Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/136

 for subsistence; sometimes, where we found them, and the surf was not too great, we fared pretty well. The delay this mode of procuring subsistence occasioned, together with the exceeding bad travelling for our horses, (two of which, on our arrival on the coast, were very nearly exhausted, though they had but little to carry,) was very great, and the fatigue excessive, so that by the time we arrived at King George's Sound, we were all nearly exhausted, though we were able the last day, through the friendly aid of the natives, (who showed us the native path,) to walk twelve miles, all, with the exception of John Gringer, carrying knapsacks. This man would have suffered as much as any of us, had he carried the same weight. It will be seen, that on the 21st and 27th of January, we lost two of the horses, they could go no farther; I beg you will assure his Excellency they were done every justice to by the men who led them,—privation, want of rest, and exceeding bad travelling, were the causes of their death. We passed round an estuary, "Nornorlip," nine miles from where we made the coast; had time permitted, or, in other words, had we had provisions, we should have examined the entrance to this sheet of water, which I have since heard, possesses a port for large vessels. We succeeded, at low water, in crossing at a depth of at most four feet, the outlets of two estuaries; they were apparently as large as the Murray Waters; besides these, the outlets of two other estuaries, which were choked up by sand thrown up by the S.E. wind. I beg to refer his Excellency to Mr. Smythe's plan for an outline of the coast and of these waters;—it will be sufficient for me to say here, that the land, near the coast, is generally high, having headlands of granite rocks, which