I have to acknowledge the receipt of the letter containing your instructions of the 26th ultimo which was delivered to me by Overseer Burnett on the 5th of this month, who arrived at the moment the first boatload from the camp reached the opposite bank of the Murray.  By means of casks we floated the drays over the three rivers and, after two experiments with a raft, both partial failures, and while a third raft was in progress, of a more solid and better construction, we discovered that a canoe, of very large dimensions and paddled by the native boy Tommy, would prove the most expeditious as well as a safe mode of shipment for the boxes of value, equipment, etc.  I therefore caused a canoe to be used for this purpose and it answered admirably.  I have to mention the loss of three of the cattle.  One by death at the depot in consequence of previous over-exertion, and two by accidents of a most provoking and unlucky nature, but which could not have been foreseen or prevented.

I have the honour to be, etc.

...

THE ABORIGINAL NATIVES.

This was one of the best proofs how valuable the services of the aborigines who accompanied the party were to us on some occasions.  They could strip from a tree in a very short time a sheet of bark large enough to form a canoe; and they could propel the light bark thus made through the water with astonishing ease and swiftness.  By this means alone most of our effects were transported across broad rivers without an accident even to any of my papers or dried plants.

TURANDUREY.

I was now anxious to convince them how much I appreciated that assistance, but felt in some degree at a loss, especially in the case of The Widow.  It was therefore not the least satisfactory part of the intelligence subsequently received from Mr. Stapylton that she was married on her arrival to Joey, the King of the Murrumbidgee.

MY MODE OF COMMUNICATING WITH MR. STAPYLTON.

Mr. Stapylton had also received my several communications Numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, which he dug from the earth at various camps; thus we had for once eluded the keen eye of the aborigines in this kind of correspondence, although on my first journey we had not been so successful.  My original plan on this expedition was to bury the letter under the ashes of my fire; cutting at the same time a cross in the turf where my tent had stood, as the mark by which Mr. Stapylton was to know that something was so deposited.  But I subsequently improved on this plan and buried my letter in the centre of the cross by merely making a hole with a stick in the soft earth where the turf had been cut and dropping the letter into it.

SURVEY OF THE MURRUMBIDGEE.