CHAPTER XVIII. 
GO BACK WITH A NATIVE — SPEAR STING-RAYS — RECOVER 
THE BAGGAGE COLD WEATHER OVERSEER RECON- 
NOITRES THE CLIFFS — UNFAVOURABLE REPORT DIF- 
FERENCE OF OPINION AS TO BEST PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 
— KILL A HORSE FOR FOOD — INJURIOUS EFFECTS FROM 
MEAT DIET — NATIVE BOYS BECOME DISAFFECTED — THEY 
STEAL PROVISIONS — NATIVE BOYS DESERT THE PARTY — 
THEY RETURN ALMOST STARVED — PARTY PROCEED ON- 
WARDS TO THE WESTWARD — CLIFFS OF THE BIGHT — 
COUNTRY BEHIND THEM THREATENING WEATHER — 
MURDER OF THE OVERSEER. 
April 10. — Four days’ provisions having been 
given to each of the party, I took the King George’s 
Sound native with me to retrace, on foot, our route 
to the eastward. For the first ten miles I was ac- 
companied by one of the other native boys, leading 
a horse to carry a little water for us, and take back 
the stores the overseer had buried at that point, 
when the second horse knocked up with him on the 
morning of the 9th. Having found the things, and 
put them on the horse, I sent the boy with them 
back to the camp, together with a large sting-ray 
fish which he had speared in the surf near the shore. 
It was a large, coarse, ugly-looking thing, but as it 
seemed to be of the same family as the skate, I did 
not imagine we should run any risk in eating it. 
