One of these men having but lately left the settled districts had seen in the newspapers an account of one of my party having been killed by natives; and he stated that the names of four natives and two gins were mentioned, adding that the person murdered was supposed to have been my man in charge of the sheep. My informant also pointed towards where the white man was said to have been killed, as indicated by the blacks; and this was exactly where our distressing loss befell us. I was also informed that the natives thereabouts were now in dread of the arrival of soldiers, and thus, for the first time, I learned that poor Cunningham had really been murdered by these savages. Intelligence of this kind often travels in exaggerated shapes through the medium of the natives; and I had lately been anxious to see some of them, as many of those so near the colony can speak very well. Now we understood why the Bogan was deserted. The non-appearance of the chief who had been so obsequious on our going down was perhaps a suspicious circumstance when connected with the fact that a silk handkerchief had been seen on the first of that tribe whom we met, and the strange movements and bustle which took place among those at our camp at Cudduldury during my absence of four days. The station which we had reached was occupied by the cattle of Mr. Lee of Bathurst; the two stockmen, for such the white men proved to be, seemed to have enough to do to keep the natives in good humour as the only means of finding the cattle or securing their own safety among the savage tribes. With the latter object probably in view they seemed to have encouraged the expectation of soldiers on the part of the natives about them. Soldiers have been too seriously instrumental in the civilisation of the aborigines, wherever they have become civil, to be soon forgotten; and the warfare by which the Bathurst settlers were first established in security would be remembered, no doubt, with some apprehension of the consequences of this last act of barbarism. The stockmen informed me that I should meet with another cattle station which had been established by Mr. Pike where my route crossed Goobang creek. The fact that the stock of the settlers already extends over all available land within reach of the present limits of location is clearly exhibited by the speedy occupation of these two stations. They are placed on the only two good tracts of land crossed by our party before we reached the arid plains of the interior. Even my boat depot on the Namoi, the terra incognita made known only by my first despatch, was immediately after occupied as a cattle-run by the stock-keepers of Sir John Jamieson. COOKOPIE PONDS.