our course into the interior--Mosquito Brush--Aspect and
productions of the country--Hunting party of natives--Courageous
conduct of one of them--Mosquitoes--A man missing--Group of hills
called New-Year's Range--Journey down New-Year's Creek--Tormenting
attack of the kangaroo fly--Dreariness and desolation of the
country--Oxley's Table Land--D'Urban's Group--Continue our journey down
New-Year's Creek--Extreme Disappointment on finding it salt--Fall in
with a tribe of natives--Our course arrested by the want of fresh
water--Extraordinary sound--Retreat towards the Macquarie.

CHAPTER III.

Intercourse with the natives--Their appearance and condition--Remarks
on the Salt or Darling River--Appearance of the marshes on our
return--Alarm for safety of the provision party--Return to Mount
Harris--Miserable condition of the natives--Circumstances attending the
slaughter of two Irish runaways--Bend our course towards the
Castlereagh--Wallis's Ponds--Find the famished natives feeding on
gum--Channel of the Castlereagh--Character of the country in its
vicinity--Another tribe of natives--Amicable intercourse with
them--Morrisset's chain of Ponds--Again reach the Darling River ninety
miles higher up than where we first struck upon it.

CHAPTER IV.

Perplexity--Trait of honesty in the natives--Excursion on horseback
across the Darling--Forced to return--Desolating effects of the
drought--Retreat towards the colony--Connection between the Macquarie
and the Darling--Return up the banks of the Macquarie--Starving
condition of the natives.

CHAPTER V.

General remarks--Result of the expedition--Previous anticipations--Mr.
Oxley's remarks--Character of the Rivers flowing westerly--Mr.
Cunningham's remarks--Fall of the Macquarie--Mr. Oxley's erroneous
conclusions respecting the character of the interior, naturally
inferred from the state in which he found the country--The marsh of the
Macquarie merely a marsh of the ordinary character--Captain King's
observations--Course of the Darling--Character of the low interior
plain--The convict Barber's report of rivers traversing the
interior--Surveyor-General Mitchell's Report of his recent expedition.

CHAPTER VI.

Concluding Remarks--Obstacles that attend travelling into the interior
of Australia--Difficulty of carrying supplies--Importance of steady
intelligent subordinates--Danger from the natives--Number of men
requisite,--and of cattle and carriages--Provisions-