WANT OF WATER.

We now soon got clear of the hills and came out upon a plain of good land, thickly covered with grass-trees.  This plain was about three miles in width and, having traversed it, we found ourselves in a sandy country abounding with Banksia trees.  We crossed several swamps, now completely dried up, and having made ten miles halted for the night without water.  Mr. Walker scraped a hole in one of these swamps and obtained a little putrid and muddy water which, not being very thirsty, I did not drink, more especially as we had now, or indeed for several days, had no tea or anything else to mix with it.

January 22.

We started again at dawn this morning and travelled rapidly, for we were anxious to obtain water.  In six miles we came out upon the sea.  If my reckoning was right we ought now to have been about ten miles to the north of Leschenault; I therefore turned due south.  Kaiber however now came up and remonstrated against this, assuring me that I was wrong and that we were, at this moment, two or three miles to the south of Leschenault, and that if I persisted in going on in this direction we should all die for want of water.  As I put great faith in his knowledge of the country I halted and ascended a hill to try and get a view along the coast; I could not however succeed on account of the haze; and believing then that I must be in error I turned north.  We trudged on, hour after hour; the sun got higher and more intensely hot, whilst, having been four-and-twenty hours without water, the greater part of which time had been spent in violent exercise under a burning sun, the pangs of thirst became very annoying.  A short period more convinced me that I was right, and that Kaiber was in error; and, as we soon after fell in with two native wells now dried up, we dug another in a promising-looking spot near them, and obtained a little water, very muddy and stinking; but I never enjoyed a draught more in my life.  We here halted for breakfast and by degrees obtained water enough for the horses as well as ourselves.

ESTUARY OF THE LESCHENAULT.

The evening was consumed in retracing our steps of the morning, and at night we halted near the head of the Leschenault estuary, being again without water.

January 23.

Our route this morning was along the estuary of the Leschenault.  About five miles from this place we fell in with a party of natives, who informed us that a few days before Mr. Elliott and those with him had arrived there in perfect safety, and my anxiety on this point was therefore set at rest.  We passed the mouth of the river Collie at the bar, which was almost dry, and halted for breakfast on the banks of the Preston, about one mile from the house where I expected to find Mr. Elliott.

MEET WITH MR. ELLIOTT.  MR. ELLIOTT’S ADVENTURES.