amidst fields of reeds, they might
wander from the track, and irrecoverably lose themselves. I determined,
therefore, not to risk their safety, but to prepare my dispatches for
Sydney, and I hoped most anxiously, that ere they were closed, all
symptoms of disease would have terminated.

In the course of the day, however, Spencer, who was to return with
Riley to Wellington Valley, became seriously indisposed, and I feared
that he was attacked with dysentery. Indeed, I should have attributed
his illness to our situation, but I did not notice any unusual moisture
in the atmosphere, nor did any fogs rise from the river. I therefore
the rather attributed it to exposure and change of diet, and treated
him accordingly. To my satisfaction, when I visited the men late in the
evening, I found a general improvement in the whole of them. Spencer
was considerably relieved, and those of the party who had inflammation
of the eyes no longer felt that painful irritation of which they had
before complained. I determined, therefore, unless untoward
circumstances should prevent it, to send Riley and his companion
homewards, and to move the party without loss of time.

We had not seen any natives for many days, but a few passed the camp on
the opposite side of the river on the evening of the 25th. They would
not, however, come to us; but fled into the interior in great apparent
alarm.

DEPARTURE OF TWO MEN FOR WELLINGTON.

On the morning of the 26th, the men were sufficiently recovered to
pursue their journey. Riley and Spencer left us at an early hour; and
about 7 a.m. we pursued a N.N.W. course along the great plain I have
noticed, starting numberless quails, and many wild turkeys, by the way.
Leaving that part of the river on which Mr. Hume and I had touched
considerably to the left, we made for the point of a wood, projecting
from the river line of trees into the plain. The ground under us was an
alluvial deposit, and bore all the marks of frequent inundation.

The soil was yielding, blistered, and uneven; and the claws of
cray-fish, together with numerous small shells, were every where
collected in the hollows made by the subsiding of the waters, between
broad belts of reeds and scrubs of polygonum.

CONSULTATION.

On gaining the point of the wood, we found an absolute check put to our
further progress. We had been moving directly on the great body of the
marsh, and from the wood it spread in boundless extent before us. It
wa