On the 11th about 3 p.m.  I was roused by the dogs simultaneously springing up and rushing across the creek, but supposing they had seen a native dog, I did not rise; however, I soon knew by their continued barking that they had something at bay, and Mr. Piesse not long after came to inform me a solitary native was on the top of some rising ground in front of the camp.  I sent him therefore with some of the men to call off the dogs, and to bring him down to the tents.  The poor fellow had fought manfully with the dogs, and escaped injury, but had broken his waddy over one of them.  He was an emaciated and elderly man, rather low in stature, and half dead with hunger and thirst; he drank copiously of the water that was offered to him, and then ate as much as would have served me for four and twenty dinners.  The men made him up a screen of boughs close to the cart near the servants, and I gave him a blanket in which he rolled himself up and soon fell fast asleep.  Whence this solitary stranger could have come from we could not divine.  No other natives approached to look after him, nor did he shew anxiety for any absent companion.  His composure and apparent self-possession were very remarkable, for he neither exhibited astonishment or curiosity at the novelties by which he was surrounded.  His whole demeanour was that of a calm and courageous man, who finding himself placed in unusual jeopardy, had determined not to be betrayed into the slightest display of fear or timidity.

From the period of our return from the eastward, I had remained quiet in the camp, watching every change in the sky; I was indeed reluctant to absent myself for any indefinite period, in consequence of Mr. Poole’s precarious state of health.  He had now used all the medicines we had brought out, and none therefore remained either for him or any one else who might subsequently be taken ill.  As however he was better, on the 12th, I determined to make a second excursion to the eastward, to see if there were any more natives in the neighbourhood of the grassy plains than when I was last there.  Wishing to get some samples of wood I took the light cart and Tampawang also, in the hope that he would be of use.

Although the water in the creek had sunk fearfully there was still a month’s supply remaining, but if it had been used by our stock it would then have been dry.  Close to the spot where we had before stopped, there were two huts that had been recently erected.  Before these two fires were burning, and some troughs of grass seed were close to them, but no native could we see, neither did any answer to our call.  Mr. Browne, however, observing some recent tracks, ran them down, and discovered a native and his lubra who had concealed themselves in the hollow of a tree, from which they crept as soon as they saw they were discovered.  The man, we had seen before, and the other proved to be the frail one who exhibited such indignation at our rejecting her addresses on a former occasion; being a talkative