evident consciousness. I then questioned the
other that remained, whose excuse for his friend was that the child was
sick and would never have grown up, adding he himself did not PATTER (eat)
any of it.

Many of my readers may probably doubt this horrid occurrence having taken
place, as I have not mentioned any corroborating circumstances. I am
myself, however, as firmly persuaded of the truth of what I have stated as
if I had seen the savage commit the act; for I talked to his companion who
did see him, and who described to me the manner in which he killed the
child. Be it as it may, the very mention of such a thing among these
people goes to prove that they are capable of such an enormity.

We left Yass Plains on the 14th of May, and reached Sydney by easy stages
on the 25th, after an absence of nearly six months.

* * * * *

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

To most of my readers, the foregoing narrative will appear little else
than a succession of adventures. Whilst the expedition was toiling down
the rivers, no rich country opened upon the view to reward or to cheer the
perseverance of those who composed it, and when, at length, the land of
promise lay smiling before them, their strength and their means were too
much exhausted to allow of their commencing an examination, of the result
of which there could be but little doubt. The expedition returned to
Sydney, without any splendid discovery to gild its proceedings; and the
labours and dangers it had encountered were considered as nothing more
than ordinary occurrences. If I myself had entertained hopes that my
researches would have benefited the colony, I was wholly disappointed.
There is a barren tract of country lying to the westward of the Blue
Mountains that will ever divide the eastern coast from the more central
parts of Australia, as completely as if seas actually rolled between them.

GEOGRAPHICAL REMARKS.

In a geographical point of view, however, nothing could have been more
satisfactory, excepting an absolute knowledge of the country to the
northward between the Murray and the Darling, than the results of the
expedition. I have in its proper place stated, as fairly as I could, my
reasons for supposing the principal junction (which I consequently left
without a name) to be the Darling of my former journey, as well as the
various arguments that bore against such a conclusion.

Of course, where there is so much room for doubt, opinions will be
various. I