in on the 6th instant, and tried to get the
hair from him. He had unfortunately given it away to other blacks.
James promised him tobacco for it, and he has promised to get it
again. Sambo says that the white men are naked, have no firearms or
horses, but animals which from his description are evidently
camels; that they sleep on a raft, which they build on the water.
They live on fish which they catch with nets made with grass. Sambo
says that the other blacks had told him that the white men arrived
there this winter. According to Sambo, the people are twenty sleeps
from Tooncatchin, by way of Lake Hope Creek. I do not think that
these sleeps on the average exceed ten miles, so it is probable
that they are on or near Cooper's Creek. Sambo is quite willing to
go out all the way with a party of white men. He also says that the
blacks on Lake Hope Creek are afraid of these white men. I received
the above information from Mr. H. Butler, Frank James, and Cleland,
on my arrival at Blanche on the 8th instant. Knowing that Mr.
McKinlay and party were on their way, I accordingly left Blanche on
the 9th, and I met Mr. McKinlay and party to-day on Bandnoota
Plain, 145 miles south of Blanche, when I put that gentleman in
possession of the above particulars.

I have etc.

JAMES HOWE, Police Trooper.

To George Hamilton, Esquire, J.P., Inspector of Police.

The Surveyor-General (Mr. Goyder) says that from the general tenor
of the letter he inclines to the opinion that the white men are on
some of the newly-discovered waters between Cooper's Creek and
Eyre's Creek; and if so, this is precisely in the direction that
Mr. McKinlay would, according to his instructions, have taken. But
the most gratifying portion of the whole statement is that which
assures us of Mr. McKinlay being placed in possession of the whole
of the circumstances of the case; and considering the date when the
information was given him, there is little doubt but that Mr.
McKinlay, as the reader's eye rests on these words, is ON THE SPOT
INDICATED by the black; and should this prove to be correct, and
the party be saved, South Australia will have, in the cause of
humanity, reason to rejoice that the Parliament took such prompt
and vigorous measures to send out the relief expedition. The
Commissioner of Crown Lands telegraphed to Melbourne, without
delay, the substance of the trooper's letter; but it is not likely
that any practical use could be made of it there,