Meet Natives. 
Successful fishing. 
Party distressed. 
Thirsty Flat. 
Tortoise Reach. 
Singular appearance of the ranges. 
Effect of the great heat. 
One man knocked up. 
Approach of natives. 
Preparation for defence. 
Appearance of the natives. 
Move further up the river. 
Emu Plains. 
Select position for night quarters. 
Upward course of the Victoria. 
Commence return. 
Kangaroo shot. 
Wickham Heights. 
New Tortoise. 
Lucky Valley. 
Race was with a native. 
Meet his tribe. 
They make off. 
Hard day’s work. 
Quarters for the night. 
Return to Reach Hopeless.

Exploration of the Victoria.

The expedition, consisting of the two large boats and gig, with Captain Wickham, who was to show them the watering place, left the ship early on the morning of the 31st of October.  I was to follow in one of the whaleboats, and explore the upper parts in company with Captain Wickham; and after completing the survey near the ship, I was at last fairly off to explore the Victoria with the first glimmer of light the morning following, once more to revel in scenes where all was new.  How amply is the explorer repaid by such sights for all his toils!  To ascend a hill and say you are the first civilized man that has ever trod on this spot; to gaze around from its summit and behold a prospect over which no European eye has ever before wandered; to descry new mountains; to dart your eager glance down unexplored valleys, and unvisited glens; to trace the course of rivers whose waters no white man’s boat has ever cleaved, and which tempt you onwards into the bosom of unknown lands:  these are the charms of an explorer’s life.

Mr. Forsyth accompanied me.  We landed nearly opposite the rugged ridge I have before mentioned, for a few angles and bearings.  Here we found two native rafts of precisely the same construction as those we had previously seen on the North-west coast, formed out of nine poles.  The shape the reader will remember from the sketch in that part of the work, and with the exception of only two instances, where they appeared merely temporary affairs, we have noticed no other kind of rafts in use.  Wherever this great similarity in their mode of water-conveyance prevails, we may infer the natives have had communication with each other.

We passed the night in the end of a crooked reach, near the only rocky islet in the river, lying four miles East-South-East from the furthest point I had before attained.  With the exception of a squall from north-east in the afternoon, there was scarcely any wind, and the night was cloudy with some slight showers of rain.  As the mosquitoes allowed us little rest, we were glad, when the day broke, to be again moving.  We now found the river take a north-east direction for eight miles, averaging in width upwards of three-quarters of a mile, and in depth at low-water two fathoms.  A sudden change in the trend of the reaches brought in sight the strange appearance of the country represented in the woodcut annexed.