At this time we had only two meals per day; breakfast at daylight, and dinner when we had completed our day’s work, and camped.  The time for dinner was therefore irregular, depending on the nature of the country over which we travelled.  Some days we dined at one o’clock, on others not till dark.  Whenever any birds were shot, they were boiled for supper; but as yet we had killed very few.

Mr. Kennedy appeared to be, in every respect, admirably fitted for the leader of an expedition of this character.  Although he had innumerable difficulties and hardships to contend with, he always appeared cheerful, and in good spirits.  Travelling through such a country as we were in, such a disposition was essential to the success of the expedition.  He was always diverting the minds of his followers from the obstacles we daily encountered, and encouraging them to hope for better success; careful in all his observations and calculations, as to the position of his camp, and cautious not to plunge into difficulties, without personal observation of the country, to enable him to take the safest path.  But having decided, he pursued his deliberate determination with steady perseverance, sharing in the labour of cutting through the scrub, and all the harassment attendant on travelling through such a wilderness, with as much (or greater) alacrity and zeal as any of his followers.  It was often grievous to me to hear some of the party observe, after we had passed over some difficult tract, that a better road might have been found, a little to the right or to the left.  Such observations were the most unjust and vexatious, as in all matters of difficulty and of opinion, he would invariably listen to the advice of all, and if he thought it prudent, take it.  For my own part, I can safely say, that I was always ready to obey his orders, and conform to his directions, confident as I then was of his abilities to lead us to the place of our destination as speedily as possible.

June 23.

We started early this morning, and proceeded along the beach till we came to a small river, which was narrow and shallow, but the bottom being muddy, and it being low-water, we diverged towards the sea, where the sand was firmer, and there crossed it with little difficulty, without unloading the packhorses or carts.  The tide runs but a short distance up this river, and as far as the tide goes it is fringed with a belt of mangroves.  The banks are muddy, and so soft that a man sinks up to his knees in walking along them.  A little above the mangroves the river divides into several small creeks, in swampy ground, covered with small melaleucas so thickly, that although they are not at all bushy below, but have straight trunks of from three to five inches in diameter, and from ten to twenty feet high, a man can scarcely walk between them.