78 Mr. Gellibrand's Memoranda of 



between the Annakie and Villamanata Hills, left them 

 about four miles on the right, and then came upon the De- 

 backarite, which enabled me to continue the chain of ponds, 

 and where we dined, and after dinner we rode across to 

 Captain Swanston's station, which we reached at sundown. 



Feb. 8. — We passed this morning over to the upper part of 

 No. 12, in order to continue the chain of ponds which we 

 traced up to and over No. 11. We dined at the stock hut at 

 the ford. After dinner, passed over five miles along the side 

 line of No. 9, and then made an angle across to the settle- 

 ment, which we reached about four in the afternoon, and 

 found that the vessel had arrived during our absence. 



Some of the natives came to me and reported in the 

 evening (?) that a ship was coming in. They made us under- 

 stand that they had tracked us on the beach, and followed us 

 many miles, and they had also seen the places were we had 

 slept. 



Feb. 9. — At daylight this morning we heard the re- 

 port of guns from the ship, and shortly afterwards the natives 

 reported that a vessel was at anchor with three masts; and 

 concluding that it was the " Caledonia," Mr. Furgesson went 

 down the river with Mr. Batman's boat. About eleven 

 o'clock, Captain Symers, of the "Caledonia," came up to the 

 settlement. I then arranged with him for a passage to 

 Georgetown, to be on board on Saturday afternoon ; and 

 at — o'clock, Mr. Furgesson, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Robertson, 

 and I, with some of the native blacks, left the settlement for 

 the purpose of proceeding to the northward, and exploring 

 that part of the country. We took with us four days' supplies, 

 and only two guns. My object in taking Stewart was to 

 prevent the possibility of any collision with the natives, and 

 that he might act as an interpreter. We proceeded in a 

 straight line through the lands reserved for the settlement, 

 and over No. 9. In passing over No. 9, we crossed a chain 

 of ponds extending a little to the N.W. ; when we had 

 reached the extremity of No. 9, and were entering No. 7, it 

 was nearly dark, when we observed a tier of sheep hills 



moved to the right, 



and passed over about four miles of very fine (land '(), and 

 just at dusk came upon a chain of ponds, as we expected, 

 where we stayed all night. 



Feb. 10. — We started this morning at daylight, bearing to 

 the right and ascending the Sheep Hills, so that we might be 



