tes
on the part of the aborigines has since occurred not far from the very
spot where I wrote the above portion of my journal. Our line of route
soon became the high road from Sydney to Port Phillip, and it appears by
the Sydney newspapers (see Appendix 2.3) that the natives attacked a
party of fifteen men proceeding with cattle into these recently explored
regions. Although the whites had firearms the blacks killed seven of
them, leaving another so severely wounded that his recovery was deemed
hopeless. The winding swamp where this sudden attack by aboriginal
natives took place is marked Swampy River on the map, and from the
assembling of such a number at that point, exactly midway between the
Murrumbidgee and Port Phillip, therefore the most remote from settled
parts, and especially from the SUDDENNESS of that attack, the reader may
imagine the perilous situation of my party on the Darling and the lower
part of the Murray where, had any such attack but commenced successfully,
it is extremely improbable that any white man would have returned to the
settled districts.)

October 8.

The windings of the creek were this day more in our way as we proceeded
along the valley and, when in doubt whether it would be best for our
purpose to cross this channel or one joining it there from the south, I
perceived a small hill at no great distance beyond, upon which I halted
the party and ascended, when I saw that several ranges previously
observed were at no great distance before us. In these ranges a gap to
the south-east seemed to be the bed of the river which I knew we were
approaching, and which I therefore concluded we should find in the low
intervening country. Westward of the gap or ravine stood a large mass
which I thought might be the Mount Disappointment of Mr. Hume.

ARRIVAL AT, AND PASSAGE OF, THE GOULBURN.

On returning to the party we crossed the channel of the Deegay; but at
less than a mile further we were obliged to pass again to the right bank
at a point where its course tended northward. Soon after recrossing it we
met with a broad dry channel or lagoon, with lofty gum trees of the yarra
species on its borders, a proof that the river was at hand; and on
advancing three-quarters of a mile further we made the bank of the
Goulburn or Hovell, a fine river somewhat larger than the Murrumbidgee.*
Its banks and bed were firm; the breadth 60 yards; the mean depth as
ascertained by soundings being somewhat more there t