more open country, consisting of park-like land, lightly
timbered, but the soil not nearly so rich as the fertile
plain through which wound the Macalister. It
would be tedious to weary my readers with a minute
account of our doings each day; enough to say that
we passed through new country of every description,
crossing from side to side of the Mackay, to cut off
its many bends, and that our progress was but slow,
the distant ranges seeming hardly nearer on the third
day than they were at starting. We were disappointed
in not meeting with any blacks, though their traces
were plentiful; and we had commenced to fear that
the tribe we had surprised five days before had given
warning of our approach, when Ferdinand reported smoke
a couple of miles on our right. It was about
mid-day when this was seen; and having made a hurried
meal off the damper, which I may here state answered
its purpose admirably, we crept towards the fire with
the utmost caution. Our route took us away from
the river, and on arriving at the edge of a small belt
of scrub, we could make out that the fire was by the
side of a water-hole, but the two hundred yards between
it and ourselves was so open, that surprising the
camp seemed almost impossible. The hour was in
our favour, for the blacks were lying about listlessly,
resting themselves after the fatigues of procuring
the food of which they had just made a meal.
They numbered about twenty of both sexes, and were
evidently quite unconscious of our proximity.
Detaching the two troopers to make a detour, and cut
them off from the scrub in that direction, Dunmore,
Lizzie, and I remained perfectly motionless for above
an hour, and then, judging that the boys must have
reached their position, we advanced towards the camp
swiftly but silently. We got over a third of
the distance before the blacks saw us, and then ensured
a general scrimmage. The women and children jumped
into the lagoon, and the men, snatching up their weapons,
threw a volley of spears with such force and precision
that, had we been twenty yards closer, it would have
gone hard with both my companions and myself.
As it was, the missiles nearly all fell short, seeing
which the warriors dropped their arms and took to
their heels, running directly for the spot where Ferdinand
and Larry lay in ambush. Both Dunmore and myself
fired our carbines over the heads of the retreating
Myalls (wild blacks), which completed their panic,
and one of them, rushing recklessly forward, was captured
by the troopers, and brought by them in triumph to
the camp, amidst the yells and jabbering of the gins
and piccaninnies.