CHAPTER 2.  FROM THE HUTT RIVER TO WATER PEAK.

Wild turkeys seen.

April 6.

We moved off this morning on a course of 180 degrees.  The first mile of our journey was over low scrubby ironstone hills.  We then came down upon rich flats through which the main branch of the Hutt ran; and followed the course of this branch for about two miles.  It was not running but there were many pools with water in its bed:  the flats were rich and grassy and on the hills to the westward (the Menai Hills) we descried wild turkeys, being the farthest point north at which I had seen this bird.

As I saw that the ground in front of us was very steep and abrupt, so that the weak and weary would have found it a difficult task to master such an ascent, I turned off on a course of 168 degrees, ascending a sandy tableland covered with scrub.  When we had walked three miles in this direction the table-hill of Captain King bore east by south distant five miles.  We now proceeded parallel to the sea, which was distant one mile through an indifferent country.  This course continued for about five miles, and on the ranges to the eastward the country still appeared to be grassy and good.

Reluctance of the men to hasten onwards.  Difficulty of urging the party forward.

Although we had walked very slowly many of the party were completely exhausted, and one or two of the discontented ones pretended to be dreadfully in want of water, notwithstanding they carried canteens and had only walked eight miles since leaving the bank of a river; I was therefore obliged to halt, and could not get them to move for three hours.  I am sorry to say that some who should have known much better endeavoured to instil into the minds of the men that it was preferable only to walk a few miles a day and not to waste their strength by long marches; utterly forgetting that most of the party had now only seven or eight pounds of fermented flour left, and that if they did not make play whilst they had strength their eventually reaching Perth was quite hopeless.  This however was a very popular doctrine for thoughtless and weary men, who were overloaded and yet from a feeling of avarice would not abandon any portion of what they were carrying.  The majority of the party not only adopted these views in theory but doggedly carried them into practice; and from this moment I abandoned all hope of getting the whole party into the settled districts in safety.  Poor fellows! most of them paid dearly for the mistaken notions they now adopted.  Mr. Smith, with his usual spirit, was for pushing on, although his strength was inadequate to the task.  I laid under the shade of a bush lost in gloomy reveries and temporary unpopularity; Kaiber by my side lulled me with native songs composed for the occasion, and in prospective