without great satisfaction that I look
back to the intercourse I have had with these people, from the fact of my
never having had occasion to raise my arm in hostility agianst them.

The cattle fared well on the luxuriant grass into which they had been
turned when we halted, and as they had no inducement to wander, so they
were close to the camp at daybreak, and we started at 7 on an
east-north-east course, which at a mile we changed to a northerly one;
but soon afterwards finding that a pine ridge crossed our course, and
extended to the banks of the river, I turned to the north-west to avoid
it, but the country becoming generally sandy I again turned towards the
stream, and by going round the sandy points instead of over them,
lessened the labour to the cattle, although I increased the distance. We
were glad to find that the Darling held a general northerly course, or
one somewhat to the westward of that point, for we had during the last
three or four days made a great deal of easting, and I had thus been
prevented making the rapid progress I anticipated to Laidley's Ponds.

I had observed for more than twenty miles below us that the immediate
precincts of the river were not so rich in soil, or the flats so
extensive as at first; they now however began to open out, and assumed
the character and size of those of the Murray. The state of the two
rivers however was very different, for the Darling still continued
without breadth or current, (I speak of its appearance in lat. 33 degrees
43 minutes S.) whilst the Murray ever presents its bright and expanded
waters to the view.

We had communicated with a native tribe the day before that of which I am
now speaking, and again this day fell in with another, which we evidently
took by surprise. All the men had their spears, but on seeing us approach
they quietly deposited them under a tree. Amongst these people there was
another native who recognised me as an old acquaintance of fourteen
years' standing; but I began to doubt these patriarchs, to whom I
generally made a present for old acquaintance sake. This tribe numbered
forty-eight. All of them were handsome and well-made men, though short in
stature, and their lower extremities bore some proportion to their busts.

For the first time this day we observed a ferruginous sandstone in the
bed of the Darling, and saw it cropping out from under the sand hills on
the western extremity of the flats.

Shortly after leaving the n