(*Footnote. Tr. lanatum, Lindley manuscripts; incano-tomentosum, caule corymboso, foliis obovatis cuneatisque, capitulis hemisphericis lanatis, bracteis dorso villosis.)
CAMP OF 400 NATIVES.
On the brow of this height and just behind our camp I counted the remains of one hundred and thirty-five fires at an old encampment of natives and, as one fire is seldom lighted for less than three persons, there must have been at least four hundred. The bushes placed around each fire seemed to have been intended for that temporary kind of shelter required for only one night.
June 9.
We proceeded this morning as silently as possible, for we were now approaching the haunts of the enemy, and I wished to come upon them by surprise, thinking that I might thereby sooner ascertain whether any misfortune had befallen the depot.
NARROW ESCAPE FROM THE FLOODS OF THE RIVER.
Two creeks lay in our way and, from the flood then in the Murray, it was likely that they might be full of water, and the savages prepared to take advantage of the difficulty we should then experience in crossing them. The first channel we arrived at, which was quite dry when we formerly crossed, was now brimful of the muddy water of the Murray and before we reached its banks we heard the voices of natives on our right. We forded it however without annoyance, the water reaching only to the axles of the carts, but the current was very strong and FROM the river, that is to say, upwards. We next reached our old camp where we had passed that anxious night near Benanee. Here to my great satisfaction and indeed surprise, I found the bed of the larger creek, which occasioned us so great a detour when we first met the natives, still quite dry at our old crossing-place; being in the same state in which it was then, although the flood water was now fast approaching it. We got over however with ease and at length again traversed the plain which skirts the lake; and we were glad to find that tranquillity prevailed along its extensive shores.
PIPER OVERTAKES TWO YOUTHS FISHING IN LAKE BENANEE.
I perceived only one or two natives fishing, and I took Piper down to the beach to speak to them, being desirous also to examine at leisure this fine sheet of water. We found on arriving there that other natives had run off from some huts on the shore, but Piper pursued those in the lake, for the purpose of obtaining information about the tribe, until they ran so far out into the water that they seemed at length up to their ears, and I was really afraid that the poor fellows, who were found to be only boys, would be drowned in endeavouring to avoid him. I could scarcely distinguish them at length from the numerous waterfowl floating around. In vain I called to their pursuer to come back, Piper was not to be baffled by boys, and continued to walk through the water like a giant, brandishing a short spear, or, as the boys would probably say to their tribe;
Black he stood as night, Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, And shook a dreadful dart.