No one dared to murmur, amidst their blessings, because they had been a day without water; but they trusted in God to provide them with this boon, too, in his good time. The large egg was carefully cleaned out through a small opening made by Jack at one end, and then slung with cords, to make it convenient to carry next day, before they took their rest.
But the next day they had travelled for many hours, till, faint and weary, their steps were feeble and languid, when the sight of a line of casuarina-trees directed them to the bed of a river, now quite dry; and while the most exhausted sat down to rest, the young and active proceeded up the hard bed till it became mud, and a little higher, muddy pools. Into these pools they, at once, plunged their faces, and drank, and moistened their burning skin, and then each laughed at the crust of dirt left on his neighbor's face. But by persevering in walking on, they met with a pool of clearer water, from which they filled their water buckets and mussel-shells, and returned to take the refreshment to their friends, and then to conduct them to the moister region.
They continued to pursue the course of the chain of pools which must in a short time be really a river, when the periodical rains came on. The prospect of these approaching rains rendered all the thoughtful of the party anxious and uneasy; for the pleasant open air life to which they had become habituated would then be intolerable.
For two days the emu-flesh was eatable, and the pools amply supplied them with water. Then they again reached a line of low hills from which the river had its source; and through the shrubs and brushwood that covered them they forced or cut their way, and descended on a more fertile and pleasant plain.
But, to their great annoyance, they beheld before them several natives gathered round a fire, employed in making spears and arrows, which they were hardening in the fire. On one side sat two women, bruising some grain or nuts between two stones: these women wore cloaks of opossum fur; but the men were almost entirely naked, and had their bodies marked with frightful cicatrices. Though it was plain these natives must have seen the approach of the strangers, and probably now, for the first time beheld white men, they preserved a dignified composure, pursuing their labors, without any apparent notice of the intruders.