state of the still, I determined to use every effort for its recovery:  but I was truly at a loss how to find it; for the waters of the river were extremely turbid.  In this dilemma, the blacks would have been of the most essential service, but they were far behind us, so that we had to depend on our own exertions alone.  I directed the whale-boat to be moored over the place where the accident had happened, and then used the oars on either side of her, to feel along the bottom of the river, in hopes that by these means we should strike upon the articles we had lost.  However unlikely such a measure was to prove successful, we recovered in the course of the afternoon, every thing but the still-head, and a cask of paint.  Whenever the oar struck against the substance that appeared, by its sound or feel to belong to us, it was immediately pushed into the sand, and the upper end of the oar being held by two men, another descended by it to the bottom of the river, remaining under water as long as he could, to ascertain what was immediately within arm’s length of him.  This work was, as may be imagined, most laborious, and the men at length became much exhausted.  They would not, however, give up the search for the still head, more especially after M’Leay, in diving, had descended upon it.  Had he, by ascertaining his position, left it to us to heave it up, our labours would soon have ended; but, in his anxiety for its recovery, he tried to bring it up, when finding it too heavy, he let it go, and the current again swept it away.

At sunset we were obliged to relinquish our task, the men complaining of violent head-aches, which the nature of the day increased.  Thinking our own efforts would be unavailing, I directed two of the men to go up the river for the blacks, at day-light in the morning, and set the reeds on fire to attract their notice.  The day had been cloudy and sultry in the afternoon, the clouds collecting in the N.E.:  we heard the distant thunder, and expected to have been deluged with rain.  None, however, fell, although we were anxious for moisture to change the oppressive state of the atmosphere.  The fire I had kindled raged behind us, and threw dense columns of smoke into the sky, that cast over the landscape a shade of the most dismal gloom.  We were not in a humour to admire the picturesque, but soon betook ourselves to rest, and after such a day of labour as that we had undergone, I dispensed with the night guard.

Pilfering of natives.

In the morning we resumed our search for the still head, which Hopkinson at length fortunately struck with his oar.  It had been swept considerably below the place at which M’Leay had dived, or we should most probably have found it sooner.  With its recovery, all our fatigues were at once forgotten, and I ordered the breakfast to be got ready preparatory to our reloading the skiff.  Fraser and Mulholland, who had left the camp at daylight, had not yet returned.