Twelve or fourteen natives made their appearance at the camp this evening, in the same direction as on the previous day. Each one was armed with a large bundle of spears, and with boomerangs. Their bodies were painted with a yellowish earth, which with their warlike gestures, made them look very ferocious. The grass in the position they had taken up was very long and very dry, quite up to the edge of the gully; they set it on fire in three or four places, and the wind blowing from them to us, it burned very rapidly. Thinking we should be frightened at this display they followed the fire with their spears shipped, making a most hideous noise, and with the most savage gestures. Knowing the fire could not reach us, as there was nothing to burn on our side the gully, we drew up towards them with our firearms prepared. They approached near enough to throw three spears into our camp, one of which went quite through one of our tents. No one was hurt, but a few of our party fired at them; we could not tell whether any were wounded, as they disappeared almost immediately. We kept three on watch this night for fear of the natives.
September 17 to 21.
Leaving the river, we turned north-west, and had occasionally fair travelling over stiff soil, intersected by many creeks, most of them dry, but were everywhere able to find water at intervals of a few miles. We passed over some ironstone ridges, and rocky hills, covered with Callitris, Cochlospermum, and Sterculias. On the stiff soil the trees were ironbark, box, apple-gum, and some large acacias, with long lanceolate phyllodia, and large spikes of golden-coloured flowers. The grass here in the valleys between the hills had been burned, and was grown up again about eight or ten inches high.
September 22.
We crossed a creek running eastward, overhung by Melaleucas and arborescent callistemons, with plenty of grass on both sides; the soil appeared to become more sandy than that over which we had hitherto passed.
September 23.
We proceeded in our course, travelling over sandy ridges covered with Eugenia, Exocarpus, and a very pretty Eucalyptus, with rose-coloured flowers and obcordate leaves, and yellow soft bark, also a dwarfish tree with dark green leaves, and axillary racemes of round monospermons, fruit of a purple colour, with a thin rind of a bitter flavour; also a great many trees of moderate size, from fifteen to twenty feet high, of rather pendulous habit, oval lanceolate exstipulate leaves, loaded with an oblong yellow fruit, having a rough stone inside; the part covering the stone has, when ripe, a mealy appearance, and very good flavour. I considered from its appearance it was the fruit which Leichhardt called the nonda, which we always afterwards called it; we all ate plentifully of it.
The weather for the last few days had been very hot, the thermometer ranging in the shade from 95 to 100 degrees at noon; still there was generally a breeze in the morning from the eastward, and in the evening from the west. We camped by the same creek as on the previous day, but in our present position it was running South-West, with several lagoons in the valley, full of Nymphaea and Villarsia; our latitude here was 15 degrees 33 minutes south.
September 24.
We crossed the creek and proceeded northward, till we camped by a dry creek, from the bed of which we obtained water by digging. During the day's journey, we passed over some flats of rotten honeycomb ground, on which nothing was growing but a few stunted shrubs, and a blue herbaceous plant belonging to the order Boragineae. We also passed over other sandy flats covered with broad-leafed Melaleucas and Grevillias, and a few Banksias. On these flats ant-hills occurred, and in their vicinity there was seldom much grass. The grasses generally growing there were annual kinds. It was Mr. Kennedy's opinion that the creek we crossed this morning joined the river we left on the 16th, and formed the Mitchell, although the country hereabouts did not resemble the banks of the Mitchell, as described by Leichhardt; but the appearance of the country varies so much every few miles, particularly to the westward, that it is impossible to support an opposite opinion on this ground.