The native guide Forrest had with him now began to express doubts as to his knowledge of the exact spot at which he saw the remains.  After considerable search, Forrest came across a large party of the aborigines of the district.  These men, however, proved to be anything but friendly; they threw dowaks at the guide, and advised the whites to go back before they were killed.  Next morning they had speech with two of them, who said that the bones were those of horses, some distance to the north; they said they would come to the camp the next day and lead the whites there, but they did not fulfil their promise.  No other profitable intercourse with the blacks was possible.  One old man howled piteously all the time they were in his company, and another, who had two children with him, gave them to understand most emphatically that he had never heard of any horses having been killed, though some natives had just killed and eaten his own brother.

After vainly searching the district for many days, Forrest determined to utilise the remainder of the time at his disposal by examining the country as far to the eastward as his resources would permit.  It was now clear that the story of the white men’s remains had originated in the skeletons of the horses that perished during Austin’s trip.  No matter how circumstantial might be a narration of the blacks, they invariably contradicted themselves the next time they were interrogated, and it was evident that no useful purpose would be served by following them on a foolish errand from place to place.  Forrest therefore penetrated some distance east, but was not encouraged by the discovery of any useful country.  Nevertheless, he started on a solitary expedition ahead, taking only one black boy and provisions for seven days.  He reached a point one hundred miles beyond the camp of the main body, to the eastward of Mount Margaret on the present goldfields.  He ascended the highest tree he could find, and found the outlook was dreary and desolate.  The country was certainly slightly more open than that hitherto traversed, but it was covered with spinifex, interspersed with an occasional stunted gum-tree.  Rough sandstone cliffs were visible about six miles to the north-east, and more to the north appeared a narrow line of samphire flats with gum trees and cypress growing on their edges.  Of surface water there was no appearance.

On his homeward route Forrest kept a more northerly and westerly course, and crossed Lake Barlee and examined the northern shore; but he found nothing to induce him to modify the unfavourable opinion pronounced on the country by other explorers.  He returned to Perth on the 6th August.

Forrest was next placed at the head of an expedition which was to cross to Adelaide by way of the shores of the Great Australian Bight, along the same ill-omened route followed by Eyre, and never trodden since his remarkable journey.  This time the historic cliffs were to be traversed with but slight privation and no bloodshed.  Though the information supplied by Eyre was considered to be thoroughly trustworthy, it was recognized that with the scanty means of observation at his command and his famished condition, a few important facts might have escaped his notice, and that if his route were followed by a well-equipped party, the terrors of the region might assume less gigantic proportions.