I would fain have lingered on my way to examine, as far as circumstances would permit, the beautiful country between the lake and the ranges; and it was with heartfelt sorrow that I yielded to necessity.  My men were, indeed, very weak from poverty of diet and from great bodily fatigue.  Hopkinson, Mulholland, and Macnamee were miserably reduced.

It will be borne in mind that our difficulties were just about to commence, when those of most other travellers have ceased; and that instead of being assisted by the stream whose course we had followed, we had now to contend against the united waters of the eastern ranges, with diminished strength, and in some measure with disappointed feelings.

Under the most favourable circumstances, it was improbable that the men would be enabled to pull for many days longer in succession since they had not rested upon their oars for a single day, if I except our passage across the lake, from the moment when we started from the depot; nor was it possible for me to buoy them up with the hope even of a momentary cessation of labour.  We had calculated the time to which our supply of provisions would last under the most favourable circumstances, and it was only in the event of our pulling up against the current, day after day, the same distance we had compassed with the current in our favour, that we could hope they would last as long as we continued in the Murray.  But in the event of floods or any unforeseen delay, it was impossible to calculate at what moment we might be driven to extremity.

On the other hand, it was sufficiently evident to me that the men were too much exhausted to perform the task that was before them without assistance, and that it would be necessary both for M’Leay and myself to take our share of labour at the oars.  The cheerfulness and satisfaction that my young friend evinced at the opportunity that was thus afforded him of making himself useful, and of relieving those under him from some portion of their toil, at the same time that they increased my sincere esteem for him, were nothing more than what I expected from one who had endeavoured by every means in his power to contribute to the success of that enterprise upon which he had embarked.  But although I have said thus much of the exhausted condition of the men, I would by no means be understood to say that they flagged for a moment, or that a single murmur escaped them.  No reluctance was visible, no complaint was heard, but there was that in their aspect and appearance which they could not hide, and which I could not mistake.  We re-entered the river on the 13th under as fair prospects as we could have desired.  The gale which had blown with such violence in the morning gradually abated, and a steady breeze enabled us to pass our first encampment, by availing ourselves of it as long as daylight continued.