a perfect
sailor, and a gentleman I shall always remember with pleasurable
feelings. More than two months elapsed before I could discover
where my sons were. Having, at length, ascertained their locality,
I purchased a horse and performed the journey in four days, resting
one day on the road, at the station of Mr. Jefferies, on the
Campaspe. I started at daylight, and made my fifty miles before
halting, as I generally did about two P.M. I arrived at the
shepherds' hut at five o'clock on a beautiful summer's evening,
having remained two hours at the hotel at Deniliquin to refresh.

Robberies on the road--stickings up as they are called--were rife
at this period. Thefts also were common at the resting-houses. A
gentleman who arrived at this hotel, not long before I was there,
took the saddle off his horse, and placed it under the verandah:
when he returned, after leading his animal to a paddock hard by, he
missed the saddle, which he supposed had been removed by some
person belonging to the house, and threw down his bridle on the
same place. After taking something to drink with the landlord he
said, "You have got my saddle."--"No." "I left it under the
verandah, where I have just placed my bridle." On going out to show
the spot, the bridle also had disappeared: both stolen. A good
saddle and bridle at that time would fetch twenty pounds readily.

At the station I took a native black for my guide. He brought me to
a place where my horse had nearly to swim across the creek, pointed
to a dry path, exclaimed, "There," then turned his own animal and
rode off. I followed the track for about three miles, and found
myself in front of the hut. My sons were both at home. Tom called
the attention of his brother to my approach. They appeared as much
astonished as he describes the blacks near the Gulf of Carpentaria
to have been at sight of himself and companions. Presently came the
recognition, a shout of joy, and a greeting such as may readily be
imagined, on the part of two boys on seeing the father they had not
long before supposed to be separated from them by some sixteen
thousand miles.

A few days after, we all left Deniliquin, each mounted on a horse,
my sons having first disinterred their money, buried at the foot of
a gum tree on a hillock which they considered as a safe bank of
deposit. It was their intention to have made a present of the
greatest part, 100 pounds, to their mother, on the first eligible
opportunity of