hours. I am sorry to say that some who should have known much better
endeavoured to instil into the minds of the men that it was preferable
only to walk a few miles a day and not to waste their strength by long
marches; utterly forgetting that most of the party had now only seven or
eight pounds of fermented flour left, and that if they did not make play
whilst they had strength their eventually reaching Perth was quite
hopeless. This however was a very popular doctrine for thoughtless and
weary men, who were overloaded and yet from a feeling of avarice would
not abandon any portion of what they were carrying. The majority of the
party not only adopted these views in theory but doggedly carried them
into practice; and from this moment I abandoned all hope of getting the
whole party into the settled districts in safety. Poor fellows! most of
them paid dearly for the mistaken notions they now adopted. Mr. Smith,
with his usual spirit, was for pushing on, although his strength was
inadequate to the task. I laid under the shade of a bush lost in gloomy
reveries and temporary unpopularity; Kaiber by my side lulled me with
native songs composed for the occasion, and in prospective I saw all the
dread sufferings which were to befall the doomed men who sat around me,
confident of their success under the new plan; but like all prophets I
was without honour amongst my own acquaintance; and after considering the
matter under every point of view I thought it better for the moment to
succumb to the general feeling, yet to lose no opportunity on every
subsequent occasion of endeavouring to rouse the party into a degree of
energy suited to our desperate circumstances.

At the end of the three hours I again begged several of the party, who
appeared to be in an exhausted state, to abandon a portion of their
useless loads; but they were quite sure that by making short marches, not
exhausting their strength, and now and then halting for a day or two to
refresh, they could carry them into Perth, and therefore refused to part