had away.  I also reduced mine, taking nothing but a gun and some powder and shot, and a small pouch and some matches.  In starting again, we did not go far before Mr. Burke said we should halt for the night; but as the place was close to a large sheet of water, and exposed to the wind, I prevailed on him to go a little further, to the next reach of water, where we camped.  We searched about and found a few small patches of nardoo, which I collected and pounded, and with a crow, which I shot, made a good evening’s meal.  From the time we halted Mr. Burke seemed to be getting worse, although he ate his supper; he said he felt convinced he could not last many hours, and gave me his watch, which he said belonged to the committee, and a pocket-book to give to Sir William Stawell, and in which he wrote some notes.  He then said to me, “I hope you will remain with me here till I am quite dead—­it is a comfort to know that some one is by; but, when I am dying, it is my wish that you should place the pistol in my right hand, and that you leave me unburied as I lie.”  That night he spoke very little, and the following morning I found him speechless, or nearly so, and about eight o’clock he expired.  I remained a few hours there, but as I saw there was no use remaining longer I went up the creek in search of the natives.  I felt very lonely, and at night usually slept in deserted wurleys belonging to the natives.  Two days after leaving the spot where Mr. Burke died, I found some gunyahs where the natives had deposited a bag of nardoo, sufficient to last me a fortnight, and three bundles containing various articles.  I also shot a crow that evening; but was in great dread that the natives would come and deprive me of the nardoo.

I remained there two days to recover my strength, and then returned to Mr. Wills.  I took back three crows; but found him lying dead in his gunyah, and the natives had been there and had taken away some of his clothes.  I buried the corpse with sand, and remained there some days, but finding that my stock of nardoo was running short, and as I was unable to gather it, I tracked the natives who had been to the camp by their footprints in the sand, and went some distance down the creek shooting crows and hawks on the road.  The natives, hearing the report of the gun, came to meet me, and took me with them to their camp, giving me nardoo and fish:  they took the birds I had shot and cooked them for me, and afterwards showed me a gunyah where I was to sleep with three of the single men.  The following morning they commenced talking to me, and putting one finger on the ground and covering it with sand, at the same time pointing up the creek saying “white fellow,” which I understood to mean that one white man was dead.  From this I knew that they were the tribe who had taken Mr. Wills’s clothes.  They then asked me where the third white man was, and I also made the sign of putting two fingers on the ground and covering them with sand, at the same time pointing