50 NATIVE GUIDE ABSCONDS. [CH. II. 



the remainder of our stores at this spot, in charge of two men 

 armed ; but of this measure " Mr. Brown" did not approve. 



Dec. 20. — When the pack-horses had been loaded, and we 

 were about to start, leaving the remainder of our provisions 

 in charge of two men, we discovered that our native guide 

 was missing. I had promised him for his services, a 

 tomahawk, a knife, and a blanket, and as I supposed he 

 was already far beyond his own beat, he might have had 

 the promised rewards, by merely asking for them. We had 

 always given him plenty of flour, also his choice of any 

 part of the kangaroos, we killed. It had been observed by 

 the men, that the intelligence received from the old woman 

 had made him extremely uneasy, and he had also expressed 

 to them on the previous evening, his apprehensions about 

 the natives, in the country before us. I was very sorry for 

 the loss of " Mr. Brown." He was very comical, as indeed 

 these half-civilized aborigines generally are ; he likedi to be 

 close shaved, wore a white neckcloth, and declared it to be 

 his intention of becoming, from that time forward, " a white 

 fellow." I concluded that he had returned to his own tribe ; 

 and, that he had been unwilling to acknowledge to me, his 

 dread of the " myall" tribes. We proceeded up the valley, 

 or to the eastward, with the pack animals, and endeavoured 

 to pass to the northward, where we found a valley in that 

 direction, but at length, it became impossible to go forward 

 with some of the bullocks, which were not used to carry 

 pack-saddles. 



The passage was almost hopeless — indeed it was so bad, 

 that I was at length convinced it might be easier to pass 

 to the northward in any other direction than this, and that 

 it would not be prudent to struggle with such difticulties, 

 and sej)arate my party for the purpose of crossing a range, 

 which, for all I could see, might be easily turned by j)assing 

 between its western extremity and the river Nanimoy. We 

 had now tried the course pointed out by the bushrangerj 

 and, having found that it was wholly imjiracticablc, I deter- 



