Anxious as I was when you left us, to set at rest the question of the Western Harbour, various circumstances prevented my setting out to examine it, till the 3rd inst., when I proceeded with your old party, Mr. Kent being very desirous of seeing out his adventure in that quarter. I had long since, however, learnt from Mokărē that the entrance to the inlet would only admit of boats, and the event is another confirmation of the general accuracy of the natives. I can only give you a hasty outline of our journey, as I found a government vessel here on my return, and have besides, been occupied by some tedious magisterial business.
On the 3d of February, we started at six A. M., and avoiding your sand hills, by keeping to the right of the lagoons, stopped to breakfast at the end of eight or nine miles, on the banks of a river five yards broad, and nearly as many feet deep, which Mokărē said divided above into three small streams, and came from no great distance. Five miles farther, he pointed over some wooded hills on our left, to where you had slept the night before your return, soon after which we got on a plain, where for about a mile the soil (a reddish and black loam with clay underneath,) might perhaps be made something of; but except here, it was indifferent throughout the day; the rising grounds wooded and strewn with iron stone, the hollows and flats open and sandy. Mokărē being unwell, and lagging much behind, we halted for the night, after going W.N.W. seventeen or eighteen miles, at a swamp, where the water was very good.
On the 4th at five A. M. we proceeded, crossing several dry beds of streams, and a chain of ponds, and afterwards bringing up our right shoulders, fell in with the Sleeman, where it was fifty yards wide and apparently deep. Following its course towards the inlet, we came to a part only seven yards wide and eighteen inches deep, where we crossed; but some water that you had stopped at on leaving the inlet, on the 11th December, being strongly recommended, we returned to the left bank, and another mile bringing us to it, we sat down to take our dejeuné, and while preparing, I sought an open view, and found Moun. Hallowell to bear W. ½ S., Mount Lindesay N. W. ¼ N. A short walk brought us to the inlet, and I went out, with Mr. Kent, to, as nearly as he could recollect, the spot where you had taken your bearings, being about 600 hundred yards
