seen a white man.  I gave him a piece of bread which he did not taste, saying he should take it to Einer (his gin or wife).  He knew not a word of the low jargon usually taught the natives by our people; but he spoke incessantly in his own purer language, scarcely a word of which we understood, beyond you, two gins, fire, doctor (coradje) and to sleep.  One circumstance, very trifling certainly, to mention here, may serve however to show the characteristic quickness of these people.  He had asked for a bit of fire to be placed beside him (the constant habit of the naked aborigines) and, on seeing a few sparks of burning grass running towards my feet, he called out to me “we, we” (i.e. fire, fire!) that I might avoid having my clothes burnt.  This consideration in a savage, amid so many strange objects, and while suffering from so many new and raw wounds received from one of us, was, at least, an instance of that natural attentiveness, if I may so call it, which sometimes distinguishes the aborigines of Australia.  This man of the woods at length by gestures asked my permission to depart, and also that he might take a fire-stick; and, in going, he said much which, from his looks and gestures, I understood as expressive of goodwill or thanks, in his way.  He further asked me to accompany him till he was clear of the bullocks, and thus he left us.  This unfortunate affair arose solely from our too suddenly approaching the waterholes where the tribes usually resort.  We had observed the caution with which those natives who guided us always went near such places, by preceding us a good way and calling out; I determined therefore in future to sound my bugle where I meant to encamp, that the natives might not be surprised by our too sudden approach, but have time to retire if they thought proper to do so.

May 15.

We moved off early, and travelled sixteen miles, when we reached some good ponds on the Bogan; having passed a remarkable bend in that river to the westward.

May 16.

After proceeding a few miles on our route this morning we saw from a tree, in the skirt of a plain, a range bearing North 331 degrees.  The bends of the creek sent me much to the westward of that direction:  and we crossed some rotten or hollow ground which delayed the carts.  On proceeding beyond this we came to a fire where we heard natives shouting, and we then saw them running abreast of us, but I did not court a closer acquaintance.  Soon after, seeing an extensive tract of soft, broken, or rotten ground before me, I took to the left, in order to gain a plain, where the surface was firm.  On reaching this plain, the dogs killed two kangaroos, and a little further the soil changing, became red and firm, with some dry ponds, and though there was little timber yet I had never before seen several of the kinds of trees.  A little before sunset we reached a slight eminence consisting of a compound of quartz and felspar, and from it I had a view of New Year’s Range of Hume, bearing North 97 degrees, and of a higher range to the west of it.  We finally encamped without water on a fine, open, forest flat, about two miles southward of the former range.