Piper came to my tent and observed that "That fellow had TWO
coats," no doubt meaning that I ought to give one of them to him! The men
he despised, and he would only act by my orders. This day he rendered us
much useful assistance in the water; for instance, when a cart stuck in
the bottom of the river, the rope by which it was to be drawn through
having broken, Piper, by diving, attached a heavy chain to it, thereby
enabling the party to draw it out with the teams.

OUR FEMALE GUIDE DEPARTS.

At this place The Widow, being far beyond her own country, was inclined
to go back and, although I intended to put her on a more direct and safe
way home after we should pass the heads of the Murrumbidgee on our
return, I could not detain her longer than she wished. Her child, to whom
she appeared devotedly attached, was fast recovering the use of its
broken limb; and the mother seemed uneasy under an apprehension that I
wanted to deprive her of this child. I certainly had always wished to
take back with me to Sydney an aboriginal child with the intention of
ascertaining what might be the effect of education upon one of that race.
This little savage, who at first would prefer a snake or lizard to a
piece of bread, had become so far civilised at length as to prefer bread;
and it began to cry bitterly on leaving us. The mother however thought
nothing of swimming, even at that season, across the broad waters of the
Millewa, as she should be obliged to do, pushing the child before her,
floating on a piece of bark.

ENTER A HILLY COUNTRY.

July 4.

At the distance of about a mile to the southward a line of trees marked
the course of another channel which, containing only a few ponds, we
crossed without difficulty. Beyond it we traversed a plain five miles in
extent, and backed by low grassy hills composed of grey gneiss. The most
accessible interval between these hills still appeared to be in the
direction I had chosen at Mount Hope, as leading to the lowest opening of
a range still more distant: I therefore continued on that bearing, having
the highest of those hills to our left at the distance of five or six
miles. On entering the wood skirting the wide plain, our curiosity was
rather disappointed at finding, instead of rare things, the black-butted
gum and casuarinae, trees common in the colony. The woolly gum also grew
there, a tree much resembling the box in the bark on its trunk, although
that on the branches, unlike the box