Volume II Part 9 (2/2)

I had just turned my head round to look after ered by a violent and piercing blow about the left shoulder: and ere the dart had ceased to quiver in its destined e only can produce, told me by whom I had been speared

(Footnote See the view annexed )

PURSUED BY THE NATIVES

One glance sufficed to show me the cliffs, so lately the abode of silence and solitude, swar in all the exuberant action hich the Australian testifies his delight One tall bushy-headed fellow led the group, and was evidently my successful assailant I drew out the spear, which had entered the cavity of the chest, and retreated, with all the swiftness I could co up from the boat, and were then about halfway I fully expected another spear while es see down to the beach to co the spear, which I had drawn from the wound, and determined if, as I expected, overtaken, to sell my life dearly Each step, less steady than the for blood: but I hurried on, still retaining the chronoe cry behind soon told me that my pursuers had found their way to the beach: while at every respiration, the air escaping through the orifice of the wound, warned le through the deep pools and various other impediments in my path,announced by a shout of vindictive triumph, from the bloodhounds behind To add to my distress, I noith utter dismay, that Mr Tarrant, and the man with the instruments, unconscious of the fact that I had been speared, and therefore believing that I could ave up all hope, and with that rapid glance at the past, which in such an hour crowds the whole history of life upon the mind, and one brief mental act of supplication or rather submission to Him in whose hands are the issues of life and death, I prepared for the last dread struggle

NARROW ESCAPE FROM DEATH

At thatparty was aroused by a boat approaching hastily fro, loud, wild shriek of the natives having er They turned and perceived that I was coy I possessed to join theth to direct the on in a long file, shouting and waving their clubs, and were now only about thirty yards off Our turning, momentarily checked their advance, whilst their force increased During these very few and awfully anxious moments, a party, headed by Lieutenant Emery, hastened over the reef to our support Another moment, and ours would have been the fate of so rasped our throats--we should have fallen a sacrifice in the cause of discovery, and our bones left to moulder on this distant shore, would have been trodden heedlessly underfoot by the wandering native

At the sight of Lieutenant Emery's party, the natives fleith the utht, either from chance or skill, bywith their ferocious yells, was silent, and the scene of their intended massacre, as lonely and deserted as before!

I was soon got down to the boat, lifted over the shi+p's side, and stretched on the poop cabin table, under the care of Mr Bynoe, who on probing the wound gavefatal The anxiety hich I watched his countenance, and listened to the words of life or death, the reader ine, but I cannot attempt to describe The natives never throw a spear when the eye of the person they ai that everyone, like themselves, can avoid it This wastowards theh the thick s Another circumstance in my favour was that I had been very much reduced by my late exertions

NIGHT OF SUFFERING

The sufferings of that night I will not fatigue et the anxiety hich Mr Bynoe watched over s of gratitude to the Alht the first rays of the sun It seeh I could discover in these an assurance that my hour was not yet coaze with grateful pleasure on their splendour

Several excursions wereour stay in search of the natives, but without success An encahbourhood, near a ss that were left behind it was evident that a hasty retreat had been made It would have been as well if we could have punished these people in some way for their unprovoked attack; but to have followed them far into the bush would have been quite useless A comparison of their conduct with that of the natives of Shoal Bay, confirms what I have before stated of the extraordinary contrast presented by the dispositions of the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia; for in both instances ere the first Europeans they had ever encountered

TREACHERY BAY

The observations, which nearly costto obtain, placed Point Pearce in latitude 14 degrees 25 rees 49 h-water, at the full and change, was seven o'clock, when the tides rose fro it are of a reddish hue, frohbourhood contain To commemorate the accident which befell me, the bay within Point Pearce was called Treachery Bay, and a high hill over it Providence Hill

In the nights of the 10th and 11th we had sharp squalls fro early in the season for their repeated appearance There was the usual gathering of clouds, the hard edges of which were lit up by the constant flashi+ng of lightning It is singular that all these squalls, wherever we have met them, should happen within five hours of the sa

COURSE OF THE VICTORIA

I have thus detailed the circu the discovery and partial exploration of the Victoria, that new and ie of one of the least known and lobe Its peculiar characteristics--for, like all Australian rivers, it has distinctive habits and scenery of its own--the nature of the country through which it flows--its present condition, its future destiny, are all subjects, to which, though I may have cursorily alluded before, I a Of that promise, therefore, I now tender this in fulfilment

The Victoria falls into the Indian Ocean in latitude 14 degrees 40at its confluence with the sea, between Turtle and Pearce Points, twenty-six miles wide The land upon either side as you enter the river is bold and well defined, but froin of the western shore, an extensive h-water, and reaching to the base of a range of hills, about seventeen e, seems to indicate that at one tih land on either side

For the first thirty oes but little change The left side continues bold, with the exception of a few extensive flats, sometimes overflowed, and a remarkable rocky elevation, about twenty-five ested by its bastion-like appearance, though now called Table Hill in the chart To the right the shore reroves, and still, from appearance, subject to not unfrequent inundations: towards thetide Thirty-five oes thealteration We now enter the narrow defile of a precipitous rocky range of coht, and co down to the river, in some places nearly two miles wide, in others not less than twenty fathoe, with a velocity sometimes not less than six miles an hour

NATURE OF THE COUNTRY

It continues a rapid streah this defile, an extent of so its way towards the sea across a rich alluvial plain, fifteen e of similar character and for of course so with a decreased rapidity The elevation of the hills on either side was at first entering considerably less than in the fore; they had also lost radually proceeded up, the forher and e, and continued each ed front; never however attaining the extree Above Reach Hopeless the width of the alluvial land, lying between the iin of the river and the hills which bound its valley, considerably increased; and just in proportion as the high bold land approached the channel on one shore, it receded from it on the opposite, and left an extensive alluvial flat between that bank and the retreating hills; the whole valley, too, widened out, so that, supposing the streah land on either side, it must have had a breadth above Reach Hopeless of from three to five miles, and this still increased when I last traced its presuret

The extree is froret, from 4 to 500 The distinctive formation common to both consists in their level summits, within twenty feet of which a precipitous wall of rock, of a reddish hue, runs along the hillside