During the first stages of our journey upon this new river, which evidently had its rise in the mountains of the S.E., we made rapid progress to the W.N.W. through an unbroken and uninteresting country of equal sameness of feature and of vegetation.  On the 23rd, as the boats were proceeding down it, several hundreds of natives made their appearance upon the right bank, having assembled with premeditated purposes of violence.  I was the more surprised at this show of hostility, because we had passed on general friendly terms, not only with those on the Morumbidgee, but of the new river.  Now, however, emboldened by numbers, they seemed determined on making the first attack, and soon worked themselves into a state of frenzy by loud and vehement shouting.  As I observed that the water was shoaling fast, I kept in the middle of the stream; and, under an impression that it would be impossible for me to avoid a conflict, prepared for an obstinate resistance.  But, at the very moment when, having arrived opposite to a large sand bank, on which they had collected, the foremost of the blacks had already advanced into the water, and I only awaited their nearer approach to fire upon them, their impetuosity was restrained by the most unlooked for and unexpected interference.  They held back of a sudden, and allowed us to pass unmolested.  The boat, however, almost immediately grounded on a shoal that stretched across the river, over which she was with some difficulty hauled into deeper water,—­when we found ourselves opposite to a large junction from the eastward, little inferior to the river itself.  Had I been aware of this circumstance, I should have been the more anxious with regard to any rupture with the natives, and I was now happy to find that most of them had laid aside their weapons and had crossed the junction, it appearing that they had previously been on a tongue of land formed by the two streams.  I therefore landed among them to satisfy their curiosity and to distribute a few presents before I proceeded up it.  We were obliged to use the four oars to stem the current against us; but, as soon as we had passed the mouth, got into deeper water, and found easier pulling, The parallel in which we struck it, and the direction from which it came, combined to assure me that this could be no other than the “Darling.”  To the distance of two miles it retained a breadth of one hundred yards and a depth of twelve feet.  Its banks were covered with verdure, and the trees overhanging them were of finer and larger growth than those on the new river by which we had approached it.  Its waters had a shade of green, and were more turbid than those of its neighbours, but they were perfectly sweet to the taste.

Having satisfied myself on those points on which I was most anxious, we returned to the junction to examine it more closely.