When I laid down, I revolved in my own mind what course I should pursue in the morning.  If the account of the natives was correct, it was clear that my further progress eastward, was at an end.  My horses, indeed, were now reduced to such a state, that I foresaw my labours were drawing to a close.  Mack, too, was so ill, that he could hardly sit his animal, and although I did not anticipate any thing serious in his case, anything tending to embarrass was now felt by us.  Mr. Stuart and Morgan held up well, but I felt myself getting daily weaker and weaker.  I found that I could not rise into my saddle with the same facility, and that I lost wind in going up a bank of only a few feet in height.  I determined, however, on mature consideration, to examine the plain, and to satisfy myself before I should turn back, as to the fact of the creek commencing upon it.  Accordingly, in the morning, we saddled and loaded our horses, but none of the natives came to us until we had mounted; when they approached to take leave, and to persuade us not to go in the direction we proposed, but to no purpose.  The pool from which they drew their supply of water, was in the centre of a broad shallow grassy channel, that passed the point of the sand hill we had ascended, and ran up to the northward and westward; we were, therefore, obliged to cross this channel, and soon afterwards got on the plains.  They were evidently subject to flood, and were exceedingly soft and blistered; the grass upon them grew in tufts, not close, so that in the distance, the plains appeared better grassed than they really were.  At length, we got on a polygonum flat of great size, in the soil of which our horses absolutely sunk up to the shoulder at every step.  I never rode over such a piece of ground in my life, but we managed to flounder through it, until at length we got on the somewhat firmer but still heavy plain.  It was very clear, however, that our horses would not go a day’s journey over such ground.  It looked exactly as I have described it—­an immense concavity, with numerous small channels running down from every part, and making for the creek as a centre of union; nor, could we anywhere see a termination to it.  Had the plain been of less extent, I might have doubted the information of the natives; but, looking at the boundless hollow around me, I did not feel any surprise that such a creek even as the one up which we had journeyed, should rise in it, and could easily picture to myself the rush of water there must be to the centre of the plain, when the ground has been saturated with moisture.

The day being far advanced, whilst we were yet pushing on, without any apparent termination to the heavy ground over which we were riding, I turned westward at 2 p.m., finding that the attainment of the object I had in view, in attempting to cross the plain, was a physical impossibility.  We reached the water, at which the blind native visited us, a little after sunset, and were as glad as our poor animals could have been, when night closed in upon us, and our labours.