April 11.

About an hour before daylight I roused the party, and as soon as it was light enough to distinguish the surrounding objects we started.  Our route lay along a series of undulating sandy hills which sloped down to a fertile plain, four or five miles in width, on the western side of which rose a low range of dunes, and beyond these was the sea.  We found the walking along these hills very difficult on account of the prickly scrub with which they were covered, and the general appearance of the country to the eastward was barren and unpromising.

Course impeded by A thick wood.

The course I pursued was about south by east, but we soon found ourselves embarrassed in thick woods through which it was almost impossible to force a way:  the trees were not large but so matted together that it required my utmost exertions to prevail upon the men to persist in pushing through them, indeed it will afterwards be found that these woods had a most disastrous effect upon the spirits of that portion of the party which followed me.  It was however absolutely necessary to make our way through one of these which formed a belt of nearly a mile in width, running almost east and west as far as the eye could see in each direction.

I therefore gave a bold plunge into the bushes, followed by the native and slowly by the other men, who kept alternately groaning from fatigue and pain and uttering imprecations against the country they were in.  Having cleared this wood I turned rather more inland, and we pursued our route over barren scrubby plains, and, after having travelled about fifteen miles over this uninteresting description of country, we suddenly found ourselves on the top of a low range which overlooked a most luxuriant valley of about three miles in width, its general direction appearing to be from the east-south-east.

The Arrowsmith river.

I immediately knew from the appearance of the country that we were near some large river; and whilst descending into the valley I indulged in speculations as to the size of that we were about to discover, and as to whether Providence would grant me once again to drink a draught of cool river water.

I soon however began to fear that my expectations were to be disappointed.  We had already proceeded more than two miles of the distance across the valley; and although the soil was rich and good we had yet seen nothing but dry watercourses, inconsiderable in themselves yet apparently when united forming a large river.  I still however entertained hopes of finding water, for I saw numerous tracks of natives about, and the whole of this valley was an extensive warran ground in which they had that very morning been digging for their favourite root.