On the 12th April, they reached the natural bridge of rocks on the Balonne, where the township of St. George now stands, long known as St. George's Bridge; and from here Sir Thomas advanced with a light party, leaving Kennedy to follow on his tracks with the remainder, after a rest of three weeks.
Soon after leaving the camp, Mitchell crossed the junction of the Maranoa, but did not at that time like its appearance, and only followed it a few miles, returning and keeping the course of the Balonne until they reached the junction of the Cogoon from the westward, when they followed the course of that river, which led them into a beautiful pastoral district around a solitary hill, which the leader named Mount Abundance, and here Mitchell first noticed the bottle tree.
Passing over a low range from the Cogoon, after crossing some tributary streams, Sir Thomas found a river with a northerly and southerly course, full of fine reaches of water, which retained its native name of the Maranoa, being supposed to be the same as the junction before noticed. Here they awaited the arrival of Kennedy with the heavy waggons and main body.
On the 1st of June, the party was reunited, and the leader prepared for a fresh excursion. Before Kennedy left the first depôt, at which, it will be remembered, he was to remain six weeks, he received dispatches from Commissioner Mitchell to Sir Thomas, by which that gentleman learnt of the success of Leichhardt's expedition.
Major Mitchell has been accused of regarding Leichhardt's success with jealous eyes, but that can scarcely be the case; true, he was of a slightly imperious temper, but he must have felt far too secure of his own reputation to fear any man's rivalry. The hasty and 'impatient remarks he was occasionally betrayed into would, no doubt, be the natural result of a man of his temperament reading such paragraphs in the Sydney newspapers as those he has quoted in his journal:—
"Australia Felix and the discoveries of Sir Thomas Mitchell now dwindle into comparative insignificance."
"We understand the intrepid Dr. Leichhardt is about to start another expedition to the Gulf, keeping to the westward of the coast ranges."
The last item would be especially annoying, as it would indicate an intention of trespassing on Mitchell's then field of operation.
On the 4th, the Surveyor-General started, intending to be away from the depôt for at least four months. He followed up the Maranoa, and crossing the broken tableland at its head, reached the Warrego, afterwards explored by Kennedy. From this river Mitchell struck north, feeling inclined to think that he was at last on the long looked for dividing watershed that separated the northern from the southern flow.
On the 2nd July, they discovered a fine running stream that soon broadened into a river, and eventually into a lake, called by Mitchell Lake Salvator, the river receiving the same name. Travelling along the basin of the head-waters of the Nogoa, which, however, turned too much to the eastward for his purpose, crossing the Claude and the fine country known as Mantuan Downs, Mitchell ascended a dividing range, and struck the head of the Belyando—one of the main tributaries of the Burdekin so lately discovered by Leichhardt. Following it down through the thick brigalow scrub, which is a marked feature of this river and its companion the Suttor, of Leichhardt, the party crossed the southern tropic on the 25th July, being, as Mitchell says, the first to enter the interior beyond that line. In this he rather overlooked the fact, which he must have known, that Leichhardt's track was only a few miles to the eastward, and also what he did not then know, that he was not in the interior but still on coast waters.