Into this I decided to venture and explain who I was.

Before taking this step, however, I rubbed off all the clayey coating on my skin, trimmed my hair and beard to a respectable length by means of a firestick, and threw away my bow, which was now my only remaining weapon; then I marched boldly into the camp.

Some five or six bronzed prospectors were seated at supper round the fire in front of the tent as I approached; and when they caught sight of me they stared, astounded for the moment, and then burst into laughter, under the impression that I was one of their own black servants playing some joke upon them.

When I was but a few yards away, however, I called out in English-- "Halloa, boys! have you room for me ?" They were too much taken aback to reply immediately, and then one of them said-- "Oh yes; come and sit down." As I seated myself among them they asked-- "Have you been out prospecting ?" "Yes," I said quietly, "and I have been away a very long time." "And where did you leave your mates ?" was the next question.
"I had no mates," I told them.

"I undertook my wanderings practically alone." They looked at one another, winked, and smiled incredulously at this.
Then one of them asked me if I had found any gold.
I said, "Oh yes, plenty of gold," and then the next query--a most natural one--was, "Well, why have you not brought some of the stuff back with you?
How far have you travelled ?" I told them I had been tramping through the heart of the Continent for eight or nine months, and that I had no means of carrying nuggets and quartz about with me.