“Oh, he is all right,” said Loughnan, “I did not tether him, but he is over there eating the reeds.”

“Then he’s gone,” replied Davy.

Every man became seriously alarmed and ran down to the reeds, for Jimmy carried their whole supply of meat.  They found his tracks at the edge of the water, and followed them to the foot of a high bluff, which they ascended, calling as they went repeatedly for Jimmy.  They looked in every direction, scanning especially the tops of the reeds to see if Jimmy was moving amongst them, but they could see no sign of the sheep that was lost.  The view of land and river, mountain and sea, was very beautiful, but they were too full of sorrow for Jimmy to enjoy it.  On going away they agreed to call the bluff Jimmy’s point, but other voyagers came afterwards who knew nothing of Jimmy, and they named it Kalimna, The Beautiful.  Near the shore a number of sandpipers were shot, and stewed for dinner in the large iron pot which was half full of mutton fat.  Then the party pulled down to the entrance of the lakes at Reeve’s River, went ashore, and camped for the night.

Next day they found an outlet to the ocean, and sounded it as they went along, finding six feet of water on the bar at low tide.  But the channel proved afterwards to be a shifting one; the strong current round Cape Howe, and the southerly gales, often filled it with sand, and it was not until many years had passed, and much money had been expended, that a permanent entrance was formed.  In the meantime all the trade of Gippsland was carried on first through the Old Port, and then through the new Port Albert.  For ten years all vessels were piloted without buoy or beacon; in one year one hundred and forty having been entered inwards and outwards.

The party now started on the return voyage.  In going up the lakes a number of blacks were observed on the port beach, and the boats were pulled towards the land until they grounded, and some of the men went ashore.  The natives were standing behind a small sand hummock calling out to the visitors.  One of them had lost an eye, and another looked somewhat like a white man browned with the sun and weather, but only the upper part of his body could be seen above the sand.  One of the men on shore said, “Look at that white-fellow.”  That was the origin of the rumour which was soon spread through the country that the blacks had a white woman living with them, the result being that for a long time the blackfellows were hunted and harassed continually by parties of armed men.  When the natives behind the sand hummock saw that the white men had no arms, they began to approach them without their spears.  Sheridan took up his flute, and they ran back to the scrub, but after he had played a while they came nearer again and listened to the music.

After pulling two or three miles, another party of natives was seen running along the sands, and the explorers went ashore again at a point of land where seven or eight men had appeared, but not one was now visible.  Davy climbed up a honeysuckle tree, and then he could see them hiding in the scrub.  Several of them were seized and held by the white men, who gave them some sugar and then let them go.