RETURN OF THE GULNARE FROM PORT DARWIN.

Southland Times, Issue 1228, 25 March 1870, Page 3

RETURN OF THE GULNARE FROM PORT DARWIN.

— ♦■ Captain Sweet arrived at Sydney on the 22nd March, in command of the Gulnare, schooner, chartered by the South Australian Government, haviug left Port Darwin,on the, 3oth .of, January. Soonafter the commencement of his voyage^ the GuLaare had to encounter strong westerly monsoons, and took the Torres Strait route, as recommended. At Port Darwin, Captain Sweet found that the Koh-i-noor, from Adelaide, had arrived a little before the Gulnare (on the 21st January) with passengers, cattle, and sheep, all right. . The Koh-i-noor had been sent up from Adelaide to bring back to South Australia the remainder of the. surveying party. Dr Milner (acting as medical man and Government resident) had arrived in the Koh-i-noor, and was left behind at Port Darwin, with a staff; of about forty men. The country round about Port Darwin is reported as haying a very splendid appearance— that there was a magnificent supply of grass, and lots of water. It was arranged that the Koh-i-noor should follow the Gulnare, ma. Torres Straits, in the course of three or four days. It was thought that the Koh-i-noor would probably call in at Sydney, on her way down to Adelaide. When about 200 hundred miles from Sydney, the Gulnare encountered very severe gales, during which Captain Sweet kept well off the coast every night, but sighted land daily. As to the nature 1 of the country round Port Darwin, our visitors by the Gulnare declare it to be, in many parts, excellent; chiefly undulating, and not too thickly timbered. Itappeared to them to be a country plentifully supplied with water of a good quality, and in other respects to be very

well adapted for cattle. There was no sickness of any kind at the intended settlement when the Gulnare left. A short time before the arrival of the Gulnare at Port Darwin, a party was sent out to the Adelaide River — about forty miles to the westward of Port Darwin — and those persons managed to recover some cattle and horses left in that direction by Mr Fiuniss during some previous expedition; The land at the iateuded settlement is not yet occupied, but has, it is believed, been most of it alienated by the South Australian Government. In the course ofrainonth or two from this date— about AjprtL or May next — the land order holders are expected to go up from South Australia, and settle on their allotted lands, all the surveyors having now left. The blacks have not been troublesome lately. The Government cattle, from the grass feed, were in splendid condition, and the whole Government staff were in good ' health when the Gulnare left. — Sydney \ Rerald. !