20.
1864
| April cont. | 16 | sundown, told W. to remain & see the ship cleared of his goods; as the Capt. talked of starting early in the morning & his wife & family landed. I returned to sheep and found them near "Dig-down", men already there, in better spirits, & only 3 sheep left by the way. McC. & Green arrived with dray at the same time as I did. |
| 17 | (Sunday) Went down to Inlet with Green to look after 7 sheep left there & w[r]ite & send letter to Mr. Wellard, found 5 dead in a heap, 1 dying & 1 strong. Two boats came on shore, one with Mrs W. & children, without breakfast, or a drop of water, & it blazing hot, & poor little children crying for some, I told Mrs W. the bullock dray was at the head of the marsh with 8 gallons of water waiting for her & the lost sheep, about 2 ms. off, had a row with two of the sailors, one because he asked for water & said the women cld. do as well without as he, wrote a hasty letter, got traps together put Mrs W.'s sister on our horse, with one child, carried the other & gave Mrs W. my horse with bundles on to lead, so off we went, the men following with such little things as the[y] cld. carry. I may here remark that the crew of the Sea Ripple which I saw were the greatest blackguards one can have any idea of & Looked more like the rakings of "hell" than decent sailors, I got the horses up to feed as soon as possible, & the dray came in about 2 hrs after, the whole party in much better spirits at being once more on terra firma, with planty of water. | |
| 18 | Went down to landing on marsh with 4 hands, team & boat, with some difficulty raised flat, & returned with Hancock, with dray load of our timber, leaving McC. with W. & two men to work boats, I then moved the party & traps 1m. above "Digdown" to the nearest fresh water, as it was brackish there. | |
| 19 | Went down with Hancock & team to marsh, moved three loads above high water, brought up the last of the loads with 1 sheep, fowls & ducks, & provisions for party, & traps & utensils for women Started home about sundown which made rather a long day, as I had to ride about 14ms. after the bullocks in the morning. |
