78 
PILFERING OF NATIVES. 
been deluged with rain. None, however, fell, although we 
were anxious for moisture to change the oppressive state of 
the atmosphere. The fire I had kindled raged behind us, 
and threw dense columns of smoke into the sky, that cast 
over the landscape a shade of the most dismal gloom. We 
were not in a humour to admire the picturesque, but soon 
betook ourselves to rest, and after such a day of labour 
as that we had undergone, I dispensed with the night- 
guard. 
In the morning we resumed our search for the still head, 
which Hopkinson at length fortunately struck with his oar. 
It had been swept considerably below the place at which 
M'Leay had dived, or we should most probably have found 
it sooner. With its recovery, all our fatigues were at once 
forgotten, and I ordered the breakfast to be got ready pre- 
paratory to our reloading the skiff. Fraser and Mulbolland, 
who had left the camp at daylight, had not yet returned. 
I was sitting in the tent, when Macnamee came to inform 
me that one of the frying-pans was missing, which had 
been in use the evening previous, for that he himself had 
placed it on the stump of a tree, and he therefore supposed 
a native dog had run away with it. Soon after this, another 
loss was reported to me, and it was at last discovered that 
an extensive robbery had been committed upon us during 
the night, and that, in addition to the frying-pan, three cut- 
lasses, and five tomahawks, with the pea of the steelyards, 
had been carried away. I was extremely surprised at this in- 
stance of daring in the natives, and determined, if possible. 
