296 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 
Lake Buchanan,” as the blacks he had did not know one word, 
nor, on the contrary, did the natives there understand them. 
As to Bullingani he writes on the Ist of November: “I wish 
he understood a little English, as he then would be of much 
use.” 
It seems, therefore, certain that none of the circumstantial 
account of the killing of a white man, or a party of them, could 
have been given by ‘Bullingani or Kerikeri by word of mouth, 
and if given at all must have been by signs or gestures. The 
Lake Eyre tribes are able to one freely with each 
other by sign language but, from my knowledge of ‘the practice, 
I have no hesitation in saying that it would be impossible for 
anyone unacquainted with the system of gesture language to 
have understood such an account as that attributed to these 
blacks, if given in it. One is therefore necessarily driven to 
the conclusion that M‘Kinlay entirely misunderstood such signs 
and gestures as they may have used when the grave or graves, 
together with the horsehair and other things, were found. 
‘As to the attack by the blacks, it 1s quite possible that they 
intended it, but it is against such a conclusion that they should 
come up when it was beginning to be daylight, and that they 
should make such an attack shouting and ¢arrying torches. 
As it seemed to me quite possible that an account of. this 
affair might have been known to the Dieri of Blanchwater, 
about the time it happened, I wrote, asking for information, to 
Mr. Frank James, lately Superintendent of Police in Victoria, 
and who at the time of which I am speaking was the manager 
of the Blanchwater Station. In reply, he sent me particulars of 
the statements made to him by the Dieri at that time, which I 
now condense from his more extended account. 
The blacks said that some of them fell in with M‘Kinlay and 
three of his party on a branch of Cooper’s Creek, and tried 
to tell him about the fate of Gray, Burke and Wills, and the 
rescue of King; that they ouided M‘Kinlay to Gray’s erave, 
which he opened and closed. up again, moving to a lake near by, 
where he camped for the night, a few of the blacks remaining 
with him. During the night these blacks left him to join some 
others who were camped on the lake, and told them what they 
had seen and heard. Some of these then went to have a 
nearer view of the white men, but the man on watch roused 
the others, who immediately fired on them, killing some and 
wounding others. The blacks always declared that they went 
with no hostile intention, but had the arms for protection, their 
women being left at the camp. None of them ever varied in 
their account of this occurrence. 
It is not possible to say whether the blacks intended to 
attack M‘Kinlay or not. My own experience of these Yaurorka 
