aware that we were near some tribe, and had
gone on a-head to prepare and collect them.

LARGE CONCOURSE OF NATIVES--THEIR HOSTILE DEMEANOUR.

After breakfast, we proceeded onwards as usual. The river had increased so
much in width that, the wind being fair, I hoisted sail for the first
time, to save the strength of my men as much as possible. Our progress was
consequently rapid. We passed through a country that, from the nature of
its soil and other circumstances, appeared to be intersected by creeks and
lagoons. Vast flights of wild fowl passed over us, but always at a
considerable elevation, while, on the other hand, the paucity of ducks on
the river excited our surprise. Latterly, the trees upon the river, and in
its neighbourhood, had been a tortuous kind of box. The flooded-gum grew
in groups on the spaces subject to inundation, but not on the levels above
the influence of any ordinary rise of the stream. Still they were much
smaller than they were observed to be in the higher branches of the river.
We had proceeded about nine miles, when we were surprised by the
appearance in view, at the termination of a reach, of a long line of
magnificent trees of green and dense foliage. As we sailed down the reach,
we observed a vast concourse of natives under them, and, on a nearer
approach, we not only heard their war-song, if it might so be called, but
remarked that they were painted and armed, as they generally are, prior
to their engaging in deadly conflict. Notwithstanding these outward signs
of hostility, fancying that our four friends were with them, I continued
to steer directly in for the bank on which they were collected. I found,
however, when it was almost too late to turn into the succeeding reach
to our left, that an attempt to land would only be attended with loss of
life. The natives seemed determined to resist it. We approached so near
that they held their spears quivering in their grasp ready to hurl. They
were painted in various ways. Some who had marked their ribs, and thighs,
and faces with a white pigment, looked like skeletons, others were daubed
over with red and yellow ochre, and their bodies shone with the grease
with which they had besmeared themselves. A dead silence prevailed among
the front ranks, but those in the back ground, as well as the women, who
carried supplies of darts, and who appeared to have had a bucket of
whitewash capsized over their heads, were extremely clamorous. As I did
not