to the northward and eastward, in which direction I happened to be
facing when I at length paused to look around me, I could catch glimpses
of the river, over and between the intervening tree-tops, for a distance
of quite twenty miles, and from what I saw I came to the conclusion that
in that direction the river must widen out considerably and be thickly
studded with islands, among which I thought it probable might be found
many a snug lurking-place for slave-craft. On the extreme verge of the
horizon I also distinctly made out a small group of hills, which I
conjectured to be situate on the northern or right bank of the river.
From these hills all the way round northerly, to about north-north-west,
the country was flat and pretty well covered with bush; although at a
distance of from two to four miles inland I could detect here and there
large open patches of grass-land. Bearing about north-north-west from
my point of observation was another chain of hills which stretched along
the sea-coast outside the river's mouth, and extended beyond the
horizon. To the left of them again, or about north-west from me, lay
Banana Creek, its entrance about eleven miles distant, and over the
intervening tree-tops on Boolambemba Island I could, so clear was the
atmosphere just then, distinctly make out the royal-mast-heads of the
_Daphne_ and the American barque; I could even occasionally detect the
gleam of the sloop's pennant as it waved idly in the sluggish breeze.
Still further to the left there lay the river's mouth, with the ripple
which marked the junction between the fresh and the salt water clearly
visible. Next came Shark Point, with the open sea stretching mile after
mile away beyond it, until its gleaming surface became lost in the ruddy
afternoon haze, and on the inner side of the point I could trace,
without much difficulty, the course of the various creeks which we had
explored in the boat on the occasion of our first visit. Looking below
me, I allowed my eye to travel along the course of the stream or canal
which flowed past almost under my feet, and following it along I saw
that it forked at a point about three miles to the westward, and turned
suddenly northward at a point about three miles further on, the branch
and the stream itself eventually joining the river, and forming with it
two islands of about five and three miles in length respectively, the
larger of the two being that which we had so laboriously crossed