er attending the effort to advance to King George's Sound. With
respect to the native boys, they appeared to think or care but little
about the future; they were not sensible of their danger, and having
something still to eat and drink, they played and laughed and joked with
each other as much as ever.

Whilst waiting for the tide to fall, to enable us to proceed, the
overseer dug a hole, and we buried nearly every thing we had with us,
saddles, fire-arms, ammunition, provisions; all things were here
abandoned except two guns, the keg with the little water we had left, and
a very little flour, tea and sugar. I determined to relieve our horses
altogether from every weight (trifling as was the weight of all we had),
and by pushing, if possible, on to the water, endeavour to save their
lives; after which we could return for the things we had abandoned. Our
arrangements being completed, we all bathed in the sea, ate a scanty
meal, and again moved onwards at half past two o'clock.

The poor horses started better than could have been expected, but it was
soon evident that all were fast failing, and many already quite
exhausted. At six miles my favourite mare could no longer keep up with
the rest, and we were obliged to let her drop behind. Her foal, now six
months old, we got away with some difficulty from her, and kept it with
the other horses; at four miles further another of the horses failed, and
I had him tied up, in the hope that if we reached water during the
evening, I might send back and recover him.

Towards dark we all imagined we saw a long point stretching to the S. W.
and backed by high sandy looking cones. We hoped that these might be the
sand-hills we were pushing for, and our hearts beat high with hope once
more. It, however, soon become too dark to discern anything, and at
fourteen miles from where we had halted in the morning, we were again
obliged by the tide to encamp for the night, as the country behind the
shore was densely scrubby, and quite impracticable as a line of route. It
was nine o'clock when we halted, and we were all very tired, and our feet
somewhat inflamed, from getting so frequently wet with the salt water,
whilst endeavouring to keep the horses from it; there was no grass but
the coarse wiry kind that bound the sand together, of this the poor
animals cropped a little, as a very heavy dew fell, and served to moisten
it. As usual, the overseer and myself kept watch upon the horses at
nigh