I think Yamba went among them, and pointed out the magnitude of the disaster; otherwise they would have failed to grasp it.

What was the loss of a woman or two to them?
I felt, I say, that I could not settle down in my hut again, and I was consumed with an intense longing to go away into the wilderness and there hide my grief.

In making an attempt to reach civilisation, I thought this time of going due south, so that perhaps I might ultimately reach Sydney, or Melbourne, or Adelaide.

I argued thus casually to myself, little dreaming of the vast distances--mountain ranges and waterless deserts--that separated me from these great cities.

For all I knew, I might have come upon them in a few weeks! All I was certain of was that they lay somewhere to the south.