My attention was soon occupied by other objects.  I saw from a hill I ascended some remarkable blue peaks to the south:  this gave us fresh hopes; and nothing occurred till about three-quarters of an hour after we had first heard the native call, when we arrived at a short descent covered with rocks, from which started a large kangaroo; I got a fair shot at, and knocked it over, but it sprang up again and hopped away; we then tried to track it but soon lost its footsteps in the scrubby vegetation of the gloomy forest,

It was the duty of the Cape man who accompanied me to mark a tree every here and there by chipping the bark, so that the party might the next day easily recognise the route which they had to pursue; upon looking back I now perceived that he had neglected a very remarkable tree about twenty or thirty yards behind us, and which stood close to the spot where I had fired at the kangaroo.  I desired him to go back and chip it, and then to rejoin us; in the meantime I stood musing as to the best means of avoiding the little rocky ravine in our front.

Sudden surprise by natives.

Finding that the man remained absent longer than I had expected I called loudly to him, but received no answer, and therefore passed round some rocks which hid the tree from my view to look after him.  Suddenly I saw him close to me breathless and speechless with terror, and a native with his spear fixed in a throwing-stick in full pursuit of him; immediately numbers of other natives burst upon my sight; each tree, each rock, seemed to give forth its black denizen, as if by enchantment.

A moment before, the most solemn silence pervaded these woods.  We deemed that not a human being moved within miles of us, and now they rang with savage and ferocious yells, and fierce armed men crowded round us on every side, bent on our destruction.

Contest with them.  Unfortunate results.

There was something very terrible in so complete and sudden a surprise.  Certain death appeared to stare us in the face:  and, from the determined and resolute air of our opponents, I immediately guessed that the man who had first seen them, instead of boldly standing his ground, and calling to Coles and myself for assistance, had at once, like a coward, run away; thus giving the natives confidence in themselves, and a contempt for us:  and this conjecture I afterwards ascertained was perfectly true.

We were now fairly engaged for our lives; escape was impossible, and surrender to such enemies out of the question.

As soon as I saw the natives around me I fired one barrel of my gun over the head of him who was pursuing my dismayed attendant, hoping the report would have checked his further career.  He proved to be the tall man seen at the camp, painted with white.  My shot stopped him not:  he still closed on us and his spear whistled by my head; but, whilst he was fixing another in his throwing stick, a ball from my second barrel struck him in the arm and it fell powerless by his side.  He now retired behind a rock, but the others still pressed on.