My party went in search of the horses yesterday and returned with them
today to the place where the ship was aground, a point about fifteen
miles in a straight line from the mouth of the river. The horses were so
fresh that to hobble them two of the quietest had to be caught to round
with them the others up. In the ten days that they had been ashore they
had improved more in condition than any horses I have seen do in other
parts of Australia in a similar period. To collect the horses they had to
go as far as ten miles in a north-west direction, to a saltwater creek
which, from Mr. Campbell's report, I believe is the River Nicholson. On
the following day I accompanied Mr. Campbell and the troopers to the
Nicholson River. The water in it we found not so brackish as that part of
the Albert River where we left the ship. I was surprised to find it was
not so broad as the river I have just mentioned. We encamped all night on
the bank of the river, and near our camp marked a tree (broad arrow
before L). On the 30th we returned to the ship after getting the troopers
to collect the horses and shoot a quantity of ducks. By counting my steps
I made the distance seven miles to a bend of the Albert River near which
Moore's Ponds are situated, and two miles and three-quarters further
brought us to the point near which the ship had reached. It is a grassy
plain between the two rivers, with a few stunted trees upon it; that
nearest the Nicholson River is the poorest soil, and the grass at present
upon it is very much parched up. A fine large enclosure for stock might
be formed by running a fence across from the Albert to the Nicholson
River.

On the 1st November we commenced making a yard for the horses and, having
got the assistance of two of the carpenters, we commenced to shoe the
horses. On the 4th I got a passage in the barge to H.M.C.S. Victoria,
which was stationed at the distance of seven miles from the mouth of this