the straighteners for having run away with Arowhena: an
even darker fate, to which I dare hardly again allude, would be reserved
for my devoted fellow-labourers. It is plain, therefore, that some other
way must be found for getting at the Erewhonians, and I am thankful to
say that such another way is not wanting. One of the rivers which
descends from the Snowy Mountains, and passes through Erewhon, is known
to be navigable for several hundred miles from its mouth. Its upper
waters have never yet been explored, but I feel little doubt that it will
be found possible to take a light gunboat (for we must protect ourselves)
to the outskirts of the Erewhonian country.

I propose, therefore, that one of those associations should be formed in
which the risk of each of the members is confined to the amount of his
stake in the concern. The first step would be to draw up a prospectus.
In this I would advise that no mention should be made of the fact that
the Erewhonians are the lost tribes. The discovery is one of absorbing
interest to myself, but it is of a sentimental rather than commercial
value, and business is business. The capital to be raised should not be
less than fifty thousand pounds, and might be either in five or ten pound
shares as hereafter determined. This should be amply sufficient for the
expenses of an experimental voyage.

When the money had been subscribed, it would be our duty to charter a
steamer of some twelve or fourteen hundred tons burden, and with
accommodation for a cargo of steerage passengers. She should carry two
or three guns in case of her being attacked by savages at the mouth of
the river. Boats of considerable size should be also provided, and I
think it would be desirable that these also should carry two or three six-
pounders. The ship should be taken up the river as far as was considered
safe, and a picked party should then ascend in the boats. The presence
both of Arowhena and myself would be necessary at this stage, inasmuch as
our knowledge of the language would disarm suspicion, and facilitate
negotiations.

We should begin by representing the advantages afforded to labour in the
colony of Queensland, and point out to the Erewhonians that by emigrating
thither, they would be able to amass, each and all of them, enormous
fortunes--a fact which would be easily provable by a reference to
statistics. I have no doubt that a very great number might be thus
induced to come back w