100 



A DIARY OF THE 



any that offered to come into the camp. His 

 daily custom was to attend the grog tub, and he 

 was sure of collecting a dinner from all quarters. 



Jack/' as he was called by his messmates^ 

 was a Southdown sheep, taken from Portsmouth 

 in 1833, as part of the Captain's live stock. After 

 passing over above 55,000 miles, in the course of 

 two years, he was landed from the Conway, with 

 the Challenger's crew, at Portsmouth in 1 835 ; 

 and has now a run on his native soil for the 

 remainder of his life. 



The weather, which had so long befriended 

 us, now began to threaten with those heavy 

 rains, the effects of which we were afterwards to 

 feel so severely ; the tents proving very inade- 

 quate to protect us from them. The evening 

 cleared the weather, and a bright moon was 

 visible. The note of the horned plover was 

 loudly heard. In allusion to this bird, we were 

 told by the major. Sign or Sylva, who had been on 

 many expeditions against the Indians, that they 

 had a superstition regarding the horned plover ; 

 which was, that if the note was heard on the 

 right, it was to them a bad omen, and the con- 

 trary if heard on the left. The inmates of 

 each tent had worked hard during the past day, 



