Page:Narrativeavoyag01wilsgoog.djvu/286

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254
EXCURSION INTO THE INTERIOR

provisions were nearly expended, when (he said) the white fellows would cry; he also hinted that had he known before starting as much as he did now, he would have declined being one of the party. He said, the expeditions of Captain Wakefield and the others, had been maatinip[1], while mine had been already maatopen[2].

I told him, that the white fellows cared little about having anything to eat, and only cried when they could not get water; but being convinced that the case was widely different, he told me it was not a matter to make a joke of. I then told him to make himself quite easy, as, if we did not get another kangaroo shortly, his advice should be followed; and in order to create a little good humour, a double allowance of grog was issued, which had the desired effect; and "God save the King" was sung with much vociferation, where it never had been chanted before.

On Tuesday, we directed our course S.S.W. taking care to leave on our left, all the streams we met with; and in this manner we proceeded over hills and dales, until our progress was arrested by a swamp, wide and apparently deep, trending westward round the mountains. Mokărē, (who had much antipathy to water if of any depth,) and others of the party discovering some repugnance to attempt a passage directly across it, we took a detour to the eastward, and crossed it

  1. A short distance.
  2. A long distance.