Regain our old route.

On the 15th, we kept an E.S.E. course, and, crossing the creek at an early hour, got upon our old track, which we kept.  We had the lateral ridge of the Pink Hills upon our right, and travelled through a good deal of brush.  Four or five natives joined us, and two followed us to the end of our day’s journey.  In the course of the evening, they endeavoured to pilfer whatever was in their reach, but were detected putting a tin into a bush, and soon took to their heels.  This was the first instance we had of open theft among the natives of the interior.

We passed Mosquito Brush on the 18th, but found the ponds quite dry, we were, therefore, under the necessity of pushing on, to shorten the next day’s journey, as we could not expect to get water nearer than the marshes.  At noon, on the 19th, we entered the plain, and once more saw them spreading in dreariness before us.  While the party was crossing to the first channel, I rode to the left, in order to examine the appearance of the country in the direction of the wood, and as far as I skirted the reeds had my impressions confirmed as to their partial extension.  I was obliged, however, to join the men without completing the circuit of the marshes.  They had found the first channel dry, and had passed on to the other, in which, fortunately, a small quantity of water still remained.  It was, however, so shallow as to expose the backs of the fish in it, and a number of crows had congregated, and were pecking at them.  Wishing to satisfy my mind as to the distance to which the river extended to the northward, Mr. Hume rode with me on the following day, to examine the country in that direction, leaving the men stationary.  We found that the reeds gradually decreased in body, until, at length, they ceased, or gave place to bulrushes.  There were general appearances of inundation, and of the subsidence of waters, but none that led us to suppose that any channel existed beyond the flooded lands.

Alarm for the safety of the provision party.

On our return to the camp, we observed dense masses of smoke rising at the head of the marshes, and immediately under Mount Foster.  This excited our alarm for the safety of the party we hoped to find at Mount Harris, and obliged us to make forced marches, to relieve it if threatened by the natives.

On the 22nd, we crossed the plains of the Macquarie, and surprised a numerous tribe on the banks of the river; and the difficulty we found in getting any of them to approach us, their evident timidity, and the circumstance of one of them having on a jacket, tended to increase our apprehensions.  When two or three came to us, they intimated that white men either had been or were under Mount Harris, but we were left in uncertainty and passed a most anxious night.

The body of reeds was still on fire; and the light embers were carried to an amazing distance by the wind, falling like a black-shower around us.  As we knew that the natives never made such extensive conflagration, unless they had some mischievous object in view, our apprehension for the safety of Riley, with his supplies, was increased.