h which she seemed to
denounce the white men;--her fiend-like eyes flashing fire, as if
prophetic of the advent of another race, and the certain failure of her
own.

The daughter seemed, at first, to treat lightly the ire of her aged
parent, playfully patting with her finger her mother's fearfully
protruding lip. Mr. Kennedy endeavoured to ascertain, through Dicky, the
downward course of the river, and she seemed to express, and to point
also, that the river passed southerly into the Balonne, which river she
named, and even the Culgoa: she seemed to say the name of that locality
was "Mundi." Neither of these females had any covering, but the younger
wore, by way of ornament, a page of last year's Nautical Almanac,
suspended by a cord from her neck. The mother continuing implacable, the
daughter, with a graceful expression of respect for her, and courtesy to
the stranger, waved her arm for him to retire, which gesture Mr. Kennedy
and Dicky immediately obeyed. At another interview, a scheme to decoy
Dicky away was tried, as related thus in Mr. Kennedy's journal:--"Sunday,
26th July. Prayers were read at 11 A.M., after which, having been told by
Drysdale that the natives were still near the camp, and that there was a
native amongst them who could make himself more intelligible to Dicky
than the rest, I had started down the river to see them to collect what
information I could, and then induce them to go farther from the camp. I
had not gone far before the cooys from the tents made me aware that the
natives were by this time in sight. I therefore returned, and the first
object that caught my eye was the bait--a gin, dancing before some
admiring spectators; and behind her was a fine, lusty native advancing by
great strides, as he considered the graceful movements of his gin were
gaining as fast upon the hearts of the white men. On going up to him
Dicky put the usual questions as to the name of the river, and its
general course. His reply to the first was not very satisfactory, but our
impression was that he called it Balun. With respect to its course, he
plainly said that it joined the Balonne; repeatedly pointing in the
direction of that river and then following with his hand, the various
windings of this branch; repeating the while some word implying 'walk,
walk,' and ending with 'Balonne.' He knew the names of the mountains
Bindango and Bindyego. After this conversation he took some fat, which he
appeared to have brought