to consult undisturbed as to the moat prudent measures to be adopted, under our embarrassing circumstances.  The men were completely sunk.  We were still between eighty and ninety miles from Pondebadgery, in a direct line, and nearly treble that distance by water.  The task was greater than we could perform, and our provisions were insufficient.  In this extremity I thought it best to save the men the mortification of yielding, by abandoning the boat; and on further consideration, I determined on sending Hopkinson and Mulholland, whose devotion, intelligence, and indefatigable spirits, I well knew, forward to the plain.

The joy this intimation spread was universal, Both Hopkinson and Mulholland readily undertook the journey, and I, accordingly, prepared orders for them to start by the earliest dawn.  It was not without a feeling of sorrow that I witnessed the departure of these two men, to encounter a fatiguing march.  I had no fears as to their gaining the plain, if their reduced state would permit them.  On the other hand, I hoped they would fall in with our old friend the black, or that they would meet the drays; and I could not but admire the spirit and energy they both displayed upon the occasion.  Their behaviour throughout had been such as to awaken in my breast a feeling of the highest approbation.  Their conduct, indeed, exceeded all praise, nor did they hesitate one moment when I called upon them to undertake this last trying duty, after such continued exertion.  I am sure the reader will forgive me for bringing under his notice the generous efforts of these two men; by me it can never be forgotten.

Abandon and Burn the boat.

Six days had passed since their departure; we remaining encamped.  M’Leay and myself had made some short excursions, but without any result worthy of notice.  A group of sand-hills rose in the midst of the alluvial deposits, about a quarter of a mile from the tents, that were covered with coarse grasses and banksias.  We shot several intertropical birds feeding in the latter, and sucking the honey from their flowers.  I had, in the mean time, directed Clayton to make some plant cases of the upper planks of the boat, and then to set fire to her, for she was wholly unserviceable, and I felt a reluctance to leave her like a neglected log on the water.  The last ounce of flour had been served out to the men, and the whole of it was consumed on the sixth day from that on which we had abandoned the boat.  I had calculated on seeing Hopkinson again in eight days, but as the morrow would see us without food, I thought, as the men had had a little rest it would be better to advance towards relief than to await its arrival.

Men return with supplies.

On the evening of the 18th, therefore, we buried our specimens and other stores, intending to break up the camp in the morning.  A singular bird, which invariably passed it at an hour after sunset, and which, from its heavy flight, appeared to be of unusual size so attracted my notice, that in the evening M’Leay and I crossed the river, in hope to get a shot at it.  We had, however, hardly landed on the other side, when a loud shout called us back to witness the return of our comrades.