rally full of natives; some of them very fine
young men, especially the two sons of the Boocolo. Topar made his
appearance two or three days after our arrival, but Toonda was absent on
the Murray: the former, however, having been detected in attempting a
theft, I had him turned out of the tent and banished the camp. The old
Boocolo came daily to see us, and as invariably laid down on the lower
part of my mattrass.

On the 23rd I sent Mr. Stuart to verify his former bearings on Scrope's
Range, and Mr. Browne kindly superintended the chaining of the distance
between a tree I had marked on the banks of the Darling and Sir Thomas
Mitchell's last camp. This tree was about a quarter of a mile below the
junction of the Williorara, and had cut on it, (G. A. E., Dec. 24, 1843,)
the distance between the two points was three miles and 20 chains.

The 25th being Christmas Day, I issued a double allowance to the men, and
ordered that preparations should be made for pushing down the river on
the following morning. About 2 p.m. we were surprised at the return of
our two messengers, who insisted that they had taken the letter-bag to
the point agreed upon, although it was an evident impossibility that they
could have done so. I therefore evinced my displeasure and refused to
give them the blankets--for which, nevertheless, they greatly importuned
me. Mr. Browne, however, explained to the Boocolo why I refused, and
charged the natives with having secreted it somewhere or other. On this
there was a long consultation with the natives, which terminated in the
Boocolo's two sons separating from the others, and talking together for a
long time in a corner of my hut; they then came forward and said, that my
decision was perfectly just, for that the men had not been to the place
agreed upon, but had left the bag of letters with a tribe on the Darling,
and therefore, that they had been fully rewarded by the present of the
tomahawks. This decided opinion settled the dispute at once, and the
parties quietly acquiesced.

I had, as stated, been obliged to turn Topar out of my tent, and expel
him the camp for theft, but at the same time Mr. Browne explained to the
natives why I did so, and told them that I should in like manner expel
any other who so transgressed, and they appeared fully to concur in the
justice of my conduct. There is no doubt indeed but that they punish each
other for similar offences, although perhaps the moral turpitude of the