ield. One of them had a great
many scars upon him, and seemed to be a leading man. Only two had helmets
on, the others had pieces of netting bound round their foreheads. One was
an old man, and seemed to be the father of these two fine young men. He
was very talkative, but I could make nothing of him. I have endeavoured,
by signs, to get information from him as to where the next water is, but
we cannot understand each other. After some time, and having conferred
with his two sons, he turned round, and surprised me by giving me one of
the Masonic signs. I looked at him steadily; he repeated it, and so did
his two sons. I then returned it, which seemed to please them much, the
old man patting me on the shoulder and stroking down my beard. They then
took their departure, making friendly signs until they were out of sight.
We enjoyed a good supper from the opossums, which we have not had for
many a day. The men are complaining of weakness from the want of
sufficient nourishment. I find the quantity of rations is not enough;
five pounds of flour per week is too little for many weeks together. It
may do very well for a month or so, but when it comes to the length of
time we have been out, we all feel it very much; and the dried meat that
I brought with me being very young, it has not half the strength in it
that old meat has.

Sunday, 24th June, Kekwick Ponds. Our black friends have not made their
appearance to-day.

Monday, 25th June, Kekwick Ponds. Started again on a bearing of 345
degrees to some very distant hills, to see if I can get into the face of
the country to the Gulf of Carpentaria. At two miles crossed a large gum
creek (with long beds of concrete ironstone), which I have named Hayward
Creek, after Frederick Hayward, Esquire. The banks are beautifully
grassed, and extend for four miles on the north side. At fourteen miles
struck a gum creek with large sheets of water in which were plenty of
ducks, native companions, black shags, cranes, and other birds. Camped
here for the remainder of the day. The course of the creek at this point
is to the north of east, and coming from the north of west, apparently
from the range, which is distant about ten miles. It very much resembles
Chambers Creek. The ponds (in which we found some small fish) are about
eighty yards broad, and about three quarters of a mile long, having large
masses of concrete ironstone at both ends, separating the one pond from
the other; large gum-tree