d to the W.N.W. as the
direction in which the settlement lay. We travelled about five miles over
stony ironstone ridges, with extensive groves of Livistona palm covering
their slopes. Here Baki Baki desired to dismount; and, telling us that it
was a very good road to Balanda, took his leave and returned. Soon after
we came to a large creek full of water, running to the eastward, which we
followed up for a long distance, before we were able to cross. Our
pack-horse became bogged, and as it was so weak that it would not even
make an effort to extricate itself, and as I supposed that we were near
the settlement, we took off its pack-saddle and load, and left it behind.
We crossed two or three more watercourses; and continued the course
pointed out by the native, until it became very late, and I found myself
compelled to look for water; particularly as our bullock showed evident
symptoms of becoming knocked up. I therefore followed the fall of the
country to the north-east; and, in a short time, came to the sea-side. We
compared our little map of the harbour of Port Essington with the
configuration of the bay before us, but nothing would agree exactly,
although it bore a general resemblance to Raffles Bay.

A narrow belt of brush covered the approaches to the water; but the
scarlet Eugenia grew on the sandy flats towards the hilly forest; where
we also found a new tree, a species of Anacardium, which the natives
called "Lugula;" it bore a red succulent fruit, formed by the enlargement
of the stalk, with a greyish one-seeded nut outside, like Exocarpus. The
fruit was extremely refreshing; the envelope, however, contained such an
acrid juice that it ate into and discoloured my skin, and raised blisters
wherever it touched it: these blisters were not only followed by a simple
excoriation, but by a deep and painful ulceration. In the forest, we met
with some few small Seaforthia palms, the young shoots of which we
obtained with great difficulty, not then knowing how easily the natives
strip them of the surrounding leaves and leafstalks. I followed a a well
beaten foot-path of the natives to the northward, crossed a creek, in the
mangrove swamp of which another horse was bogged, which we extricated
after great exertion; and, after two or three miles, came to a large
fresh-water swamp (Marair) on which we encamped. The sun had long set,
and our cattle, as well as ourselves, were miserably tired. We were here
visited by a tribe of