The whole equipment came up at half-past nine, whereupon I distributed such articles as were necessary to complete the organisation of the party, and the day was passed in making various arrangements for the better regulation of our proceedings, both on encamping and in travelling. I obtained from Assistant-Surveyor Dixon, then employed in this neighbourhood, some account of Liverpool Plains--this officer having surveyed the ranges which separate these interior regions from the appropriated lands of the colony. The heat of this day was exceedingly oppressive, the thermometer having been as high as 100 degrees in the shade, but after a thundershower it fell to 88 degrees.
MEN EMPLOYED ON THE EXPEDITION.
November 30.
At length I had the satisfaction to see my party move forward in exploring order; it consisted of the following persons, namely:
Alexander Burnett and Robert Whiting, Carpenters.
William Woods, John Palmer, Thomas Jones and William Worthington, Sailors.
James Souter, Medical Assistant.
Robert Muirhead, Daniel Delaney and James Foreham, Bullock-Drivers.
Joseph Jones, Groom.
Stephen Bombelli, Blacksmith.
Timothy Cussack, Surveyor's Man.
Anthony Brown, Servant to me.
Henry Dawkins, Servant to Mr. White.
These were the best men I could find. All were ready to face fire or water, in hopes of regaining by desperate exploits, a portion, at least, of that liberty which had been forfeited to the laws of their country. This was always a favourite service with the best disposed of the convict prisoners, for in the event of their meriting, by their good conduct, a favourable report on my return, the government was likely to grant them some indulgence. I chose these men either from the characters they bore, or according to their trade or particular qualifications: thus:
Burnett was the son of a respectable house-carpenter on the banks of the Tweed, where he had been too fond of shooting game, his only cause of trouble.
Whiting, a Londoner, had been a soldier in the Guards.
Woods had been found useful in the department as a surveyor's man; in which capacity he first came under my notice, after he had been long employed as a boatman in the survey of the coast, and having become, in consequence, ill from scurvy, he made application to me to be employed on shore. The justness of his request, and the services he had performed, prepossessed me in his favour, and I never afterwards had occasion to change my good opinion of him.
John Palmer was a sailmaker as well as a sailor, and both he and Jones had been on board a man-of-war, and were very handy fellows.