air-sized sheets of water in it. As they followed down, they
passed an encampment of natives, but kept steadily on their course
without interfering with them. Not finding any water lower down the
creek, the party had to return, and when close to the creek at the point
where they had crossed that morning, they were suddenly surrounded by a
mob of armed and painted savages, who had emerged unexpectedly from
concealment in a clump of scrub. To all attempts at peaceful parley they
returned showers of boomerangs and clubs, until the whites were compelled
in self-defence to fire on them. Even then they were not deterred from
following the party, even up to the camp of the night before. This
incident caused Stuart to hesitate. His party was so small that the loss
or even disablement of one man would have crippled the expedition; and
they had already lost a good many horses. He therefore wisely decided to
fall back, as they had penetrated far enough to prove that the passage of
the continent could be effected with a few more men. It was on the 27th
of June that he began his homeward march, and on the 26th of August he
reached Brodie's camp at Hamilton Springs, with the strength of all much
reduced, and Stuart himself suffering from scurvy.

After the result of Stuart's journey had been reported in Adelaide, and
it was seen how inadequate means only had led to his defeat, the
Government voted 2,500 pounds to equip a better-organized party; of this
he was to take command.

Stuart judged it best to keep his old track by way of the Finke and the
Hugh. On the 12th of April they arrived at the Bonney, and finding it
running strong, with abundance of good feed on the banks, they were
betrayed into following it down; but it soon spread abroad and was lost
in a large plain. Leaving the Bonney, they adhered to the old route, and
reached Tennant's Creek on the 21st of April, and four days afterwards
they were on the scene of the attack that had been made on them at Attack
Creek. But although the tracks of the natives were numerous, the
explorers were, at this time, permitted to pass on in peace. Keeping at
the foot of the low range, which there has an approximate northerly and
southerly direction, Stuart crossed many creeks which promised long
courses where they formed in the range, but which were all alike lost
when they reached the level country. On the 4th of May they attained to
the northern termination of this range, which he called