and small animals.  As well as we could understand by his signs, it appeared that he had been anxiously waiting our arrival, and had pushed off from the main to intercept the boat, on our leaving Bathurst Island.  We threw him a line, and he immediately comprehended our intention, and its use, by at once making fast to the raft; an instance of confident reliance upon our good intentions, which reflected much credit upon the unsuspicious openness of his own character, and which I should have exceedingly regretted by any act of ours to abuse.

PARTING WITH THE NATIVE.

Had not the distance and our scant supply of food, rendered such a step imprudent, I should have been very glad to have towed him to the ship.  I really believe he would have trusted himself with us, for that or a much longer distance; but this could not be, and therefore, after endeavouring to make him understand that we should sleep some distance to the south, where there was a larger boat, alluding to the ship, we filled his basket with bread, gave him as much water as he could drink, and bidding him farewell, reluctantly cut him adrift:  I shall not soon forget the sorrowful expression of his countenance, when this apparently inhospitable act was performed; it did not seem however to quench his regard for his new friends, for so long as we could see him he was hard at work paddling in our wake.  I noticed that the beads given him yesterday were gone; this fact, coupled with the smokes seen during the day, satisfied me that he had friends in the neighbourhood, to whom I hoped he would report favourably of his new acquaintances; we had certainly endeavoured to obtain his goodwill.  Simple-hearted, trusting savage, farewell!

NATIVE SPEARS.

The woodcut represents the difference between the spear used by the natives of this district and those of Swan River.

We soon reached Whirlpool Channel, through which the tide again hurried and whirled us with almost frightful rapidity; we were in one part of it shot down a fall of several feet, the boat’s bow being fairly buried in the boiling current.  Emerging from this channel the hoary face of the remarkable headland already described, burst on our view; and as it was necessary if possible to reach its summit, we landed in a small bay, near the southern extremity.

By following a winding ravine we gained the crest of this singular platform, which we found formed of a fine-grained sandstone, with some beautiful specimens of crystallised quartz on its higher parts, over which was a slight sprinkling of vegetation, consisting of a few small gumtrees and patches of coarse grass.  The weather was unusually cloudy, with squalls from the North-East; towards the evening it was fine with a moderate breeze from East-South-East.  As it was late when we reached the boat, we spent the night where we landed.

March 27.

We were early on the move pursuing our southerly course, the morning being rather gloomy with a fresh North-East wind, which raised a good deal of sea in the mouths of the larger bays.  As the day closed we reached a cove half a mile north of Tide-Race Point, where we passed the night.