THE HUTT RIVER.

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hasten on nor throw away their loads, so that my patience was sorely tried; a man of the name of Stiles was the worst; nothing could induce him to move along, and even the threat of leaving him behind produced no effect; I however kept pushing steadily onwards, for I never thought of the length of the journey we had to perform, without trembling for the result. We were now walking on a course of 180°, and followed this line for two miles and a half through a similar country. We still found many native paths running along the estuary, and saw the natives fishing, but they carefully avoided us making off for the high lands as fast as they could. The estuary became narrower here, and shortly after seeing these natives, we came upon a river running into it from the eastward; its mouth was about forty yards wide, the stream strong, but the water brackish, and it flowed through a very deep ravine, having steep limestone hills on each side: many wild fowls were on the river, but we could not get a shot at them. Being unable to ford the river here, we followed it in a s. E. direction for two miles, and in this distance passed two native villages, or, as the men termed them, towns,— the huts of which they were composed differed from those in the southern districts, in being much larger, more strongly built, and very nicely plastered over the outside with clay, and clods of turf, so that although now uninhabited, they were evidently intended for fixed places of residence. This again shewed a marked difference between the

day complained of weakness, not sufficiently, however, in the least to alarm me-he had hitherto been nearly always in the rear of the party without lagging, but I thought two of the men in a much weaker state than he was.

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE HUTT RIVER TO WATER PEAK.

WILD TURKEYS SEEN DIFFICULTY OF URGING THE PARTY FORWARD THE BOWES RIVER-NATIVE HUTS-THE VICTORIA RANGE AND DISTRICT-THE BULLER RIVER-THE CHAPMAN RIVER-SEARCH FOR A MISSING MAN-SCENE WITH NATIVES-RETURN OF PARTY FROM SEARCH-THE MAN FOUND-THE GREENOUGH RIVER-CROSS THE HEADS OF TWO BAYS-MORE NATIVE HUTS-AUSTRALIND-THE IRWIN RIVER-SEARCH FOR WATER-WATER PEAK HILLBENIGHTED IN RETURNING TO THE PARTY.

April 6.-WE moved off this morning on a course of 180°. The first mile of our journey was over low scrubby ironstone hills. We then came down upon rich flats, through which the main branch of the Hutt ran; and followed the course of this branch for about two miles. It was not running, but there were many pools with water in its bed the flats were rich and grassy, and on the hills to the westward (the Menai hills) we descried wild turkeys, being the farthest point north at which I had seen this bird.

As I saw that the ground in front of us was very steep and abrupt, so that the weak and weary would have found it a difficult task to master such

an ascent, I turned off on a course of 168°, ascending a sandy table-land, covered with scrub. When we had walked three miles in this direction, the table-hill of Captain King bore E. by s. distant five miles. We now proceeded parallel to the sea, which was distant one mile, through an indifferent country. This course continued for about five miles, and on the ranges to the eastward the country still appeared to be grassy and good. Although we had walked very slowly, many of the party were completely exhausted, and one or two of the discontented ones pretended to be dreadfully in want of water, notwithstanding they carried canteens, and had only walked eight miles since leaving the bank of a river; I was therefore obliged to halt, and could not get them to move for three hours. I am sorry to say that some who should have known much better endeavoured to instil into the minds of the men, that it was preferable only to walk a few miles a day, and not to waste their strength by long marches; utterly forgetting that most of the party had now only seven or eight pounds of fermented flour left, and that if they did not make play whilst they had strength, their eventually reaching Perth was quite hopeless. This, however, was a very popular doctrine for thoughtless and weary men, who were overloaded, and yet from a feeling of avarice would not abandon any portion of what they were carrying. The majority of the party not only adopted these views in theory, but doggedly carried them into practice; and from this

TO HASTEN ONWARDS.

25

moment I abandoned all hope of getting the whole party into the settled districts in safety. Poor fellows! most of them paid dearly for the mistaken notions they now adopted. Mr. Smith, with his usual spirit, was for pushing on, although his strength was inadequate to the task. I laid under the shade of a bush lost in gloomy reveries and temporary unpopularity; Kaiber by my side lulled me with native songs, composed for the occasion, and in prospective I saw all the dread sufferings which were to befal the doomed men who sat around me, confident of their success under the new plan ; but like all prophets I was without honour amongst my own acquaintance; and after considering the matter under every point of view, I thought it better for the moment to succumb to the general feeling, yet to lose no opportunity on every subsequent occasion of endeavouring to rouse the party into a degree energy, suited to our desperate circumstances.

of

At the end of the three hours I again begged several of the party, who appeared to be in an exhausted state, to abandon a portion of their useless loads; but they were quite sure that by making short marches, not exhausting their strength, and now and then halting for a day or two to refresh, they could carry them into Perth, and therefore refused to part with them. Mr. Smith and myself found that stopping in this way, and getting cold, rendered our limbs so stiff and painful when we walked on again that we could scarcely move; and I suspect that such was the