My Slumbers Were Broken And Unrefreshing; But The Boy Managed Better, He Had No Unpleasant Anticipations For The Future, And Already Had Forgotten The Annoyance Of The Past.

December 10.

- After an early breakfast, we took the horses to water and cleared the hole out thoroughly, as I expected five more horses in the evening. Upon returning to the plain, fires of the natives were again seen to the north-east; but they did not approach us. Our provisions were now quite exhausted, and having already lived for many days upon a very low diet, we looked out anxiously for the expected relay. About four o'clock, Mr. Scott, two men, and five horses arrived, bringing us supplies; so that no time had been lost after the arrival of my messenger. The hole having been previously enlarged and cleared out, no difficulty was experienced in watering the horses, and about sunset all encamped together under the sand-hills at the grassy plain.

December 11. - Leaving directions with Mr. Scott to take back to the depot, to-morrow, the two horses we had been working so severely, and which were now recruiting a little; and giving orders to the two men to follow the dray track to the north-west tomorrow, with the three fresh horses, I once more set off with the native boy to revisit the scene of our late disasters; and recover the dray and other things we had abandoned. We passed by the three dead horses on our route, now lying stiff and cold; in our situation a melancholy spectacle, and which awakened gloomy and cheerless anticipations for the future, by reminding us of the crippled state of our resources, and of the dreadful character of the inhospitable region we had to penetrate. At dark we came to the little plain where the dray was, and found both it and our baggage undisturbed; nor was it apparent that any natives had visited the place since we left it. During the evening a few slight showers fell, which, with a heavy dew, moistened the withered grass, and enabled our horses to feed tolerably well.

December 12. - I had proceeded a day in advance of the men and horses coming to recover the dray, in order that I might satisfy myself whether there was water or not near the plains to the east or north-east, as there were some grounds for supposing that such might be the case, from the fact of so many natives having been twice seen there, and the probability that they had remained for five days in the neighbourhood. To-day I devoted to a thorough examination of the country around; and, accompanied by the boy, proceeded early away to the north-east, returning southerly, and then crossing back westerly to the camp. We travelled over a great extent of ground, consisting principally of very dense scrub, with here and there occasional grassy openings; but no where could we observe the slightest indications of the existence of water, although the traces of natives were numerous and recent; and we tracked them for several miles, often seeing places where they had broken down the shrubs to get a grub, which is generally found there, out of the root; and observing the fragments of the long lateral roots of the gum-scrub, which they had dug up to get water from.

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