rain water in the channel at Mount Gould’s foot, at which I fixed the camp.  As these were the same natives or members of the same tribes, that had murdered one if not both the young Clarksons, I determined to be very guarded in my dealings with them.  The men endeavoured to force their way into the camp several times.  I somewhat more forcibly repelled them with a stick, which made them very angry.  As a rule, very few people like being beaten with a stick, and these were no exception.  They did not appear in the least degree afraid, or astonished, at the sight of the camels.  When they were hobbled out several of the men not only went to look at them, but began to pull them about also, and laughed heartily and in chorus when a camel lay down for them.  One or two could say a few words of English, and said, “Which way walk?  You Melbourne walk?” the magic name of Melbourne being even in these people’s mouths.  This is to be accounted for by the fact that Mr. E. Wittenoom had returned from thence not long before, and having taken a Cheangwa black boy with him, the latter had spread the news of the wonders he had seen in the great metropolis, to the uttermost ends of the earth.

There was not very much water where we camped, but still ample for my time.  The grass and herbage here were splendid and green.  When the men found I would not allow them to skulk about the camp, and apparently desired no intercourse with them, some of them brought up first one, then another, and another, and another, very pretty young girls; the men leading them by the hand and leaving them alone in the camp, and as it seemed to them that they were required to do or say something, they began to giggle.  The men then brought up some very nice-looking little boys.  But I informed them they might as well go; girls and boys went away together, and we saw nothing more of them that evening.  This was a very pretty and picturesque place.  Mount Gould rose with rough and timbered sides to a pointed ridge about two miles from the camp.  The banks of the creek were shaded with pretty trees, and numerous acacia and other leguminous bushes dotted the grassy flooded lands on either side of the creek.  The beauty of the place could scarcely be enjoyed, as the weather was so hot and the flies such awful plagues, that life was almost a misery, and it was impossible to obtain a moment’s enjoyment of the scene.  The thermometer had stood at 103 degrees in the shade in the afternoon, and at night the mosquitoes were as numerous and almost more annoying than the flies in the day.  The following day being Sunday, we rested, and at a very early hour crowds of black men, women, boys, and children, came swarming up to the camp.  But the men were not allowed to enter.  There was no resisting the encroachments of the girls; they seemed out of their wits with delight at everything they saw; they danced and pirouetted about among the camels’ loads with the greatest glee.  Everything with them