September 8.
Proceeding in a south-south-east direction we crossed, at seven miles, a creek, which I took for that of Tandogo, and thereupon turned towards the south-east. After a journey of eleven miles we encamped about three-quarters of a mile from the Bogan on a spot where we found excellent grass. We had now arrived where the pasturage was so much better than any we had seen that we could not doubt that a greater quantity of rain had fallen here than in the regions where we had been. The improvement was obvious, not alone in the quality of the grass, but in the birds, the woods, the clouds, and distant horizon, which all bespoke our approach to a more habitable region than that in which we had so long been wandering. We crossed some fine sloping hills and found on the Bogan a rich flat, somewhat resembling those tracts of black soil which are so much prized on some of the larger rivers of the colony. A hot wind blew from the north and now brought with it smoke and an overcast sky, which in the evening turned to nimbus clouds. A south-west wind (the usual antidote to the hot winds of Sydney) came in the evening, and some genial showers fell during the night.
September 9.
A drizzling rain fell early in the morning but about midday the weather cleared up. We had not proceeded far before I was stopped by the Bogan, the course of which I found at length to come more from the south. I had been fortunate in the line which I had pursued as the supposed direction of this river, above the part previously surveyed. This was on the bearing of 139 1/2 degrees, and chosen after considering the position of hills and other circumstances relative, and I now found that this line nearly cut through our three last camps on the river. We were at length to turn southward, and this still appeared to be the main channel, judging by the breadth of the bed and the long deep ponds of water. Indeed we had no longer any apprehensions about finding water while travelling along the main channel; and this day we crossed over ground well covered with grass.
MEET THE NATIVES WHO FIRST ACCOMPANIED US.
During our progress along this unsurveyed part of the Bogan we had several times heard the natives and called to them, but they could not be induced to come near us. Today however I saw smoke at a distance, and hastened towards it with Burnett who succeeded (although the rest of the tribe fled) in intercepting one individual between him and me who proved to be our old friend Bultje, the very intelligent native who had formerly been our guide. The rest of the tribe soon returned, and gathering around us they all seemed much amused with our relation (and representations) of the conduct of the Myall blackfellows on the Darling. They could not afford any explanation of those ceremonies which appeared to be as strange to them as they had been to us. The only observation of Bultje, on learning that some of them had been shot, was "Stupid whitefellows! why did you not bring away the gins?" We eagerly enquired whether he knew anything of one whitefellow of ours who had been lost, but he appeared surprised to hear it.
ARRIVE AT A CATTLE STATION.
He told us however that we were near a cattle station where two white men had been recently established, having come from the colony along our track over the mountains. I hastened towards the dwelling of these white men, and the symmetrical appearance of their stockyard fence, when it first caught my eye, so long accustomed to the wavy lines of simple nature, looked quite charming as a work of art. Our hearts warmed at the very sight of the smoking chimney; and on riding up to the hut I need not say with what pleasure I recognised two men of our own race. On seeing my pedestrian companions however, armed, feathered, and in rags; these white men were growing whiter, until I briefly told them who we were, and that we really were not bushrangers. They said a bushranger on horseback had been seen in that country only a few days before by the natives, at whom he had fired a pistol when they had nearly caught him at a waterhole. I was glad to ascertain the fact, even in this shape, that my courier Baldock, whom they of course meant, had got safely so far with my despatches.
LEARN THAT MR. CUNNINGHAM HAD BEEN KILLED BY NATIVES.
One of these men having but lately left the settled districts had seen in the newspapers an account of one of my party having been killed by natives; and he stated that the names of four natives and two gins were mentioned, adding that the person murdered was supposed to have been my man in charge of the sheep. My informant also pointed towards where the white man was said to have been killed, as indicated by the blacks; and this was exactly where our distressing loss befell us. I was also informed that the natives thereabouts were now in dread of the arrival of soldiers, and thus, for the first time, I learned that poor Cunningham had really been murdered by these savages. Intelligence of this kind often travels in exaggerated shapes through the medium of the natives; and I had lately been anxious to see some of them, as many of those so near the colony can speak very well. Now we understood why the Bogan was deserted. The non-appearance of the chief who had been so obsequious on our going down was perhaps a suspicious circumstance when connected with the fact that a silk handkerchief had been seen on the first of that tribe whom we met, and the strange movements and bustle which took place among those at our camp at Cudduldury during my absence of four days.