We left the Rock on the 23rd, but only going four miles for a start, we let the horses go back without hobbles to feed for the night.  Where the lake was crossed Mr. Gosse had laid down a broad streak of bushes and boughs, and we crossed without much difficulty, the crossing-place being very narrow.  Leaving the dray track at the lower end of King’s Creek of my former journey, we struck across for Penny’s Creek, four miles east of it, where the splendid rocky reservoir is, and where there was delicious herbage for the horses.  We had now a fair and fertile tract to the River Finke, discovered by me previously, getting water and grass at Stokes’s, Bagot’s, Trickett’s, and Petermann’s Creeks; fish and water at Middleton’s and Rogers’s Pass and Ponds.  Thence down the Palmer by Briscoe’s Pass, and on to the junction of the Finke, where there is a fine large water-hole at the junction.

On the 10th of July travelling down the Finke near a place called Crown Point on the telegraph line, we saw a white man riding towards us.  He proved to be a Mr. Alfred Frost, the owner of several fine horse-teams and a contractor to supply loading for the Government to several telegraph stations farther up the line.  I had known him before; he was most kind.  He was going ahead to select a camp for his large party, but upon our telling him of our having nothing but horse-flesh, he immediately returned with us, and we met the advancing teams.  He called a halt, ordered the horses to be unyoked, and we were soon laughing and shaking hands with new-found friends.  Food was the first order Mr. Frost gave, and while some were unyoking the horses, some were boiling the tea-billies, while old Frost was extracting a quart of rum for us from a hogshead.  But we did not indulge in more than a sip or two, as bread and meat was what we cared for most.  In ten minutes the tea was ready; some splendid fat corned beef, and mustard, and well-cooked damper were put before us, and oh, didn’t we eat!  Then pots of jams and tins of butter were put on our plates whole, and were scooped up with spoons, till human organisms could do no more.  We were actually full—­full to repletion.  Then we had some grog.  Next we had a sleep, and then at sundown another exquisite meal.  It made our new friends shudder to look at our remaining stock of Hollow Back, when we emptied it out on a tarpaulin and told them that was what we had been living on.  However, I made them a present of it for their dogs.  Most of the teamsters knew Gibson, and expressed their sorrow at his mishap; some of them also knew he was married.

The natives up the line had been very aggressive at the telegraph stations, while we were absent, and all our firearms, etc., were eagerly purchased, also several horses and gear.  Mr. Frost fell in love with Banks at a glance, and, though I tried not to part with the horse, he was so anxious to buy him that I could not well refuse, although I had intended to keep him and West Australian.  Trew, one of the best horses, had been staked early in the journey and his foot was blemished, otherwise he was a splendid horse.  All the best horses were wanted—­Diaway, Blackie, etc., but I kept W.A., Widge, and one or two more of the best, as we still had several hundreds of miles to go.