A stockman came to our camp, whose station was about six miles further up the creek, in one of the valleys amongst the ranges.  He had heard from the natives that they had killed a “white man, gentleman,” as they said, and he added a number of horrible particulars of the alleged murder of Mr. Cunningham by the aborigines which subsequent accounts however proved to have been much exaggerated.

MOUNT JUSON.

This day I recognised Mount Juson, a conical hill where the beacon which he had erected while I was engaged at the theodolite, still stood.  Mr. Cunningham had requested that I would give to the hill the maiden name of his mother, which I accordingly did.  This appeared to me at the time rather a singular request, and now it seemed still more so for, from his melancholy fate almost immediately after, it proved to be his last.

LEAVE THE PARTY AND MARK A NEW LINE OF ASCENT TO HERVEY’S RANGE.

September 13.

Taking forward with me two men to the first of the two rocky places in our line which, as already stated, I wished to alter, I found that both acclivities might be avoided, and the road also shortened at least a mile, by taking a more easterly direction up a valley which led almost entirely through fine open forest land to our old route.  I completed this alteration about an hour before sunset.  Water was the next desideratum, and I had the good fortune to find also enough of it in a rocky gully where there was also greener pasturage than any that I had seen during the journey, distant only a quarter of a mile to the northward of my newly marked line.  This was the only link wanted to complete the route which the carts were to follow; and it may be imagined with what satisfaction I lay down for the night by that water which relieved me from all further anxiety respecting the party I had succeeded in conducting through such a country during a season of so great drought.

September 14.

Having despatched the two men back to the camp with information and written directions respecting the line to be followed, the plan of encampment and the water; I struck again into our old track by following which I hoped to reach Buree that night, this being the station whence I first led the expedition towards the Interior.

The consciousness of being able, unmolested, to visit even the remotest parts of the landscape around, was now to me a source of high gratification; but this feeling can be understood by those only who may have wandered as long in the low interior country under the necessity of being constantly vigilant, on account of the savage natives, and to travel cautiously with arms forever at hand.

GET UPON A ROAD.

At length I came upon a dusty road presenting numerous impressions of the shoes of men and horses; and after having been so long accustomed to view even a solitary, naked footmark with interest, the sight of a road marked with shoes, and the associations these traces revived, were worth all the toil of the journey.  The numerous conveniences of social life were again at hand, and my compass was no longer required for this road would lead me on without further care, to the happy abodes of civilised men.