Tietkens to where he and Gibson had found a rock-hole, which they said was unapproachable.  I was determined to see whether it could be used, so we delayed killing another horse until our return, and in consequence we had to draw upon our small stock of flour.  In the afternoon we took five more horses, intending to load them with water at the hole if possible; but I found it utterly useless.  I called the most western hill of this range Mount Forrest, and the most western watercourse Forrest’s Creek.

(Illustration:  Jimmy at fort MCKELLAR.)

When we arrived again at the fort, on Monday, I knew something had happened, for Jimmy was most profuse in his delight at seeing us again.  It appeared that while we were preparing to start on Saturday, a whole army of natives were hidden behind the rocks, immediately above the camp, waiting and watching until we departed, and no sooner were we well out of sight and sound, than they began an attack upon poor Jim.  According to him, it was only by the continued use of rifle bullets, of which, fortunately, I had a good supply—­and, goodness knows, the ground in and around the fort was strewn with enough discharged cartridges—­that he could keep them at bay at all.  If he had killed ten per cent, for all the cartridges he fired away, I should think he would have destroyed the whole tribe; but he appeared to have been too flurried to have hit many of them.  They threw several spears and great quantities of stones down from the rocks; it was fortunate he had a palisade to get inside of.  Towards night he seems to have driven them off, and he and the little dog watched all night.  It must indeed have been something terrible that would keep Jimmy awake all night.  Before daylight on Sunday the natives came to attack him again; he had probably improved in his aim by his previous day’s practice, for at length he was able to drive them away screeching and yelling, the wounded being carried in the arms of the others.  One fellow, Jimmy said, came rushing up to give him his quietus, and began dancing about the camp and pulling over all the things, when Jimmy suddenly caught up a shot gun loaded with heavy long-shot cartridges, of which I had about a dozen left for defence, and before the fellow could get away, he received the full charge in his body.  Jimmy said he bounded up in the air, held up his arms, shrieked, and screamed, but finally ran off with all the others, and they had not troubled him since.  I gave the lad great praise for his action.  He had had a most fortunate escape from most probably a cruel death, if indeed these animals would not have actually eaten him.