he occupation of tending sheep should
be as fit and proper for women as for men. The pastoral life, so
favourable to love and the enjoyment of nature, has ever been a favourite
theme of the poet. Here it appears to be the antidote of all poetry and
propriety, only because man's better half is wanting. Under this
unfavourable aspect the white man first comes before the aboriginal
native; were the intruders accompanied by women and children, they could
not be half so unwelcome. One of the most striking differences between
squatting and settling in Australia consists in this. Indeed if it were
an object to uncivilise the human race, I know of no method more likely
to effect it than to isolate a man from the gentler sex and children;
remove afar off all courts of justice and means of redress of grievances,
all churches and schools, all shops where he can make use of money, then
place him in close contact with savages. "What better off am I than a
black native?" was the exclamation of a shepherd to me just before I
penned these remarks.

19TH DECEMBER.--The party moved along the road I had previously examined.
On passing through to the western side, I recognised the trees, plants,
and birds of the interior regions. Granitic hills appeared on each side,
and the sweet-scented Callitris grew around, with many a curious shrub
never seen to the eastward of these ranges. On descending, grassy
valleys, with gullies containing little or no water, reminded me of
former difficulties in the same vicinity, and it was not until we had
travelled upwards of sixteen miles that I could encamp near water. This
consisted of some very muddy holes of the Goobang Creek, on which I had
formerly been pleasantly encamped with Mr. Cunningham. [* See Vol. I. of
Three Expeditions, etc., page 171.] Two or three natives soon made their
appearance, one of whom I immediately recognised to be my old friend
Bultje, who had guided me from thence to the Bene Rocks, on my former
journey along the Bogan. He brought an offering of honey. Ten years had
elapsed since I formerly met the same native in the same valley, and time
had made no alteration in his appearance. With the same readiness to
forward my views that he formerly evinced, he informed me where the water
was to be found; and how I should travel so as to fall in with my former
route, by the least possible DETOUR. Mount Laidley bore 23 deg. E. of N.

20TH DECEMBER.--This day I gave the cattle a rest, as t