I succeeded here in cooking the seeds of Sterculia, which had recently been gathered; first by separating them from their prickly husks, and roasting them slightly, and then pounding and boiling them for a short time. They produced not only a good beverage with an agreeable flavour, but ate well and appeared to be very nourishing. They contained a great quantity of oil.
Brown caught an Agama, of a light yellowish colour, about a foot long.
The nights had been generally cloudy, with the exception of the last, which was clear with heavy dew. The days were very hot before the setting in of the sea breeze, which now generally took place at half past eleven. But the refreshing breeze was little felt in the close stringy-bark forest, which, with the dust rising under our bullocks' feet, rendered the heat almost suffocating.
Sept. 21.--Our journey to-day was in a N. 50 degrees W. direction for about eleven miles, through stringy-bark forest, in which the Melaleuca and the Cypress pine were either scattered, or formed small patches of forest. We then crossed a shallow sandy creek surrounded with thickets of Cypress pine; passed some broad-leaved tea-tree forest, and came to a fine open country timbered with tea-tree, and, farther on, with box and white gum. After fifteen miles, our course was intercepted by the largest salt-water river we had yet seen, and we turned at once to the W.S.W. in order to head it. Deep hollows surrounded by tea-trees, but quite dry, extended parallel to the river. We observed several islands in the river; and it was joined by some deep creeks filled with salt water at their lower parts, but dry higher up. The whole country was equally open and well grassed. The leguminous Ironbark, the white-barked tree of the Abel Tasman, the fig tree, and Sterculia in fruit, grew in the forest; and the white water-gum in the hollows, the drooping tea-tree at the level of the freshes, and a species of salt-water Casuarina below it.
I called this river the "Macarthur," in acknowledgment of the liberal support my expedition received from Messrs. James and William Macarthur of Cambden.
When we were passing through the stringy-bark forest, about four or five miles from the camp of the 20th, we heard the calls of some natives behind us, and I stopped our train to ascertain what they wanted: they were soon perceived running after us, and, when they were sufficiently near, I dismounted and advanced slowly to have a parley, and was met by an old man with three or four young fellows behind him. As soon as he saw that I intended to make him a present, he prepared one in return; and when I gave him some rings and buckles, he presented me with some of the ornaments he wore on his person. As our confidence in each other was thus established, some of my companions and several others of the natives came up, and we exchanged presents in a very amicable manner. They were all well made, good looking men; and one young man, whose body was coloured red, was even handsome, although his expression was somewhat wild and excited. All of them seemed to have been circumcised. Charley told me afterwards, that, at my first approach, some of them held their bommerangs ready to throw, but I do not think that it was more than a simple attitude of defence, in case I should have proved the aggressor. On my inquiring about water, they pointed in the direction which we were going, and seemed to say, "It is far, but it is large; Baco! Baco! Umara!" they frequently repeated with emphasis. John also told me that an old man had made signs of a large water, but not fit to drink, and was very anxious for us to change our course, Mr. Roper had understood the same. But, as long as we were ignorant what was before us, the pantomime and words of the natives enabled us to form but very vague and hopeless guesses. It was easy to understand them, when we knew the reality. These natives must have had some intercourse with white men, or Malays, for they knew the use of a knife, and valued it so highly, that one of them offered a gin for one. They appeared equally acquainted with the use of our fire-arms. No doubt they had seen the Malays, and probably some had accompanied them to the islands; as it is a common custom of the Malays to take natives home with them, that they may become friendly to them when fishing for trepang at this part of the gulf.
As the stage lengthened, our old bullock began to lag behind, and at last lay down incapable of walking any farther. In the hope of finding water, I continued my journey until the decline of day compelled me to encamp. We watched our bullocks as usual during the night, and I was distressed to find that another of them, a young but heavy beast, had suffered so much, that I feared he would soon have to be slaughtered, and the number of our pack bullocks be again reduced.
Sept. 22.--I sent Mr. Calvert and Charley back to fetch the bullock, whilst we continued our journey up the river. The country maintained the same character, being open and well-grassed. At the end of about seven miles, we came to a range of sandstone hills with horizontal strata, deeply fissured and worn by the waters and the atmosphere. A creek at the northern side of the range was dry; but, at its southern foot, there was another, which contained several small pools and two deep rocky basins with an ample supply of water. Here, therefore, we encamped to wait for our old bullock, which I now resolved to kill; being well aware that he would be a constant drawback to our progress. Wallabies were exceedingly numerous, and their tracks as broad as the foot-paths of the natives. Our lat. was 16 degrees 5 minutes 26 seconds; long. according to reckoning, 136 degrees 10 minutes.
Mr. Calvert and Charley had succeeded in driving our bullock to within about three miles of our camp, where he had again lain down. As soon as the moon rose, I went with Charley to bring him on; but when we came to the place where they had left him, he was gone. It was impossible even for Charley to track him in the uncertain moonlight; and, as the night was very cold and foggy along the flats and hollows of the river, we made a fire, to wait for daylight. By a most unfortunate accident, my hat caught fire, and was consumed in an instant; it was a great loss to me in such a climate, and under daily exposure to a most powerful sun. I had to make shift with a small bag made of strong canvass, the long end of which I turned over my face to shade it. When the sun rose, we resumed our search, and succeeded in finding the poor beast, after tracking him for six miles across the country; he had evidently rambled in search of water, and had generally been attracted by shady hollows, in which any one would have reasonably expected to find it. He had, however, been completely unsuccessful; the hollows appeared to have been dry for a very long time; he travelled tolerably well to our camp, where he was immediately killed, skinned, quartered, and cut up. His meat was not quite so flaccid and watery as that of our last bullock; but it was by no means good. He was an old, and a heavy beast, and the experience we had of him strongly corroborates my observations, that such beasts can neither bear the fatigues of a long journey, nor travel with a load, unless regularly well fed and watered.
On this occasion we made a grand discovery, of which we afterwards profited greatly. A portion of the skin of the bullock was dried, and a certain quantity was added to our soup at night; which we soon found to be not only a great improvement, but to be in itself much preferable to the tasteless meat of our knocked-up bullocks. The stomach was also made use of on this occasion, as our useful dog, Spring, was well provided with emu meat. We had our last pot of tea on the 22nd, and we were now fairly put on dry beef and water.