November 27

Early on the 27th the man and black boy returned with the dray from the westward, they had found the horse very weak and much exhausted, but by care and attention he was got a little round, and the overseer had remained to bring him slowly on: he had been four entire days and nights without food or water, and for the first two days and a half of this time had been severely worked. In the evening the overseer came up, driving the jaded animal, somewhat recovered indeed — but miserably reduced in condition.

The party with the dray had taken spades with them to dig for water at the sand hills, where I had seen the pigeons and cockatoos on the 23rd, and at ten feet they had been lucky enough to procure abundance, which although of a brackish quality was usable; from the great depth, however, at which it was obtained, and the precarious nature of the soil, it was very troublesome to get at it.