As soon as the arrangements were concluded I assembled the men and publicly repeated these directions to them; and to such as Clotworthy I addressed strong admonitions as to their future conduct.  Many of them did not appear to be in the least aware of the critical situation they were placed in; I however entertained great fears for the safety of some of them.  Poor Smith was at this time in a very delicate state of health, and his courage and gentleness had so endeared him to me that the sight of his sickly face made me long to be on the march to send out help to him.  For Mr. Walker I had no fear; I have never known anyone endowed with a greater degree of patient endurance; indeed had he not, from a mistaken good nature, been too familiar with the men, no one could have been more admirably adapted for the trying position in which he was placed; and even as events turned out I doubt if anyone could have been found who would have endured more, or would have gone through greater exertions to save those under his command.

The party I left, and who were not required to proceed by forced marches, consisted of: 

Mr. Walker,
Mr. Smith,
Thomas Ruston,
C. Woods,
T. Stiles,
A. Clotworthy.

Separation of the party.  Advice to those left behind.

Before parting with Mr. Walker and Mr. Smith I again urged them to push steadily onwards and never to idle for an instant; but I do not think that either of them were fully aware of the dangers they had to contend with.  Poor Smith, as he squeezed my hand, begged me to send out a horse for him, if one could be procured, and also some tobacco; he said the only thing he dreaded was want of water.

Mr. Walker smiled and told me to look out for myself that he was not in Perth before me, and several others seemed to participate in his feeling and to regard my plan of proceeding as the height of folly.

I left with Mr. Walker’s party everything that was really useful, such as the cooking saucepan and the only hatchet we had.  These were very valuable to them, for had they come into a grass-tree country they might have subsisted for a long time upon the tops of these trees, as Mr. Elliott did upon a former occasion; for he together with two men lived upon them for fourteen days.  This very useful implement they however threw away the second day after we parted.  We also left them all the fishing-hooks.

Mr. Walker’s party instantly commenced on the system of halting, and instead of moving on in the afternoon remained where they were that day for the purpose of resting themselves.

The country we travelled over for the first two miles was pretty good, being a series of grassy plains.  At this point we came to a belt of thick wood which we found exceedingly difficult to traverse.  We then continued our south by east course for four miles further over undulating sandy downs, and halted for the night in a small clump of Banksia trees which afforded plenty of wood for our fires.