We afterwards moved forward on our journey as usual; but we had scarcely proceeded a mile before we heard the savages in our rear and, on my regaining the Murray, which we reached at about three miles, they were already on the bank of that river, a little way above where we had come upon it and consequently as we proceeded along its bank they were behind us. They kept at a considerable distance; but I perceived through my glass that the fellow with the cloak carried a heavy bundle of spears before him.
He comes, not in peace, O Cairbar: For I have seen his forward spear. Ossian.
LONG MARCH THROUGH A SCRUBBY COUNTRY.
We were then upon a sloping bank or berg,* which was covered backwards with thick scrub; below it lay a broad reach of still water in an old channel of the river and which I, for some time, took to be the river itself. It was most painfully alarming to discover that the knowledge these savages had acquired of the nature of our arms, by the loss of several lives last year, did not deter them from following us now with the most hostile intentions.
(*Footnote. See above.)
DISMAL PROSPECT.
We had endeavoured to prevent them, by the demonstration of sending the men advancing with firearms, yet they still persisted; and Piper had gathered from them that a portion of their tribe was still before us. Our route lay along the bank of a river, peopled by other powerful tribes; and at the end of 200 miles we could only hope to reach the spot where the party already following in our rear had commenced the most unprovoked hostility last season. I had then thought it unsafe to divide my party, it was already divided now, and the cunning foe was between the two portions; a more desperate situation therefore than this half of my party was then in can scarcely be imagined. To attempt to conciliate these people had last year proved hopeless. Our gifts had only excited their cupidity, and our uncommon forbearance had only inspired them with a poor opinion of our courage; while their meeting us in this place was a proof that the effect of our arms had not been sufficient to convince them of our superior strength. A drawn battle was out of the question, but I was assured by Piper and the other young natives that we should soon lose some of the men in charge of the cattle. Those faithful fellows, on whose courage my own safety depended--some of them having already but narrowly escaped the spears of these very savages on the former journey. We soon discovered that the piece of water was not the river, by seeing the barbarians passing along the other side of it; and I thereupon determined to travel on as far as I could. The river taking a great sweep to the southward, we proceeded some miles through an open forest of box or goborro; and when I at length met with sandhills and the Eucalyptus dumosa I continued to travel westward, not doubting but that I should reach the Murray by pursuing that course. We looked in vain however during the whole day for its lofty trees, and in fact crossed one of the most barren regions in the world.
NIGHT WITHOUT WATER OR GRASS.
Not a spike of grass could be seen and the soil, a loose red sand, was in most places covered with a scrub like a thick-set hedge of Eucalyptus dumosa. Many a tree was ascended by Burnett, but nothing was to be seen on any side different to what we found where we were. We travelled from an early hour in the morning until darkness and a storm appeared to be simultaneously drawing over us. I then hastened to the top of a small sandhill to ascertain whether there was any adjacent open space where even our tents might be pitched, and I cannot easily describe the dreariness of the prospect that hill afforded. No signs of the river were visible unless it might be near a few trees which resembled the masts of distant ships on a dark and troubled sea; and equally hazardous now was this land navigation, from our uncertainty as to the situation of the river on which our finding water depended, and the certainty that, wherever it was, there were our foes before us, exulting perhaps in the thought that we were seeking to avoid them in this vile scrub. On all sides the flat and barren waste blended imperceptibly with a sky as dismal and ominous as ever closed in darkness. One bleak and sterile spot hard by afforded ample room for our camp; but the cattle had neither water nor any grass that night.
HEAVY RAIN.