COMMUNICATED BY HON. A. NORTON, M.L C 101 



" After a little while we returned to the table ; these were 

 moments of such inward rest that my husband took up a flute 

 belonging to one of the party, and one of our daughters who we 

 called to us, danced in a place where perhaps no one of her age 

 ever trod before. The next morning we took our breakfast and 

 packed up our beds and provisions to depart ; but during the 

 night our team of bullocks and my husband's horse had returned 

 to Emu. It was thought desirable that we with two 

 drays, with Tom for our guard, should proceed to Springwood, 

 as there was a house there to go into. From the difficulty they 

 had had the preceding day with the bullocks, they took from 

 our cart our two horses, and gave us two bullocks. After a most 

 fatiguing journey of nine miles we arrived ; the house was 

 inhabited by a corporal and two soldiers, kept there I 

 believe to superintend the Government stock. Formerly a greater 

 number of men had lived there, and there was a large 

 room or store where provisions had been kept. A great barn in 

 England would have been a palace to this place ; there was a 

 large kitchen with an immense fireplace, and two small rooms 

 behind. With the exception of a green in front, the house was 

 completely in a wood. The corporal's wife, an old woman who 

 had been transported about twenty years, with frowning man- 

 ners, came forward to show us in. We entered the kitchen, 

 which contained a long table and form, and some stumps of trees 

 to answer the purpose of chairs, of which there was not one in 

 the house ; several people were here to rest for the night, jour- 

 neying from Bathurst to Sydney. We were next shown the 

 small back room, which had nothing in it but a sofa 

 with slips of bark on it for the seat. Here I felt 

 desolate and lonely ; it was nearly dark, and still my 

 husband did not arrive, we got quite miserable. At length 

 the storekeeper from Emu came to us to say he could 

 not get in without horses being sent to his assistance. It was 

 nearly 9 o'clock before he arrived. I went out. It was dark, 

 but such confusion as there appeared from the glare of the fires, 

 the carts and drays, men, tired with their days Avork, swearing 

 as they were extricating the bullocks and horses. It was long 

 before I could distinguish my husband, but I felt comparatively 

 safe when I did. The old woman, a most depraved old character 

 and a well-known thief, with a candle held high above her head, 

 screamed out, " Welcome to Springwood, sir ! " He said when 

 he looked round he was assured his welcome would be the loss 



