About five miles from this place we fell in with a party of natives, who informed us that a few days before Mr.Elliott and those with him had arrived there in perfect safety, and my anxiety on this point was therefore set at rest.

We passed the mouth of the river Collie at the bar, which was almost dry, and halted for breakfast on the banks of the Preston, about one mile from the house where I expected to find Mr.
Elliott.
MEET WITH MR.ELLIOTT.MR.

ELLIOTT'S ADVENTURES.
No sooner was breakfast despatched than I set off to see Mr.Elliott in order to hear the history of his adventures, which were not a little surprising.

He had, as I before related, started on the 17th of December from the Williams, with only three days' provisions and, owing to some mistake, had taken a south-south-west course and gone off in the direction where we first saw his tracks, and had pursued this route for three days, when, seeing nothing of the coast, he suspected he must be wrong, and endeavoured to make a due west course; but from the impassable nature of the mountain range at this point was unable to do so.

About this period also, owing to his powder-horn having been placed too near the fire, it was accidentally blown away, and he was thus left totally without protection in the event of any attack being made on them by the natives.