Weakness and obstinacy of the ponies.

February 3.

This morning the rain had somewhat abated:  the remaining stores were brought from the ravine, and the goats were swum across; in the meantime the ponies were brought up and loaded, and all preparations were at last made for a start:  but a host of new difficulties arose; many of the ponies were found to be in such a weakly state that they could with great difficulty carry any weight at all.  We were obliged to make a totally new division of the stores, and to select and put aside what articles we could best leave behind.  These preparations occupied a considerable time, but we at last moved off in a south-east direction.  Our progress was however very slow and tedious; the ponies, though lightly loaded, were so reduced that the slightest obstacle made many fall from weakness, whilst others laid down from obstinacy, and the men being inexperienced in re-fixing the loads, each horse that fell delayed us considerably.  At last so many were down at one time that I advanced with such as were able to move to a point distant not more than half a mile, where I halted for the night; and, having unloaded and tethered these horses, we returned to assist the others, and after a great deal of difficulty got the remainder of the weak ponies safe to the encampment.

I slept but little this night for I doubted whether, with our cattle so enfeebled and so out of condition, we should ever succeed in penetrating any distance into the country.  We were still a considerable way from the fertile plains I had seen to the southward, whilst the intervening ground was very difficult to travel across and afforded no good feed for the ponies.  All my meditations however only terminated in the conviction that it was my duty to continue to use my best exertions under such adverse circumstances.

February 4.

There being no good grass for the horses where we were, I was obliged to move the party and commenced by using every method I could to lighten the loads and to rid the expedition of all encumbrances.  I left here a male and female goat who, by their obstinacy, delayed our movements; thinking also that, if they escaped the natives, their offspring might become a valuable acquisition to this land.

We also left here 28 pounds of gunpowder, 10 pounds of ball cartridges, 70 pounds of shot, 200 pounds of preserved meat, some carpenters’ tools, and many other useful articles; yet, notwithstanding this decrease in the loads of the ponies, the country we had to travel through was so bad that we only completed two miles in the course of the day; and yet to find the track by which we did succeed in crossing the range had cost me many successive hours’ walking under a burning sun.  The character of the country we passed through was the same as these sandstone ranges always present; namely, sandy scrubby plains, and low ranges of ruinous, rocky hills, in trying to scramble over which the ponies received numerous and severe falls.  We however had a very beautiful halting-place, shaded by lofty pines and affording fair feed for the animals.