iddy and by degrees induced the rest to start also. Poor Coles however
was in a dreadful state.

The country through which we were travelling is intersected by a long
line of lakes which run nearly parallel to the sea for a distance of
about forty-five miles. One of the party had travelled in the same
direction with me before, but we had then kept along the edge of the
lakes. He had imagined however that they were only two or three miles
distant from the sea, whereas many of them were as much as eight or ten.
The route we were pursuing was about midway between the lakes and the
sea, and this man seeing nothing of the lakes could not be convinced that
I was right in the position I said we then were; for I assured the men
they were not more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight miles to the north
of Perth; but I heard him relating his doubts, which tended to discourage
the others very much.

A PARTY OF NATIVES.

We however walked on as well as we could until near noon, at which time,
from excessive weakness, we had not made more than eight miles, or about
a mile and a quarter an hour, when we suddenly came out on the bed of a
dried-up swamp, now looking like a desert of white sand studded with
reeds. The forms of natives were seen wandering about this, one mile from
us, who were searching for frogs. There was a very numerous party, and
they did not appear at all inclined to approach us. Now it was very
evident that if we were so near Perth as I imagined these natives must be
well acquainted with Europeans; for although but very little was known of
the country to the north of Perth, and the farthest settlement in that
direction was only four miles from the town, still the natives must, from
mere curiosity, have been frequently in the settlement.

JOYFUL INTERVIEW WITH A FRIENDLY TRIBE. KAIBER'S OPINION OF THEM.

We therefore approached them but as we came near they withdrew. Kaiber
was now called into consultation; he scrutinised them long and carefully,
and then announced that they were "mondak yoongar," wild natives; and,
after a second survey of them, declared that they had the "mondak kurrang
kombar," or great bush fury, on them, or rather, were subject to wild
untutored rage. After making this announcement he squatted down under a
bush to conceal himself, and then recapitulating rapidly all the dangers
we had gone through, conjured me not to bring him into a fresh scrape by
having anything to do with such a numerous p