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 repetition 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 passed 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 assured 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 assistance 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: