We Therefore Unladed The Horses Where They Stood, And The Men
Carried The Provisions To A Firmer Spot, Where They Were Reladen.
We
again proceeded easterly, and for upwards of a mile we travelled up to
our knees in water and mud:
The horses were here stopped by running
waters from the marshes, encircling a spot of comparatively dry ground;
they were again unladen, and with the utmost difficulty we got every
thing safe over. Both men and horses were so much exhausted by the
constant labour they had undergone, that I determined to halt, in order
to restore our baggage to some order. Our ardent hopes are fixed upon
the high lands of Arbuthnot's Range, which I estimate to be about twenty
miles off. The intermediate country, we fear, will be one continued
morass.
August 4. - Proceeded on our journey. In the seven miles and a half which
we accomplished to-day, the water and bog were pretty equally divided;
and a plain covered with the former was a great relief both to men and
horses, since an apparently dry brush, or forest, was found a certain
forerunner of quicksands and bogs. The natives appear pretty numerous:
one was very daring, maintaining his ground at a distance armed with a
formidable jagged spear and club, which he kept beating against each
other, making the most singular gestures and noises that can be
imagined: he followed us upwards of a mile, when he left us, joining
several companions to the right of us.
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