the new river. Now, however,
emboldened by numbers, they seemed determined on making the first
attack, and soon worked themselves into a state of frenzy by loud and
vehement shouting. As I observed that the water was shoaling fast, I
kept in the middle of the stream; and, under an impression that it
would be impossible for me to avoid a conflict, prepared for an
obstinate resistance. But, at the very moment when, having arrived
opposite to a large sand bank, on which they had collected, the
foremost of the blacks had already advanced into the water, and I only
awaited their nearer approach to fire upon them, their impetuosity was
restrained by the most unlooked for and unexpected interference. They
held back of a sudden, and allowed us to pass unmolested. The boat,
however, almost immediately grounded on a shoal that stretched across
the river, over which she was with some difficulty hauled into deeper
water,--when we found ourselves opposite to a large junction from the
eastward, little inferior to the river itself. Had I been aware of this
circumstance, I should have been the more anxious with regard to any
rupture with the natives, and I was now happy to find that most of them
had laid aside their weapons and had crossed the junction, it appearing
that they had previously been on a tongue of land formed by the two
streams. I therefore landed among them to satisfy their curiosity and
to distribute a few presents before I proceeded up it. We were obliged
to use the four oars to stem the current against us; but, as soon as we
had passed the mouth, got into deeper water, and found easier pulling,
The parallel in which we struck it, and the direction from which it
came, combined to assure me that this could be no other than the
"Darling." To the distance of two miles it retained a breadth of one
hundred yards and a depth of twelve feet. Its banks were covered with
verdure, and the trees overhanging them were of finer and larger growth
than those on the new river by which we had approached it. Its waters
had a shade of green, and were more turbid than those of its
neighbours, but they were perfectly sweet to the taste.

Having satisfied myself on those points on which I was most anxious, we
returned to the junction to examine it more closely.

The angle formed by the Darling with the new river is so acute, that
neither can be said to be tributary to the other; but more important
circumstances, upon which it is impossible