Vallack, Jacky (the
black boy), and another man who had received a spear wound in his arm
(Barrett), so that he could offer no resistance to the blacks, coming
across the creek. These men had risked their own lives by coming about
three miles through mangroves and thick scrub (surrounded by not less
than a hundred natives, well armed), with a hope of saving some of us
from starving."
The camp had to be vacated in such a hurry in consequence of the
threatened attack, that nothing was saved but a few instruments and
botanical specimens.
This was the end of a most unfortunate expedition from the first landing.
Against the impassable nature of the line of march, and the hostile
inhabitants, the harassed explorers had to combat from the first. Their
horses were not acclimated, so they soon wasted away, and when sickness
laid its hand upon the men they were doomed. The one brightening touch in
the whole gloomy picture is the simple devotion shown by poor Jacky: "He
then fell back and died, and I caught him as he fell back and held him,
AND THEN I TURNED ROUND MYSELF AND CRIED," was the funeral oration over
the brave and unfortunate Kennedy.
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