
”Mr. Grey, today we can walk and may yet not die but drink water; tomorrow you and I will be two dead men, if we walk not now, for we shall then be weak and unable. The others sit down too much; they are weak and cannot walk: if we remain with them we shall all die; but we two are still strong; let us walk. There lies the sea; to that the streams run; it is long since we have crossed a river: go quickly, and before the next sun gets up we shall cross another running water.” He paused for a minute, looking steadfastly at me, and then added, ”You must leave the others, for I know not where they are, and we shall die in trying to find them.”
HIS DESIGNS FRUSTRATED.
I now knew that he was playing me false and that he had purposely led me astray. He was too great a coward to move on alone for fear of other natives and, dreading to lose his life by thirst, he had hit upon this expedient of inducing me to abandon the others and to proceed with him.
”Do you see the sun, Kaiber, and where it now stands?” I replied to him.
”Yes,” was his answer. ”Then if you have not led me to the party before that sun falls behind the hills I will shoot you; as it begins to sink you die.” I said these words, looking at him steadily in the face, and with the full intention of putting my threat into execution. He saw this, and yet strove to appear unconcerned, and with a forced laugh said, ”You play. From daylight until now you and I have walked; we have wasted our strength now in looking for water for the others. But a short time, and we shall be dead; and you say, search for men whom I cannot find; you tell me, look; and I know not where to look.” I now lost all patience with him and replied: ”Kaiber, deceive as you will, you cannot deceive me; follow back our tracks instantly to the point from whence we started: if you do not find them, as the sun falls you die.” ”I am wearied,”
answered he; ”for three days I have not either eaten or drunk, far have we wandered since we left them, and very distant from us are they now sitting.” I could bear this no longer, and, starting up, said, ”You deceive: the sun falls! just now I spoke: Koolyum, nganga dabbut--garrum w.a.n.gaga.” Again he forced a laugh and said, ”Surely, you play.” I answered shortly, ”Did I ever tell you a lie, Kaiber? I now speak the truth.”
RETURN TO THE PARTY WITHOUT WATER.
He seemed, when he saw that I was so determined, to feel a little uncomfortable, and s.h.i.+fting his position moved rather further from me; this motion on his part induced me to conceive that he intended to run away; in which case I could never again have hoped to rejoin the party; I therefore instantly c.o.c.ked the remaining barrel of my gun and presented it at him, telling him that if he ever moved from me further than a certain tree which I pointed out I would forthwith shoot him, instead of waiting until sunset as I had originally intended. The decided manner in which I announced this to my friend Kaiber had the desired effect. He made a few protestations as to the folly of my conduct; lamented most loudly that his mother, and the Dandalup (a river of his own land) were so far removed from him; a.s.serted vehemently that the natives of these parts were bandy-legged, rough-tongued beings; that they eat earth and drank no water; and, winding-up with a fervent wish that he might catch one of them wandering anywhere between Pinjarup and Mandurup, in which case he would spear his heart, his kidney, and his liver, he sulkily resumed his route and led me straight back to the party in about an hour.