Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/234

 216 a loss for here, and that is a copper, or a large vessel for boiling, for brewing, for washing clothes, and many other requisites. They are very dear here—£6 for a small one.

Sunday, 24th.—Yesterday I closed a long letter to you, walked to Guildford in the evening, and slept at Mr. Tanner's, not having arrived there till a late hour. At Perth a novelty occurred. One of the natives, "Goodyak," was found in the act of stealing at Guildford, taken prisoner and brought to Perth, a solemn-looking investigation made, soldiers paraded, and, in the presence of the Governor, he got a good round dozen on the back, with a warning against worse. Just before leaving, news arrived that a vessel, the Aurazan, had arrived from Madras. Dreadful mortality there from cholera, only 25 men left alive of one regiment. It sounds like exaggeration, but such is the shape in which I heard it.

On Thursday last, I prepared myself to go into the bush and see this "gabbee yandit" (freshwater lake) so often mentioned, and, on Friday, after due preparation, Nat Shaw and myself, accompanied by the native Tommy as our guide, set out, we thinking, in our simplicity, that it was about 14 miles or so distant, as the natives spoke of it as one day's journey, and that we should see it early next morning. We urged Tommy to his speed, and gave him a ride now and then, and at sunset we reached our destination with difficulty after ten hours riding, the distance being not less than 33 miles in a due N. direction. It is a long winding valley of bays, swamps, and lakes, numbers of deep but shrunk-up pools of water, surrounded by tea-tree, spear-wattle, and bulrush. There was grass on the borders, but the country had been recently burned. We slept alongside of a party of natives, who were rather indifferent than friendly, and had not been much in communication with Europeans before. Our native took sick, and we left him with his friend whilst we made our way home by ourselves. On Saturday at 12 we returned. I was resting myself towards evening when a letter