atives we arrived at a small plain, where they
could only just have killed a kangaroo that was lying on the ground
partly prepared for cooking. On seeing it I ordered the dogs to be tied
up, and left it untouched. Indeed if I had been fortunate enough to kill
a kangaroo at this place, I would have given it to these poor people.
Three of them, who afterwards came to our camp, mentioned the
circumstance, and seemed to be sensible of our feelings towards them.
There can be no doubt but that the Australian aboriginal is strongly
susceptible of kindness, as has been abundantly proved to me, and to the
influence of such feeling I doubtlessly owe my life; for if I had treated
the natives harshly, and had thrown myself into their power afterwards,
as under a kind but firm system I have ever done without the slightest
apprehension, they would most assuredly have slain me; and when I assure
the reader that I have traversed the country in every direction, meeting
numerous tribes of natives, with two men only, and with horses so jaded
that it would have been impossible to have escaped, he will believe that
I speak my real sentiments. Equally so the old native, (to whom the net
we discovered in the hollow of a tree where we first struck the Darling
belonged), evinced the greatest astonishment and gratification, when he
found that his treasure had been untouched by us.

The flats of the Darling are certainly of great extent, but their verdure
reached no farther than the immediate precincts of the river at this part
of its course. Beyond its immediate neighbourhood they are perfectly
bare, but lightly wooded, having low and useless box-trees (the Gobero of
Sir Thomas Mitchell), growing on them. Their soil is a tenacious clay,
blistered and rotten. These flats extend to uncertain distances from the
river, and vary in breadth from a quarter of a mile to two miles or more.
Beyond them the country is sandy, desolate, and scrubby. Pine ridges,
generally lying parallel to the stream, render travelling almost
impracticable where they exist, whilst the deep fissures and holes on the
flats, into which it is impossible to prevent the drays from falling,
give but little room for selection. Our animals were fairly worn out by
hard pulling on the one, and being shaken to pieces on the other.

Some days prior to the 29th, Mr. Browne and I, on examining the waters of
the river, thought that we observed a more than usual current in it;
grass and bark