June 16.

Mr. Kennedy and party proceeded again this morning to enter the swamps, but in a different direction, in the hope of finding some spot where a road might be made, but returned with no better success.  This day we killed the best sheep we had yet slaughtered; it weighed 53 pounds, those we had previously killed weighed from 40 to 48 pounds; they did not keep fat, but up to this time we were enabled to fry all the meat, which mode of cookery was more speedy and convenient for us than boiling or any other way.

June 17.

We proceeded this evening along the edge of the swamps, crossing several small creeks.  In many places the wheels of the carts sank to the axletrees in consequence of the rottenness of the ground near the creeks.  At length we camped, after travelling about five miles.

June 18.

This day was Sunday, and at eleven o’clock Mr. Kennedy assembled the whole party under the shade of some large trees and read prayers.  This was a practice always persevered in when practicable, and unless for some very pressing reason, we uniformly set apart the Sabbath as a day of rest, such an interval from our toils being in fact absolutely necessary.

June 19.

Again Mr. Kennedy started this morning, accompanied by five men, into the swamps, determined, if possible, to find a road by which we might cross them, and get to the foot of the mountain ranges on the south.  He remained out during this and the two following days.  The natives appear to be very numerous in the neighbourhood of Rockingham Bay.  There was an old camping-place with twelve or fourteen old huts near our camp, but it was not visited by the natives during our stay there.  They generally came to look at us every day, but always kept at a distance; on some days we saw as many as from eighty to a hundred.  The women and children always kept farther from us than the men; I think more from fear of our dogs and horses than of ourselves.  The weather was cool, with showers occasionally during the day, and at night steady rain set in.

June 20.

The rain continued throughout the day.

June 21 and 22.

The rain still continued.  Two of our horses were found bogged in a creek near the camp, but were soon released without injury; they had strayed into the creek to eat the aquatic grass, which is plentiful on almost all the creeks between the swamps and the sea.  The soil here was rather stiffer than we had found it before, being a light sandy loam, and in places clayey.  There were not so many shells to be seen, and what there were, were principally bivalves.

Mr. Kennedy returned this evening, and having again found it impossible to cross the swamps, we were obliged to return to the beach, where the travelling was far better than among the trees.  While travelling inland a man was always obliged to walk before the carts, to cut down small trees.