about the bush looking for wattle trees, but they could not find in any place a sufficient quantity to make the business profitable.  There was no regular employment to be had, but fortunately the schooner ‘Scotia’, chartered by John King, went ashore in a gale, and four of the barkers, all Irishmen obtained a few days’ work in taking out her mud ballast.  But no permanent livelihood could be expected from shipwrecks, and the seven strippers resolved, if possible, to return to Melbourne.  They wanted to see Paddy Walsh once more, but they had no money, and the storekeeper refused to pay their fare by sea.  After much negotiation, they obtained a week’s rations, and gave all the tools they had brought with them to Captain Davy in payment for his trouble in landing them at One Tree Hill.  They were informed that Brodribb and Hobson had made Western Port in four days on foot, and of course they could do the same.  Four of the men were named Crow, Sparrow, Fox, and Macnamara; of the other three two were Englishmen, Smith and Brown; the third, a native of London, named Spiller, installed himself in the office of captain on account of his superior knowledge.  He guaranteed to lead the party in a straight line to Western Port.  He said he could box the compass; he had not one about him, but that made no difference.  He would lay out their course every morning; they had to travel westward; the sun rose in the east, everybody knew as much as that; so all he had to do was to turn his back to the rising sun, and march straight on to Western Port which was situated in the west.  The men agreed that Spiller’s theory was a very good one; they could not think of any objection to it.

Each man carried his blanket and rations, his gun and ammunition.  Every morning Spiller pointed out the course to be taken and led the way.  From time to time, with a look of extreme wisdom, he took observations of the position of the sun, and studied the direction of his own shadow on the ground.  For five days the men followed him with great confidence, and then they found that their rations were all consumed, and there was no sign of Western Port or any settlement.  They began to grumble, and to mistrust their captain; they said he must have been leading them astray, otherwise they would have seen some sign of the country being inhabited, and they formed a plan for putting Spiller’s knowledge of inland navigation to the test.

A start was made next morning, the cockney as usual, taking the lead.  One man followed him, but kept losing ground purposely, merely keeping the leader in sight; the others did the same.  Before the last man had lost sight of the camp, he could see Spiller in the distance walking towards it.  He then uttered a long coo-ee, which was answered by every man of the party.  They thought some valuable discovery had been made.  One by one they followed the call and were soon assembled at the still burning embers they had lately left.