The river continued to flow to the southward, a circumstance that gave me much satisfaction, for I now began to feel some anxiety about the men.  They had borne their fatigues and trials so cheerfully, and had behaved so well, that I could not but regret the scanty provision that remained for them.  The salt meat being spoiled, it had fallen to the share of the dogs, so that we had little else than flour to eat.  Fish no one would touch, and of wild fowl there were none to be seen.  The men complained of sore eyes, from the perspiration constantly running into them, and it was obvious to me that they were much reduced.  It will be borne in mind, that we were now performing the earliest part of our task, and were going down with the stream.  I was sure that on our return, (For I had no hopes of meeting any vessel on the coast,) we should have to make every day’s journey good against the current; and, if the men were now beginning to sink, it might well be doubted whether their strength would hold out.  Both M’Leay and myself, therefore, encouraged any cheerfulness that occasionally broke out among them, and Frazer enlivened them by sundry tunes that he whistled whilst employed in skinning birds.  I am sure, no galley-slave ever took to his oar with more reluctance than poor Frazer.  He was indefatigable in most things, but he could not endure the oar.

Natives become unruly.

We did not fall in with any natives on the 30th, neither did we see those who had preceded us from the last tribe.  On the 31st, to my mortification, the river held so much to the northward, that we undid almost all our southing.  What with its regular turns, and its extensive sweeps, the Murray covers treble the ground, at a moderate computation, that it would occupy in a direct course; and we had a practical instance of the truth of this in the course of the afternoon, when we found our friends ready to introduce us to a large assemblage of natives.  On asking them how they had passed us, they pointed directly east to the spot at which we had parted.  By crossing from one angle of the river to the other, they had performed in little more than half a day, a journey which it had taken us two long days to accomplish.  After our usual distribution of presents, we pushed away from the bank; though not without some difficulty, in consequence of the obstinacy of the natives in wishing to detain us; and I was exceedingly vexed to find, while we were yet in sight of them, that we had proceeded down a shallow channel on one side of an island instead of the further and deeper one; so that the boat ultimately grounded.  A crowd of the blacks rushed into the water, and surrounded us on every side.  Some came to assist us, others, under a pretence of assisting, pulled against us, and I was at length obliged to repel them by threats.  A good many of them were very much disposed to annoy us, and, after the boat was in deep water, some of them became quite infuriated, because we would not