LOSS OF HIS HORSE.

This privation had first occasioned the loss of his horse and several
other animals, so that his party had been able to convey the supplies to
these ponds, by carrying forward from the dry camp, only a portion at a
time, on the two remaining bullocks. Mr. Finch at length succeeded in
thus lodging all the stores at the ponds, but being unable to move them
further without the assistance of my cattle he left them there, and
proceeded forward on foot along our track with one man, in expectation of
falling in with my party, at no great distance in advance.

AND SEIZURE OF HIS STORES BY THE NATIVES. MURDER OF HIS MEN.

After ascertaining that we were not so near as he hoped, and having
reached the Gwydir and traced our route along its banks until he again
recognised Mount Frazer, he returned at the end of the second day, when
he found neither his tents nor his men to receive him, but a heap of
various articles such as bags, trunks, harness, tea and sugar canisters,
etc. piled over the dead bodies of his men, whose legs he, at length,
perceived projecting. The tents had been cut in pieces; tobacco and other
articles lay about; and most of the flour had been carried off, although
some bags still remained on the cart. The two bullocks continued feeding
near. This spectacle must have appeared most appalling to Mr. Finch,
uncertain, as he must have been, whether the eyes of the natives were not
then upon him, while neither he nor his man possessed any means of
defence! Taking a piece of pork and some flour in a haversack, he
hastened from the dismal scene; and by travelling all day, and passing
the nights without fire, he most providentially escaped the natives, and
had at length reached our camp.

DESTROY THE BOAT AND RETIRE FROM THE KARAULA.

Thus terminated my hopes of exploring the country beyond the Karaula, and
I could not but feel thankful for the providential circumstance of Mr.
Finch's arrival, at the very moment I was about to proceed on that
undertaking, trusting that I should find, in returning to this depot, the
supplies which I expected him to bring. We had now, on the contrary, an
additional demand on our much exhausted stock of provisions. The season
when rain might be expected was approaching, and we had behind us two
hundred miles of country subject to inundation, without a hill to which
we could in such a case repair. The soil was likely to become impassable
after two days rain, and our c