Sunday, 8th July, The Bonney Creek.

Sunday, 8th July, The Bonney Creek. The weather has every appearance of being dry for some time to come, not a cloud to be seen; the wind south-east, and very cold night and morning. All hope of making the coast is now gone. On weighing our rations to-day, I find that we are again short since we halted here. The man Ben has been making it a regular practice to steal them since he has been with me. I have caught him several times doing so, and all the threats and warnings of the consequences have had no effect upon him. They deter him for a day or two, and then he is as bad as ever. I have been in the habit of reducing our allowance to make up for the loss, which has been very hard upon Kekwick and myself; he has helped himself to about double his allowance during the journey.