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"It is a trying life, this shepherding, gentlemen," he observed; "with the chance of being speared or clubbed by the blackfellows, or stuck up by a bushranger, while one has to spend day after day without a human being to speak to, from sunrise to sunset and then to have one's only chum killed so suddenly! It is well-nigh more than I can bear."

But events subsequently proved that I was wrong, and that a decided and severe punishment would have saved me great trouble. I was, however, glad to find that their conduct met with the general indignation of my companions. The Blackfellows told us, that they had caught a ring-tailed opossum, and had seen a black kangaroo with a white point at the end of the tail.

After which he hauled out the dead bodies of two blackfellows. On our way back we met the troopers from the Palmer, who were also out for the same tribe. The Palmer police went on down the river, and we returned to the Laura Camp quite tired out.

The nocturnal feast made to celebrate the repulse of the blackfellows could not conceal the state of famine which prevailed, and he was pleased to remember that he had brought plenty of flour, tea, and sugar as far as the Thomson river. Davy had no saddle, but John Campbell lent him one for the journey, and also sold him shot and powder on credit.

A great festival was impending at Colac, to consist of a regatta on the lake, the first we ever celebrated, and a picnic on its banks. All the people far and near invited themselves to the feast, from the most extensive of squatters to the oldest of old hands. The blackfellows were there, too what was left of them.

'Oh, the young fellow brought a letter from the overseer, saying they might hold out for a few hours, if the police came along quick. 'It's a good thing they started at once, says I. 'Them boys are very useful sometimes, and blackfellows too. I went off then, and had a laugh to myself. I was pretty middling certain it was Billy the Boy and Warrigal.

Every new moon also was hailed with an almost superstitious devotion, and my Blackfellows vied with each other to discover its thin crescent, and would be almost angry with me when I strained my duller eyes in vain to catch a glimpse of its faint light in the brilliant sky which succeeds the setting of the sun.

Even my Blackfellows recognized at once the rock of Darling Downs; and we hailed it as the harbinger of western waters. The whole country up the creek had been lately burned, which induced me to follow it towards its head, in hope of finding the place where the natives had procured water.

But, after a great deal of dancing, he strutted about, pulled up the rag collar, made a great fuss with his rag cuffs, and kept taking off his old straw hat to the other Blackfellows, and to the rest of the tribe, who kept up the noise on the other side of the fires. "Now this is better!" said the Kangaroo, with a smile.

After our mid-day meal, I set out again with the two Blackfellows, not only with a view to find water for the next stage, but to endeavour to make the table land again, and thence to pursue a more westerly course.