Page:Enterprise and Adventure.djvu/180

---

discharged both his barrels. He then delivered their arms to the men, which had as yet been kept in the place appropriated for them, and at the same time some rounds of loose cartridge. The men assured him they would follow his instructions; and thus prepared, having already lowered the sail, they drifted onwards with the current. As they neared the sand-bank, Sturt stood up and made signs to the natives to desist, but without success. He took up his gun, therefore, and cocking it, had already brought it down to a level. A few seconds more would have closed the life of the nearest of the savages; the distance was too trifling for him to doubt the fatal effects of the discharge, for he was determined to take deadly aim, in hopes that the fall of one man might save the lives of many. But at the very moment, when his hand was on the trigger, and his eye was along the barrel, his purpose was checked by McLeay, who called to him that another party of blacks had made their appearance upon the left bank of the river. Turning round, he observed four men at the top of their speed. The foremost of them, as soon as he got a-head of the boat, threw himself from a considerable height into the water, struggled across the channel to the sand-bank, and, in an incredibly short space of time, stood in front of the savage against whom his aim had been directed. Seizing him by the throat, he pushed him backwards, and forcing all who were in the water upon the bank, he trod its margin with a vehemence and an agitation that were exceedingly striking. At one moment pointing to the boat, at another shaking his clenched hand in the faces of the most forward, and stamping with passion on the