Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/257

 239 very cool—almost cold; it rains now at eleven o'clock, night.

Tuesday night.—Poor Captain Ellis has died in consequence of the injury he received at the time of the conflict with the natives; but it is supposed that it was from the concussion of the brain by the fall from his horse, rather than by the wound from the spear (which was very trifling), that he died. The natives here are uneasy, thinking that we mean to take more lives in revenge. . . . You, perhaps, are curious to know what business I do now in Perth. Give legal advice, and draw leases and other documents for Government and attend Councils. . . . Lady Stirling has brought out some new novels and other works. I read "Eugene Aram" the other day, and this day I walked from Perth and read on the way two volumes of Arlington. Our minds are in danger of becoming rusted for want of the polish of the literature of the day. Met the native, "Mundy," on the road to-day; we stopped and chatted and told each other all the news we could. His wife and a girl were with him Sitting in my bachelor state after dinner, I had a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Bull. Walking to convoy them a little, I met on my return a tribe of natives at their fires, and had a friendly greeting.

Appended is a more detailed report of the encounter with the natives in the Pinjarrah District, to which I briefly referred the other day. I was not one of that party.

The party consisted of His Excellency Sir Jas. Stirling, Mr. Roe, Capt. Meares, and his son (Seymour), Mr. Peel, Capt. Ellis, Mr. Norcott, with five of the mounted police (one sick), Mr. Surveyor Smythe, a soldier to lead a pack horse, Mr. Peel's servant, two corporals and eight privates of H.M.'s 21st Regiment (to leave at Pinjarra)—in all, 25 persons. On the night of the 27th of October, the party bivouacked at a place called by the natives "Jimjam," about ten or eleven miles in a direct line E.N.E. from the mouth of the Murray, where is