After noon, we pushed on, and at a mile crossed a creek, where we found a small tribe of scrub natives, one of whom had a child of unusual fatness:  its flesh really hung about it; a solitary instance of the kind as far as I am aware.  We then traversed good grassy plains for about two miles, when we fell in with another small tribe on a second creek:  our introduction to which was more than ordinarily ceremonious.  The natives remained seated on the ground, with the women and children behind them, and for a long time preserved that silence and reserve which is peculiar to these people when meeting strangers; however, we soon became more intimate, and several of them joined our train.  Our friend Nadbuck was very officious (not disagreeably so, however), on the occasion, and shewed himself a most able tactician, since he paid more attention to the fair than his own sex, and his explanation of our movements seemed to have its due weight.

We soon passed from the grassy plains I have mentioned, to plains of still greater extent, and still finer herbage.  Nothing indeed could exceed the luxuriance of the grass on these water meadows, for we found on crossing that the floods were beginning to incroach upon them.  These were marked all over with cattle tracks, many of them so fresh that they could only have been made the night before, but independently of these there were others of older date.  The immense number of these tracks led me to inquire from the natives if there were any cattle in the neighbourhood, when they informed me that there were numbers of wild cattle in the brushes to the westward of the flats, and that they came down at night to the river for water and food.  The grass upon the plain over which we were travelling was so inviting, that I determined to give the horses and bullocks a good feed, and turning towards the river with Mr. Eyre, I directed Mr. Poole and Mr. Browne to try the brushes with Flood and Mack, for a wild bullock, whilst we arranged the camp.  We scarcely had time to do this, however, when Mr. Browne returned to inform me that soon after gaining the brush they had fallen in with a herd of about fifty cattle, out of which they had singled and shot a fine animal, and that on his way back to the camp the dogs had killed a large kangaroo.  Upon this I sent Morgan with the cart to fetch in the quarters of the animal, and desired the natives to go with him to benefit by what might be left behind, and to feast on the kangaroo.  The beast the party had killed fully justified Mr. Browne’s account of it, and its fine condition proved the excellent nature of the pastures on which it had fed.  We had not killed many of the sheep, as I was anxious to preserve them, since they had given us little or no trouble, so that I was led to hope that by ordinary care they would prove a most valuable and important stock.