THE OLD MAN APPEARS AGAIN WITH A TRIBE FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.

At one o’clock the tribe for which the messenger had been sent, as I concluded, the day before, appeared on a small clear hill to the south-west of our camp, coming apparently from the very quarter where I wished to go.  They soon came up to our tents without ceremony, led on by the same old thief who had followed us down the river, and who seemed to have been the instigator of all this mischief.  As he had been already detected by us, and was aware that he was a marked man, it appeared that he had coloured his head and beard black by way of disguise.  This was a very remarkable personage, his features decidedly Jewish, having a thin aquiline nose and a very piercing eye, as intent on mischief as if it had belonged to Satan himself.  I received the strangers, who appeared to be a stupid harmless-looking set, as civilly as I could, giving to one who appeared to be their chief, a nail.  I soon afterwards entered my tent and they went northward towards the river, motioning that they were going for food, but that they would return and sleep near us.

SMALL STREAMS FROM THE WEST. THE DARLING TURNS SOUTHWARD.  RESOLVE TO RETURN.

I became now apprehensive that the party could not be safely separated under such circumstances, and when I ascertained, as I did just then, that a small stream joined the Darling from the west, and that a range was visible in the same direction beyond it, I discontinued the preparations I had been making for exploring the river further with pack animals, and determined to return.  The identity of this river with that which had been seen to enter the Murray now admitted of little doubt, and the continuation of the survey to that point was scarcely an object worth the peril likely to attend it.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER.

I had traced its course upwards of 300 miles, through a country which did not supply a single stream, all the torrents which might descend from the sharp and naked hills being absorbed by the thirsty earth.  Over the whole of this extensive region there grew but little grass, and few trees available for any useful purpose, except varieties of acacia, a tree so peculiar to these desert interior regions, and which there seemed to be nourished only by the dews of night.

AFFRAY WITH THE NATIVES.

Scarce an hour had elapsed after I had communicated my determination to the party when a shot was heard on the river.  This was soon followed by several others which were more plainly audible because the wind was fortunately from the north-west; and as five of the bullock-drivers and two men, sent for water, were at that time there, and also the tribe of king Peter, it was evident that a collision had taken place between them.  The arrival of the other tribe, who still lingered on our right front, made this appear like a preconcerted attack; and two of the tribe again