ever retained my gun: I clung to it with all the strength desperation gives, and inch by inch, in the struggle which ensued, I at last got my finger on the trigger—it was at the right moment too, for a black fellow was advancing with a death cry on his lips and flourishing a tomahawk; I managed to cock one of the barrels and to point it at the black, and pulling the trigger it exploded, and the black fellow who held me, let go his grip on seeing his companion fall, which he did terribly wounded: the tall fellow and his companion now made off through the bush, but my blood being up, I took aim, and should have had my long friend, but just then the fellow last shot turned over, groaning in agony; so dropping my piece, thinking I had done mischief enough for one night, I tumbled the two first shot into the creek, for they were quite dead, and on returning to the tree was surprised to find the other one gone. My gun was all right, and I rambled about in the hope of finding him again, but did not. I returned to my tree wondering what could have become of him, and wondering on, fell asleep. I awoke with a crushing blow and the sense of a heavy weight upon my body, and the light of day just breaking, showed me it was a human being. I gave myself up for lost, but grappled with him and met with no resistance. A thrill passed through me on feeling the flesh cold and clammy and the limbs rigid—I grasped the body hard almost hoping to meet with some resistance, but met none:—I cast off the loathsome burthen, and the dead man had done what, when living, with four others, he had failed to do. I trembled with fear, and dared not for some time remove the body, which was of the black who had so mysteriously disappeared. He must have managed to crawl up the tree, and to prevent the flow of blood from his wound had filled it up with stringey bark; there he must have died, and probably stuck in a piece of the hard timber which juts out and af-
