And Had Not A Soldier,
As Strong As A Pack-Horse, Undertaken To Carry His Knapsack In Addition
To His Own, We Must Either Have Sent Him Back, Or Have Stopped At A Place
For The Night Which Did Not Afford Water.
Our two natives carried each
his pack, but its weight was inconsiderable, most of their provisions
being in the knapsacks of the soldiers and gamekeepers.
We expected
to have derived from them much information relating to the country, as no one
doubted that they were acquainted with every part of it between the sea coast
and the river Hawkesbury. We hoped also to have witnessed their manner
of living in the woods, and the resources they rely upon in their journeys.
Nothing, however, of this sort had yet occurred, except their examining
some trees to see if they could discover on the bark any marks of the claws
of squirrels and opossums, which they said would show whether any of those
animals were hidden among the leaves and branches. They walked stoutly,
appeared but little fatigued, and maintained their spirits admirably,
laughing to excess when any of us either tripped or stumbled, misfortunes
which much seldomer fell to their lot than to ours.
[*Our method, on these expeditions, was to steer by compass, noting
the different courses as we proceeded; and counting the number of paces,
of which two thousand two hundred, on good ground, were allowed to be a mile.
At night when we halted, all these courses were separately cast up,
and worked by a traverse table, in the manner a ship's reckoning is kept,
so that by observing this precaution, we always knew exactly where we were,
and how far from home; an unspeakable advantage in a new country,
where one hill, and one tree, is so like another that fatal wanderings
would ensue without it.
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