suspense I had been in on the subject of water, my mind wandered to the
gap created in my little party since we had last been at water; more than
ever, almost, did I feel the loss of my overseer, now that the last and
most difficult of our forced marches had been successfully accomplished,
and that there was every hope of our progress for the future, being both
less difficult and more expeditious. How delighted he would have been had
he been with us to participate in the successful termination of a stage,
which he had ever dreaded more than any other during the whole of our
journey, and with what confidence and cheerfulness he would have gone on
for the future. Out of five two only were now present; our little band
had been severed never to be reunited; and I could not but blame myself
for yielding to the overseer's solicitation to halt on the evening of the
29th April, instead of travelling on all night as I had originally
intended: had I adhered to my own judgment all might yet have been well.
Vain and bootless, however, now were all regrets for the irrecoverable
past; but the present was so fraught with circumstances calculated to
recal and to make me feel more bitterly the loss I had sustained, that
painful as the subject was, the mind could not help reverting to and
dwelling upon it.

Having given each of the horses a bucket of water, Wylie watched them
whilst I cooked our dinner and made some tea, after getting which we
again gave the horses another bucket of water a-piece, hobbled them out
for the night, and then lay down ourselves, feeling perfectly secure from
being overtaken by the native boys. We were obliged to place ourselves
close to the hole of water to keep the horses from getting into it, as
they were thirsty and restless, and kept walking round the well nearly
the whole night, and feeding very little. We ourselves, too, although
dreadfully tired and weak, were so cold and restless, that we slept but
little. I had also a large swelling on two of the joints of the second