October 6.—­We set out this morning with an intention of proceeding up the west bank of King’s River by the road already cut, but before we had arrived at it, two natives in a canoe were induced to cross over to us.  Their vessel we detained, making them a present of a tomahawk.  The moment they saw one of the horses (which happened to be a white one), descending the bank for the purpose of being unladen, they made signs expressive of their idea, that we were going to put the horses in the canoe, which they immediately quitted and swam to the opposite shore.  As it was extremely probable that many smaller branches would fall into King’s River, I determined to cross it at its mouth, and so proceed along the banks of the main river.  It was two o’clock before we had got every thing over, when, upon examining the road which we had to travel, we found that about half a mile lower down another small stream joined the river.  To this latter stream we therefore cut a road, keeping the canoe for farther use.  By its means we found that after we should cross this last stream, we should get into an open forest country, with good grass:  and we hoped that we should meet with no farther obstructions in our progress, which the thickness of the country and the intersection of streams rendered extremely tedious.  The river at low-water was sufficiently fresh for us to drink.  From the limited observations I was enabled to make, the depth at that time of tide was from two to three fathoms, and the rise of tide was five feet:  but the tides appeared very irregular, being evidently influenced by the great body of fresh water in the river.  What land we saw or passed over was a rich vegetable mould; the brush extremely thick on both sides, with fine timber of various kinds.  I do not think the higher forest ground was more than a mile or two back from us.  King’s River, and that which we shall cross tomorrow, are formed by numerous smaller runs of water from the valleys in the higher grounds to the southward and south-west.

October 7.—­We crossed the small stream mentioned yesterday, by the help of our friendly canoe, in safety.  The horses however having had little or nothing to eat the night preceding, I halted for a couple of hours to refresh them.  The horse which had been so weakly, that nothing but the short stages we were obliged to make enabled him to keep up with us, in crossing the stream landed on a small muddy patch, dry at low water:  here he fell, and all our efforts were unavailing to carry him to the forest-land, where I intended to leave him for the chance of recovery.  To prevent a more lingering death, I now caused him to be shot.  We afterwards proceeded near four miles, through an excellent open forest country, with low rising hills well watered, and plenty of good grass and timber.  We halted near a large lagoon, deriving its source from springs in the valleys southerly and south-west, having an outlet to the river, which having bent considerably to the north-westward, we have not seen since we quitted its banks this morning.  The weather for some days back has been remarkably fine, and we find the brushes a great protection from the heat of the sun, which is now becoming very powerful.