As these natives had now unfortunately learnt to despise our weapons I was compelled to act promptly, or blood would undoubtedly have been shed.  I therefore took my rifle from Coles and, directing it at a heap of closely matted dead bushes which were distant two or three yards to the right of their main body, I drove a ball right through it:  the dry rotten boughs crackled, and flew in all directions, whilst our enemy, utterly confounded at this distant, novel, and unfair mode of warfare, fled from the field in confusion, the majority of our party rejoicing at the bloodless victory:  we then wended our way along the native path which led us down to the flats bordering the estuary, and finding there an underground stream of water bubbling along through a limestone cavity and having several openings upwards, we halted to refresh ourselves.

I had hoped that finding hostile natives in our vicinity would have made the stragglers keep up better with the party, but they would neither hasten on nor throw away their loads, so that my patience was sorely tried; a man of the name of Stiles was the worst; nothing could induce him to move along, and even the threat of leaving him behind produced no effect; I however kept pushing steadily onwards, for I never thought of the length of the journey we had to perform without trembling for the result.  We were now walking on a course of 180 degrees, and followed this line for two miles and a half through a similar country.  We still found many native paths running along the estuary, and saw the natives fishing, but they carefully avoided us, making off for the high lands as fast as they could.

Estuary of the Hutt river.  Description of the country and scenery.

The estuary became narrower here, and shortly after seeing these natives we came upon a river running into it from the eastward; its mouth was about forty yards wide, the stream strong, but the water brackish, and it flowed through a very deep ravine, having steep limestone hills on each side:  many wild-fowls were on the river, but we could not get a shot at them.  Being unable to ford the river here we followed it in a south-east direction for two miles, and in this distance passed two native villages, or, as the men termed them, towns, the huts of which they were composed differed from those in the southern districts in being much larger, more strongly built, and very nicely plastered over the outside with clay and clods of turf, so that although now uninhabited they were evidently intended for fixed places of residence.  This again showed a marked difference between the habits of the natives of this part of Australia and the south-western portions of the continent; for these superior huts, well marked roads, deeply sunk wells, and extensive warran grounds, all spoke of a large and comparatively-speaking resident population, and the cause of this undoubtedly must have been the great facilities for procuring food in so rich a soil.