(Footnote.  See above.)

May 28.

A thick fog hung over us in the morning but it did not impede our progress.  For the first three miles our way was along the banks of the channel or lagoon beside which we had passed the night.  It then crossed a polygonum flat and several dry hollows, beyond which I at length saw the rising ground of the river-berg and, immediately after, the river itself, flowing by the base of a precipitous red cliff in which the scrubby flat country we were travelling upon abruptly terminated.  We had cut off a great bend of the Murray by our intricate journey among the lagoons; and had again reached the river precisely at the point most desirable.

HUTS OVER TOMBS.

On this upper ground we observed several tombs, all enclosed within parterres of the same boat-like shape first seen by us on the day we traced the Lachlan into the basin of the Murrumbidgee.  Two of the tombs here consisted of huts, very neatly and completely thatched over, the straw or grass being bound down by a well-wrought net.  Each hut had a small entrance on the south-west side, and the grave within was covered with dry grass or bedding on which lay however some pieces of wood.  There was a third grave with coverings of the same kind, but it was not so neatly finished, nor was it covered with net.* There were also graves without any covering; one where it appeared to have been burnt; and two old-looking graves were open, empty, and about three feet deep.

(Footnote.  Isaiah 45:4.  Who remain among the graves.] “The old Hebrews are charged by the prophet Isaiah with remaining among the graves and lodging in the monuments.”  See Lewis’ Origines Hebraeae volume 3 page 381.)

ANOTHER DIVISION OF THE DARLING TRIBE.

We had not proceeded far through the scrub on the top of the precipice overhanging the river when the usual alarm term “the natives” was passed along to me from the people in the rear of our party.  Piper had been told that we should soon see the other division of the Darling tribe, which was still ahead of us; and I concluded that these natives belonged to it and were awaiting us at this point where, as they had foreseen, we were sure to come upon the river.  Four or five advanced up to us while the rest followed among the bushes behind.  I recognised two men whom I saw last year on the Darling.  They begged hard for axes and held out green boughs, but I had not forgotten the treachery of their burning boughs on our former interview and, thinking I recognised the tall man who had been the originator of the war, I went up to him with no very kind feeling; but I was informed he was only that man’s brother.  My altered manner however was enough for their quick glance; and indeed one of the best proofs that these natives belonged to the Darling tribe was the attention with which they watched me when they asked for tomahawks, and their speaking so much to Piper about Majy.