Transcription

the meat is all most all dry, the great quantity of fat has delayed it so long.  As soon as we get our mules we shall start down to the plain which I appointed to Brown between killing camp and the next to the Peak, which is nearest to the place where they will likely meet with the cattle.
the 18th June constant occupation and riding after cattle and horses has prevented me from noting dayly [daily] the occurrences. I shall now give a general recapitulation of the continuation of my disasters. After 8 days absence Hely and Brown were on foot with their guns over their shoulders and very much exhausted. They crawled into the camp. They had been a very short distance , having become ill and camping out instead of returning home at once to avoid as Mr Hely said the [indecipherable] of returning for the Pudding of Whitsunday.  When they were camping at the lagoon where to I had promised to go all our mules came travelling down and
they thought at first when hearing the bell that the pack had arrived and had gone to another waterhole. However not finding us they he headed the mules and drove them back to about 3 miles from our camp. Here they were again careless with their horses which broke loose and left them to solitude and to their feet. I now determined to set out myself and to try whether I could get the cattle back. Wommai returned the same day without the 8 bullocks, no doubt because he had hunted for game instead of looking out for the former: the wretch had been about 4 days. The next day after the arrival of Mr H and Brown I went with Wommai after the mules and found them in a fine country about 7-8 miles from the camp. We returned very late and Camden caught an Emu as we were travelling along. The next day we returned down to the Mackenzie on a short cut which Brown had discovered and which lies through a perfectly open country. It is about NNW towards the peaks. We camped on the sand creek which
 

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