was thrown by him. I felt severely wounded in the hip, but knew not exactly where the others had struck me. The force with which they struck me knocked me down, and made me very giddy and faint; but just as I fell, I heard the savage yells of the natives' delight and triumph, and these recalled me to myself. Roused by momentary rage and indignation, I made a strong effort, rallied, and in a moment was on my legs. The spear was wrenched from my wound, and my haversack drawn closely over it, that neither my own party or the natives might see it, and I advanced again steadily to the rock. The man now became alarmed, and threatened me with his club, yelling the while most furiously; but as I neared the rock, behind which all but his head and arm was covered, he fled towards an adjoining one, dodging dexterously, according to the native manner of confusing an assailant, and avoiding the cast of his spear. But he was scarcely uncovered in his flight, when my rifle-ball pierced him through the back between the shoulders, and he fell heavily on his face with a deep groan.

The effect was electrical. The tumult of the combat had ceased; not another spear was thrown, not another yell was uttered. Native after native dropped away, and noiselessly disappeared. I stood alone with the wretched savage dying before me, and my two men close to me behind the rocks, in an attitude of deep attention; and as I looked round upon the dark rocks and forests, now suddenly silent and lifeless, I could have thought the whole affair had been a horrid dream, were it not for the sight of the unhappy being who lay on the ground before me.

For a second or two I gazed on the scene, and then returned to my former position. I took my gun from Coles, which he had not yet finished loading, and gave him

the rifle. I then went up to the other man, and gave him two balls to hold; but when I placed them in his hands they fell through his fingers, and rolled upon the earth. He could not hold them, for he was completely paralysed with terror; the perspiration streamed from every pore; he was ghastly pale, and trembled from head to foot; his limbs refused their functions; his eyes were so fixed in the direction in which the natives had disappeared, that I could draw his attention to nothing else, and he still continued repeating, "Good God, sir! look at them, look at them!"

The natives had now all concealed themselves, but they were not far off. Presently the wounded man made an effort to raise himself slowly from the ground; some of them instantly came from behind the rocks and trees, without their spears, and crowded round him with expressions of the greatest tenderness and solicitude. Two passed their arms round him, his head drooped senselessly upon his chest, and with hurried steps the whole party made off, winding their way through the forest, their black forms scarcely distinguishable from the charred trunks of the trees, as they receded in the distance. To have fired upon

the other natives when they returned for the wounded man, would, in my belief, have been an unnecessary piece of barbarity. I already felt deeply the death of him I had been compelled to shoot; and I believe that when a fellowcreature falls by one's hand, even in a single combat, rendered unavoidable in self-defence, it is impossible not sincerely to regret the cruel necessity which forced it.

I had now time to attend to my own state and that of my men, and found that they were uninjured. I had been severely wounded in the hip; another spear had just cut my right arm, and a third had deeply indented my powder-flask, which was contained in a haversack immedi

ately over my stomach. The men were not up to this moment aware that I had been wounded, as I had thought it better to conceal the fact from them as long as I could. I now bound up my wound as well as I could, picked up the spear which I had drawn out from my hip, and started homewards. My wound began by degrees to get very stiff and painful, and I was, moreover, exceedingly weak from loss of blood; indeed, I grew so dizzy that I could scarcely see. Leaning, therefore, on Coles' arm, I walked on as rapidly as I could, directing the men which way to go. I pushed on until we were within two miles of the tent, when, as I tried to cross a stream, I strained my wounded hip so severely, that just as I reached the opposite shore I fell, and was utterly unable to rise again. Coles, with his usual courage and devotion to me, volunteered to go on alone to the tents, and send assistance. The other man was to remain with me, and keep a look-out for the natives. The water of the stream revived me considerably. My wound, however, was very painful, and the interim between Corporal Coles leaving me and assistance arriving from the tent was spent in meditations naturally suggested by my present circumstances. I sat upon the rocky edge of a cool, clear brook, supported by a small tree. The sun shone out brightly; the dark forest was alive with birds and insects. On such scenery I had loved to meditate when a boy; but now, how changed I was, wounded, fatigued, and wandering in an unknown land.

Mr Walker, the surgeon, was by my side within an hour from the time that Coles had left me; and Mr Lushington soon arrived with a pony, upon which I was placed, and, supported by my comrades, I was conveyed onwards to the tent. I cared but little for the want of comforts I must now be subject to; therein I only shared the lot of many

a worthy soldier. But one thing made the night very wretched, for through the woods came the piercing shrieks of wailing women, and the mournful cries of native men, sorrowing over him who had that day fallen by my hand. These cries rang on my ears all night, startling me at every moment from my feverish and fitful slumbers.

SIR GEORGE GREY'S EXPLORATIONS IN
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
A.D. 1839.

BEACHING THE BOATS NEAR SHARK'S BAY.

March 7, 1839.-When we got outside the mouth of the Gascoyne River a fresh breeze was blowing from the south-east. We ran along the shore west-by-north, keeping about a quarter of a mile from it; and after having made about three miles and a half, we reached the southern extremity of the other mouth of the river. The mean depth in our course along Babbage Island had been from two and a half to three fathoms; and this opening had a bar which we then conceived to run right across the mouth of the river. The northern extremity of Babbage Island is a very remarkable low point of land, which I called Mangrove Point. It cannot fail to be recognised, for it is the first point from the northward, along the eastern shores of Shark's Bay, where mangroves are found, and from that point they extend, almost uninterruptedly, down the eastern coast of this bay to the south, as far as I have traced it.

The coast now trended north by west, and we continued to run along it. After passing Mangrove Point, the sandy dunes along the shore ceased, and the land appeared to be scarcely elevated above the level of the

sea. When it wanted about an hour to sunset, we had made about twenty-five miles; and then we ran in closer along the coast, to look for a boat-harbour, or else some spot at which we could beach the boats. As the sun sank, the breeze freshened, until it blew a good half gale of wind, and everything gave indications of approaching foul weather. This was no coast to be on during a stormy night, in heavily-laden whaleboats; and as it now began to grow dark, I determined, at all hazards, to beach, rather than be driven out to sea under weather-symptoms so dubious. I accordingly ran my boat in through the surf, leaving the other one outside to watch the success of our effort, before they made the attempt. The surf was very heavy, but the men behaved steadily and well; and through it we went, dancing along like a cork in a millpond. At last one huge roller caught us—all hands gave way, and we were hurried along on the top of the swelling billow, which then suddenly fell under us, and broke. In a moment after, we had grounded, and although still upwards of two hundred yards from the shore, we all jumped out to haul the boat up; but ere we could move our heavily-laden whaler beyond a few yards, breaker after breaker came tumbling in, and completely swamped us. We continued to haul away, and presently found ourselves swimming. In fact, the whole coast hereabouts is fronted by a kind of bar of sand, distant about two hundred yards from the shore, and at a depth of not more than two feet under the surface of the water. Between this and the shore the water was tolerably smooth, and two fathoms deep. It was upon this outer bar that we had struck; and the other boat which followed us passed through the same experience as we did. We, of course, spent a miserable night in our drenched and wretched state; but it was at