Reaching at length the open plains beyond Brush Hill, I once more traced the line of that watercourse which may truly be said to have saved our lives when we first providentially fell in with it, just as the men were beginning to sink, overcome by extreme and long-continued thirst.  To us it had afforded then the happiest of camps after such a deliverance; and now we were to witness in the same spot a scene of death.  Having struck into the old track of the carts as we approached the place we found the pistol of Bombelli within a foot of the track.  This was surprising, for although Mr. Finch had informed me that Bombelli lost it in the grass after adjusting some harness (a fatal loss, poor fellow, to him) it is seldom that any article so dropped escapes the quick-sighted natives, to whom the surface of the earth is, in fact, as legible as a newspaper, so accustomed are they to read in any traces left thereon the events of the day.  For the lost pistol, Burnett, who had charge of the arms, carefully sought, as he felt a commendable and soldier-like desire to carry back to Sydney, in good order, our full complement of firearms.

RECOVER THE CART AND TRUNKS.

A lonely cart and two dead bodies covered by the remains of Mr. Finch’s equipment now marked the spot where we had formerly encamped.  The two bullocks were no longer to be seen.  The natives had revisited the spot since Mr. Finch last quitted it, and had carried off the remainder of the flour, and great part of the canvas of the tent.  The bodies were covered by a pile of various articles such as saddles, bows and yokes, harness, packsaddles, trunks, canisters, etc.  The savages appeared to have been ignorant of the use of sugar, tea, and tobacco, articles which the aborigines nearer to our colony prefer to all other things.  A large canister of tea had been emptied on the ground, a similar canister, more than half full of sugar, lay on its side, so that its contents were still good, the lids of both canisters having been carried off.  The whole stock of tobacco lay scattered about the ground and destroyed by the late rains.  A spade, a steel-yard, and a hammer were left; although iron had been so desirable that one of the iron pins of the cart was carried away.  The two hair trunks belonging to Mr. Finch and which contained his clothes, papers, etc. remained on the heap, uninjured and unopened, while the truly savage plunderers had carried off, apparently as stuff for clothing, the canvas of the tent.  From these circumstances it was obvious that the murderous were quite unacquainted with the colonists or their habits.

BURY THE BODIES.

The bodies were now in the most offensive state of putrefaction, and already so much decayed that we could not even distinguish the persons, except by the smaller frame of Bombelli.  The body of the bullock-driver lay under the cart, where he had been accustomed to sleep; that of Bombelli about four feet from it.  No dress appeared to have been on either besides the shirts, and one side of each skull was so shattered that fragments lay about on removing the remains into a grave.  It seemed most probable that the natives had stolen upon them when asleep.