SURPRISE THE FEMALES OF THE TRIBE.

June 3.

The natives had not again appeared, so that Piper's conjecture that they
were moving up the river by the opposite bank with a view to assemble the
tribes higher up appeared to be correct. Their gins had been left at
their old camp; for as the party crossed a flat not far from it, and I
fired at a kangaroo, their voices were immediately heard, signal columns
of smoke arose in the air, and they hurried with their children to the
opposite side of the Darling. From this astonishment on their part at our
appearance, and especially from their flight, knowing well then who we
were, it was not improbable that they knew the men were absent on some
mischievous scheme affecting us.

JUNCTION OF THE DARLING AND MURRAY.

I struck out of the former line of route for the purpose of extending my
measurement to the junction of the rivers, and thus at length found the
Darling within a zone of trees which I had formerly taken for the line of
the Murray. The banks were high and the channel was also much broader
here. After tracing this river about four miles I found that the still
but turbid backwater from the larger stream nearly reached the top of the
grassy bank of the other. At length I perceived the Murray before me
coming from the south-south-east, a course directly opposed to that in
which I had followed the Darling for a mile. Both rivers next turned
south-west, then westward, leaving a narrow tongue of land between, and
from the point where they both turned westward to their junction at the
extremity of this ground between them, I found that the distance was
exactly three-quarters of a mile. A bank of sand extended further and, on
standing upon this and looking back, I recognised the view given in
Captain Sturt's work and the adjacent localities described by him. The
state of the rivers was no longer however the same as when this spot was
first visited. All the water visible now belonged to the Murray, whose
course was rapid, while its turbid flood filled also the channel of the
Darling, but was there perfectly still. We were then distant about a
hundred miles from the rest of the party who, before we could join them,
might have had enough to do with the natives. I thought that in case it
might ever be necessary to look for us, this junction was the most likely
spot where traces might be sought; and I therefore buried near the point,
beside a tree marked with a large M and the wor