Arriving at the entrance to the yard, I met a white object, which proved to be a Kanaka in his Sunday clothes. He took my horses under his care and called the superintendent of the station, who was an old white man. A bureau, a couple of wooden chairs, and a camp-bed constituted the entire furniture of my room. The bed, in which I slept exceedingly well, possessed the unexampled luxury of two thick canvas sheets, and I had been prudent enough to bring with me a heavy double woollen blanket. At breakfast I asked the old man to introduce me to some of the blacks, whose assistance I needed, for I could accomplish nothing without them. I therefore also inquired whether there were any “ civilised “ ones among them. The answer was, that for the last two years he had permitted them to come to the station, and consequently some of them might have the right to this title. To know that they will be killed if they murder a white man, to be fond of wearing the garments and ornaments of white people, and to smoke tobacco, is all that is required in order to be styled “ civilised ‘ among the Australian blacks, though sometimes they do learn a little more than that. These so-called “ civilised” blacks look upon their savage brethren with more or less contempt, and call them myall.

We had not finished our breakfast when we saw their heads peeping through the gate;—all were men armed with spears, as they were just going out to hunt the wallaby.