x o'clock,
and in two hours reached the river. The whole of the country we passed
was poor, and the soil within a mile of the river changed to a coarse deep
sand, which I have invariably found to compose its banks in every part
without exception that I ever saw. The stream at this place is about 350
feet wide; the water pure and excellent to the taste. The banks are about
twenty feet high and covered with trees, many of which had been evidently
bent by the force of the current in the direction which it runs, and
some of them contained rubbish and drift wood in their branches at least
forty-five feet above the level of the stream. We saw many ducks, and
killed one, which Colbee swam for. No new production among the shrubs
growing here was found. We were acquainted with them all. Our natives had
evidently never seen this river before. They stared at it with surprise,
and talked to each other. Their total ignorance of the country, and of the
direction in which they had walked, appeared when they were asked which
way Rose Hill lay; for they pointed almost oppositely to it. Of our compass
they had taken early notice, and had talked much to each other about it.
They comprehended its use, and called it 'naamoro,' literally, "to see the
way"; a more significant or expressive term cannot be found.

Supposing ourselves to be higher on the stream than Richmond Hill, we
agreed to trace downward, or to the right hand. In tracing, we kept as
close to the bank of the river as the innumerable impediments to walking
which grow upon it would allow. We found the country low and swampy; came
to a native fireplace, at which were some small fish-bones; soon after we
saw a native, but he ran away immediately. Having walked nearly three miles
we were stopped by a creek which we could neither ford, or fall a tree
across. We were therefore obliged to coast it, in hope to find a passing
place or to reach its head. At four o'clock we halted for the night on
the bank of the creek. Our natives continued to hold out stoutly. The
hindrances to walking by the river side which plagued and entangled us so
much, seemed not to be heeded by them, and they wound through them with
case; but to us they were intolerably tiresome. Our perplexities afforded
them an inexhaustible fund of merriment and derision: Did the sufferer,
stung at once with nettles and ridicule, and shaken nigh to death by his
fall, use any angry expression to them, they retorted in a moment,