The wheels of the carts requiring repair before we could commence our retreat, the carpenters were employed on this work until three P.M. Our boat (emblem of our hopes!) was sunk in the deepest part of the Karaula. The natives were heard approaching during the morning; and crows and hawks, hovering in the air, marked their place in the woods. At length, I perceived them peeping at us from behind trees; but our feelings towards the aborigines were very different then from what they had been before we received the news brought by Mr. Finch, however innocent these people might be of the murder of his men. I did not therefore invite their approach, and they were too cautious to be intrusive. The wheels being repaired at three P.M. we turned our faces homewards, and exactly at sunset we reached the ponds where I had twice previously encamped. FORCED MARCH TO THE GWYDIR. February 8. In our line of route back to the Gwydir we knew by experience that no water was to be found. The distance to that river from our present camp was twenty-three miles; but I considered it better to cross this dry tract by a forced march in one day than to pass a night without water. By this arrangement we could halt on the river during the day following to recover and refresh the cattle after so long a journey. We were accordingly in motion at half-past 5 A.M., and the early part of the morning being rather cool we got forward very well. After midday the weather was very hot. At four P.M. the bush of one of the wheels became so loose that the cart fell down, and it was necessary to repair the wheel before it could proceed. Mr. White undertook this with the aid of some of the men, while I continued the journey with the rest; and it may be imagined how cleverly the work was done from the fact that my zealous assistant overtook us with the cart before we reached the end of the day's journey. We perceived smoke arising before us when we had arrived within six miles of our old encampment on the Gwydir, and soon after we found the grass burning on both sides of our line of route, which, it should be observed, had been marked by us throughout on advancing into this country, not only by the wheel tracks in the soft soil, but also by chipping the trees on both sides with an axe. NUMEROUS TRIBES SURROUND THE PARTY.