Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/176

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110 EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. 8th. —Teenminne has gone to the camps again. She does not like the close air of the school-house. 9th. —This morning, at two a.m., some blacks knocked at the door, and begged me to come to Teenminne, for she had burnt her foot badly. I got up and went to the camp, and found the poor woman in agony. One foot is very much burned, the other only slightly. She must have put her foot into the fire in her sleep; and the strangest part of the affair was, that it did not seem to have awakened her. She appeared to be, they said, in a sort of nightmare, instinctively moving her feet from the fire, but she did not become conscious till someone shouted in her ear. The sole of the left foot is roasted off, and the two smallest toes quite consumed. After I had dressed it the pain was so great that she fainted. In the forenoon I dressed the wounds again. The right foot is a little burned. I suspect she had a fit. May the Lord graciously restore our dear friend to health. 25th. —Teenminne’s foot is healing slowly. She suffers much from unskilful nursing. She is very patient. 1st September. —Poor Teenminne is very ill. I am at a loss what to do for her. I can only recommend her to the healing power of the Great Physician. O that He would spare her life! it seems so precious to her children, and to our little church and mission. We all love her. I asked her to-day if she was afraid to die. With the calmest and most cheerful expression, she said that she was not. She manifests the firmest confidence in Jesus as the Saviour who died for her. 28th. —To-day poor Teenminne managed to get to our house on crutches, after an illness of three months. I thank God for this; may He grant her perfect restoration to health. 1st November, 1867. —The natives are beginning to arrive, to attend the expected torarin in honour of the Duke of Edinburgh. 7th. —The Goolwa and Murray tribes arrived. There are some fine men amongst them; physically, as symmetrical and wellgrown specimens of humanity as one would wish to see, notwithstanding their dark skins.