The sun had now set and I directed the people to encamp while I rode forward in search of this river. Pa.s.sing through a thick scrub I observed another line of river trees, but I penetrated their shades with no better success than before.

HEAVY FALL OF RAIN.

A dark and stormy night of wind and rain closed over us and, notwithstanding the want of water which we were again destined to experience, we got wet enough before we regained the camp. Mr. Stapylton had arrived there before me without having seen either the Lachlan or the Murrumbidgee in the course he had taken, and as the general bearings and directions I had given him did not admit of his deviating too far from the route of the carts he had been obliged to return unsuccessful. After so long a day's journey the cattle were doomed to pa.s.s another night yoked up, although surrounded by luxuriant pasture, for thus only could we prevent them from straying in search of water. The rain however moistened the gra.s.s on this as on three former occasions when we had suffered the same privation; and the cattle were ordered to be loosened to feed at the earliest dawn.

May 12.

It had rained heavily during the night so that water was no longer scarce. The canoe brought from Waljeers had been placed to receive the rain and conduct it into a cask which was thus filled.

TWO MEN MISSING.

On getting up I learnt that two men had set off in quest of water and had been absent all night. That they should have taken this step without first asking permission was wrong, but that n.o.body had mentioned the circ.u.mstance to me till then was still more vexatious as, by firing shots and throwing up rockets, these men might have found their way back in the dark. I was very glad however to hear them at length answer our shots, and not at all sorry to see them come in thoroughly drenched with the empty kettles on their shoulders. After this I learnt, when we were about to start, that six of the bullocks had got away; Piper however managed to trace and bring them back. The weather then cleared up and we proceeded, in a south-west direction as nearly as patches of scrub permitted, in search of the Murrumbidgee; for I was then convinced, from the different appearance of the country, that we had got beyond the junction of the Lachlan. On pa.s.sing the scrubs we crossed a plain of the same kind which we had so often met. It sloped towards a belt of large trees in a flat, where we also saw reeds, the ground there being very soft and heavy for the draught animals. Pa.s.sing this flat we again reached firm ground with stately yarra trees; and charming vistas through miles of open forest scenery had indeed nearly drawn me away from the bearing which was otherwise most likely to hit the river.

REACH THE MURRUMBIDGEE.

I however continued to follow it and, in the midst of such scenery without being at all aware that I was approaching a river, I suddenly saw the water before me and stood at last on the banks of the Murrumbidgee.

This magnificent stream was flowing within eight feet of its banks with considerable rapidity, the water being quite clear; and it really exceeded so much my expectations (surpa.s.sing far the Darling and all the Australian rivers I had then seen) that I was at first inclined to think it could be nothing less than the Murray which, like the Darling, might have been laid down too far to the west. At all events I was delighted to find that this corner of Australia could supply at least one river worthy of the name. After thirsting so long amongst the muddy holes of the Lachlan I witnessed, with no slight degree of satisfaction, the jaded cattle drinking at this full and flowing stream, resembling a thing of life in its deep and rippling waters. Now at length there was an end to the privations we had so often suffered from want of water; and the bank was also clothed with excellent gra.s.s--a pleasing sight for the cattle.

Reeds appeared in patches back from the river but, unlike the banks of the Darling, the best and clearest ground was on the immediate margin of the Murrumbidgee.

NATIVES ON THE OPPOSITE BANK.

Piper, with that keenness of vision so peculiar in savages, soon descried some natives on the other side, and pointed out to me a tribe filing in a straggling line through the woods at a distance. I made him cooey to them, they answered the call, and in a short time appeared on the opposite bank. Our first interview with these sons of the woods was highly creditable to them. They advanced in a numerous group, but in a silent and submissive manner, each having a green bough twined round the waist or in his hand. They sat down on the opposite bank and The Widow, having taken a position exactly facing them, held a parley which commenced before I could get to the spot. It was now that we learnt the full value of this female, for it appeared that while some diffidence or ceremony always prevents the male natives, when strangers to each other, from speaking at first sight, no such restraint is imposed on the gins; who with the privilege of their s.e.x are ever ready to speak, and the strangers as it seemed to answer; for thus at least we held converse with this tribe across the river. Our female guide, who had scarcely before ventured to look up, stood now boldly forward and addressed the strange tribe in a very animated and apparently eloquent manner; and when her countenance was thus lighted up, displaying fine teeth and great earnestness of manner, I was delighted to perceive what soul the woman possessed, and could not but consider our party fortunate in having met with such an interpreter.

THEY SWIM ACROSS.

At length the strangers proposed swimming over to us and we invited them to do so.

AFRAID OF THE SHEEP.

They then requested that those wild animals, the sheep and horses, might be driven away, at which The Widow and Piper's gin laughed heartily, but they were removed accordingly. The warriors of the Murrumbidgee were about to plunge into the angry flood, desirous, no doubt, of showing off like so many Caesars before these females, but their fears of the sheep, which they could not hide, must have said little for their prowess in the eyes of the damsels on our side of the water. The weather was cold, but the stranger who first swam across bore in one hand a piece of burning wood and a green branch. He was no sooner landed than he converted his embers into a fire to dry himself. Immediately after him followed a grey-haired chief (of whom I had heard on the Lachlan) and two others. It appeared however that Piper did not at first understand their language, saying it was "Irish"; but it happened that there was with this tribe a native of Cudjallagong (Regent's lake) and it was rather curious to see him act as interpreter between Piper and the others.

THEIR REPORTS ABOUT THE JUNCTION OF THE DARLING.

