The women who had kept us in sight were then at the huts, to which Mr. Browne and I walked.  In addition to the women and children, there was an old man with hair as white as snow.  As I have observed, there was a sand hill at the back of the huts, and as we were trying to make ourselves understood by the women a native made his appearance over it; he was painted in all the colours of the rainbow, and armed to the teeth with spear and shield.  Great was the surprise and indignation of this warrior on seeing that we had taken possession of his camp and water.  He came fearlessly down the hill, and by signs ordered us to depart, threatening to go for his tribe to kill us all, but seeing that his anger only made us smile, he sat down and sulked.  I really respected the native’s bravery, and question much if I should have shewn equal spirit in a similar situation.  Mr. Browne’s feelings I am sure corresponded with my own, so we got up and left him, with an intention on my part to return when I thought he had cooled down to make him some presents, but when we did so he had departed with all his family, and returned not to the neighbourhood again.  We had preserved two or three of the fish, and in the hope of making the women understand us better, produced them, on which they eagerly tried to snatch them from us, but did not succeed.  They were evidently anxious to get them to eat, and I mention the fact, though perhaps telling against my generosity on the occasion, to prove how rare such a feast must be to them.

As I had foreseen, our horses finished all the water in the puddle during the night, and we left at seven in the following morning, taking up our usual N.N.W. course, from which, up to this point we had not deviated.  We passed for about eight miles through open box-tree forest, with a large grassy flat, backed by sand hills to the right.  The country indeed had an appearance of improvement.  There was grass under the trees, and the scenery as we rode along was really cheerful.  I began to hope we were about to leave behind us the dreary region we had wandered over, and that happier and brighter prospects would soon open out, to reward us for past disappointment.  Mr. Browne and I even ventured to express such anticipations to each other as we journeyed onwards.  At eight miles however, all our hopes were annihilated.  A wall of sand suddenly rose before us, such as we had not before seen; lying as it did directly across our course we had no choice but to ascend.  For 20 miles we toiled over as distressing a country as can be imagined, each succeeding sand ridge assumed a steeper and more rugged character, and the horse with difficulty pulled the cart along.  At 13 miles we crossed a salt lagoon similar to the one I have described to the S.E. of the plains on which we had last seen the natives, but larger.  Near it there was a temporary cessation of the fearful country we had just passed, but it was only temporary, the sand ridges again crossed our