December 13.

This morning Mitchell was found dead by the side of the creek, with his feet in the water.  He must have gone down at night to get water, but too much exhausted to perform his task, had sat down and died there.  None of us being strong enough to dig a grave for him, we sewed the body in a blanket, with a few stones to sink it, and then put it into the brackish water.

December 15.

The thermometer fell this morning and was broken.  It was raining heavily all day, and two bags of my seeds, and several other little things, were washed out of the tent by the water which ran down the hill.  We were all very ill and weak.

December 16.

It was raining this morning, and we remained in the tent.  Hearing one of our dogs barking, however, I went out and saw several natives with pieces of fish and turtle, which I took from them, when they left us.  The natives also brought us some roasted nymphaea roots, which they call dillii.  During the last few days we shot seven pigeons.  Wall and Goddard used to go into the scrub and sit beneath a tree, to which they used to come for berries to feed their young, and watching their opportunity, shoot them.

December 21.

Our kangaroo dog being very weak, and unable to catch anything, we killed, and lived on him for two days.  There was very little flesh on his bones, but our dried meat was so bad, that we very much enjoyed the remains of our old companion, and drank the water in which we boiled him.

December 24.

The natives took a tin case from Wall whilst he was talking to them, he not being able to resist them.  My legs had swelled very much, and I was able to walk but a very short distance.

December 26.

The natives brought us a few pieces of fish and turtle, but both were almost rotten; they also gave us a blue-tongued lizard, which I opened and took out eleven young ones, which we roasted and ate.  There was nothing but scales on the old one, except in its tail.

We always equally divided whatever we got from the natives, be it what it might; but they brought us very little that was eatable.  I could easily perceive that their pretended good feeling towards us was assumed for the sake of fulfilling their own designs upon us.  Although they tried to make us believe they were doing all in their power to benefit us, their object was to obtain an opportunity of coming upon us by surprise and destroying us.  They had at many times seen the fatal effects of our firearms, and I believe that it was only the dread of these, that prevented them from falling upon us at once, and murdering us.  They were a much finer race of men than the natives we had seen at Rockingham Bay, most of the men being from five feet ten to six feet high.  The general characteristics of the race were different from those of the other aborigines I had ever seen, and I imagined that they might be an admixture of the Australian tribes and the Malays,