We learnt that the Murrumbidgee joined a much larger river named the Milliwa, a good way lower down, and that these united streams met, at a still greater distance, the Oolawambiloa, a river from the north which received a smaller one, bringing with it all the waters of Wamboul (the Macquarie). These natives proposed to amuse us with a corrobory dance, to which I did not object, but they postponed it until the following evening.

SEARCH UP THE RIVER FOR JUNCTION OF THE LACHLAN.

May 13.

Having been very anxious to complete my survey of the Kalare by determining the true situation of its junction with the Murrumbidgee, I set out this morning with the intention of tracing this river upwards to that point, which I thought could not be at a greater distance than ten or twelve miles. We sought it however in vain, until darkness put a stop to our progress after we had measured full twenty miles. We lay down by the riverside and, although entirely without either food or shelter, determined to prosecute our search at daylight next morning.

COURSE OF THE MURRUMBIDGEE.

May 14.

Having laid down our work on the map last evening (by the light of the fire) I found that we were to the eastward, not only of our late camp where we had wanted water, but also even of our last camp on the Lachlan, and to the southward of it thirteen miles. It thus appeared that the river had taken a very extraordinary turn to the south or south-east, probably near our last encampment upon it. After measuring three miles further this morning, by which I was enabled to intersect a low hill in the situation where I expected to find the Kalare, and being then on a bend of the Murrumbidgee whence I could see no other indication of it save the line of trees some miles off, in which however it no doubt was, the whole intervening s.p.a.ce being covered with Polygonum junceum, I was content with intersecting the point where that line joined the Murrumbidgee, chiefly out of consideration for the men who were with me.

It was well that I then determined to return, for one man became so faint, when within a few miles of the camp, that the two others had to remain with him until I rode forward to it and sent back the doctor with something for them to eat.

The course of the Murrumbidgee, as far as I traced it in that excursion, appeared to be about west, and I distinctly saw, from the highest point I attained on that river, rising ground at a great distance also bearing east. Under these circ.u.mstances it was obvious that the long course of the river Lachlan is in no part better defined than where it enters the basin of the Murrumbidgee. Water, which had been so scarce in other parts, was abundant where its channel and immediate margins a.s.sumed the reedy character of the greater river. So far from terminating in a lagoon or uninhabitable marsh, the banks of the Lachlan at fifty miles below the spot where Mr. Oxley supposed he saw its termination as a river, are backed on both sides by rising ground, until the course turns finally southward into the Murrumbidgee.

TRIBE FROM CUDJALLAGONG VISITS THE CAMP IN MY ABSENCE.

On my arrival at the camp I found that six of the party mounted had set out in search of me at midday. A strong tribe had arrived soon after my departure and, in conjunction with those natives whom we found there, it had been molesting the camp during the whole of the night. On first coming up the men composing it boldly approached the fires and took their seats, demanding something to eat.

MOVEMENTS OF THE TRIBE.

It appeared that they had followed our cart track downwards, having with them a native of Cudjallagong. They inquired particularly why Majy had gone to the junction of the Kalare with so few people; and they gave a very unfavourable account of the tribe at that place. This alarmed Mr.

Stapylton, and when he observed the tribe set off in the morning, back along the cart track, he despatched the party on horseback under Burnett with orders to observe the movements of the tribe, to look for my track and, if possible, to join me. The party returned to the camp about eight in the evening, to my great satisfaction, for I had been apprehensive that they might have proceeded to seek me at the junction and I had despatched two men to recall them as soon as I returned.

CAUGHT FOLLOWING MY STEPS.

Burnett reported when he returned that he had found our track after making a considerable circuit five or six miles from the camp; and as Piper, who accompanied him, was tracing my steps homewards, on perceiving some natives running along it, he concluded that we were just before them and sounded the bugle, when they proved to be the tribe before mentioned, all armed with spears. What their object was I cannot say, for three of them had been trotting along the footmarks, while the rest of the tribe in a body kept pace abreast of them. On hearing the bugle it appeared that they seemed much alarmed and drew up at a distance.

PIPER QUESTIONS THEM.

They would not allow Piper to approach them, but one at length came forward and informed him that Majy was gone home. Piper was so dubious about this that he insisted on examining the points of their spears.

During the nights pa.s.sed at this camp the natives were on the alert, so that their various movements, cooeys, and calls kept the party in a state of watchfulness, aware, as experience had taught us, of their thieving propensities. Some rockets sent up about the time I was expected on the evening of our absence had however scared them a little; and it is probable that the man from Cudjallagong had given them new ideas about soldiers. Piper's watchword, also, when taking up his carabine, usually was "Bell gammon soldiers."* They left the neighbourhood of our camp on my return and we saw no more of the tribe which had followed me.

(*Footnote. Meaning Soldiers are no joke!)

CHAPTER 3.4.

The Murrumbidgee compared with other rivers.

Heaps of stones used in cooking.

High reeds on the riverbank.

Lake Weromba.

Native encampment.

Riverbanks of difficult access.

Best horse drowned.

Cross a country subject to inundations.

Traverse a barren region at some distance from the river.

Kangaroos there.

Another horse in the river.

Lagoons preferable to the river for watering cattle.

High wind, dangerous in a camp under trees.

Serious accident; a cartwheel pa.s.ses over The Widow's child.

Graves of the natives.

Choose a position for the depot.

My horse killed by the kick of a mare.

Proceed to the Darling with a portion of the party.

Reach the Murray.

Its breadth at our camp.

Meet with a tribe.

Lake Benanee.

Discover the natives to be those last seen on the Darling.

Hara.s.sing night in their presence.