Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/258

This page has been validated.

THE COLONY.

LEAVE KING GEORGE'S SOUND—FLINDER'S BAY—THE BLACKWOOD RIVER—INTERVIEW WITH THE NATIVES—ARRIVAL OF THE MEROPE—ADVANCE OF THE COLONY.
Hermitage, Swan River, March 9.

Here is a wide chasm in my diary, which I fear I shall not be able to close satisfactorily. Between hurry and bustle on land, (not to speak of a little squeamishness at sea), my various occupations since I have landed, and interruptions at home, I have got most hopelessly into arrear; yet I hope to bring it up.

On the 26th ult. we left George's Sound at sunrise, Doctor Littleton, Mr. Cheyne, (with whom I had lived there), Mr. Morley, and Mr. M'Cleod, of the 63rd, accompanying our original party, until we got into the Sound. We anchored in Flinder's Bay, and on the 28th went to Mr. Morley's house, which is prettily situated on the Blackwood, near its mouth. Here, on the floor of an uninhabited house, we spread our mattrasses