168 Mr. A. A. Leycester's Excursion 



agreed to take with us the unencumbered wife (whose name was 

 " Polly '') to wait upon us in camp, to fetch wood and water, and 

 to provide fish and vegetables for our repasts. With these 

 articles she supplied us abundantly ; and though we seldom re- 

 turned to camp till sunset, she generally had the fish and yams 

 roasted, the tea made, and a sufficient supply of wood and water 

 provided for the night ; and, being of a merry disposition, was 

 usually found on our arrival singing some aboriginal song and 

 beating time on two of her husband's boomerangs as she sat at 

 the same time watching the pots. 



The morning of Wednesday, the 20th of April, was appointed 

 for a start from my hut — a spot called by the blacks Durrigan, 

 situated on the bank of Leycester's Creek, a tributary of the 

 Richmond. I was aroused at grey dawn by the tinkling of my 

 horse-bell, and by Davy knocking at the door and calling out at 

 the top of his voice. Having, as he thought, impressed on my 

 mind with his jargon the necessity of making haste, he put the 

 horses in the yard, and came in for his breakfast with his two 

 ' gins ' and Billy. This being accomplished, I saddled Flour-boy, 

 and packed Charcoal (our two horses) with about 2 cwt. of 

 sundries, in the shape of tea, sugai', flour, tobacco, ammunition, 

 blankets, a tent, and my apparatus for preserving skins, and 

 other articles. Davy packed his wnfe at the same time with his 

 own property, consisting of various "notions" too numerous to 

 mention. Which of the two had the greatest load, my pack- 

 horse or his ' gin,' would be difficult to say, but the latter bore it 

 all cheerfully, and carried it without a word till the end of the 

 day. Davy and Billy, taking each a double-bai'relled gun, a 

 dirk-knife, and a tomahawk, started first to kill game on the 

 road, in order to have a supply of meat for dinner and supper, 

 as we did not take any with us. Polly followed next with her 

 load. Having passed over ten miles of a very rough country, 

 about mid-day we halted to get some dinner on a beautiful little 

 streamlet covered over with a canopy of the choicest Creepers, 

 which dipped in festoons into the rushing stream below. The 

 rivulet meandered down the Durrigan Valley, its murmurs 

 blending with the cooing of Doves, the screeching of Parrots, 

 the croaking of Frogs, and the shrill cry of the Cicada. This 



