Thus Encumbered, The March Begins At Sunrise, And With Occasional Halts
Continues Until About An Hour And A Half Before Sunset.
It is necessary
to stop thus early to prepare for passing the night, for toil here ends not
with the march.
Instead of the cheering blaze, the welcoming landlord,
and the long bill of fare, the traveller has now to collect his fuel,
to erect his wigwam, to fetch water, and to broil his morsel of salt pork.
Let him then lie down, and if it be summer, try whether the effect of fatigue
is sufficiently powerful to overcome the bites and stings of the myriads
of sandflies and mosquitoes which buzz around him.
Monday, April 11, 1791. At twenty minutes before seven o'clock, we started
from the governor's house at Rose Hill and steered* for a short time
nearly in a north-east direction, after which we turned to north 34 degrees
west, and steadily pursued that course until a quarter before four o'clock,
when we halted for the night. The country for the first two miles,
while we walked to the northeast, was good, full of grass and without rock
or underwood.
Afterwards it grew very bad, being full of steep, barren rocks, over which
we were compelled to clamber for seven miles, when it changed to
a plain country apparently very sterile, and with very little grass in it,
which rendered walking easy. Our fatigue in the morning had, however,
been so oppressive that one of the party knocked up.
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