heard that the aborigines of the lower Murray had been informed of his
approach, and that they had assured the other tribes that they were
gathering murry coolah -- very angry -- to meet him, but this to one of
the Major's temper, lent but an added zest to the journey; for there were
old scores to settle on both sides. It was the 17th of March, 1836,
before he got free of the cattle stations and found himself at the point
where Oxley had finally left the river. He noticed that throughout this
route, in spite of the dry weather, the cattle were all in good
condition; and he found Oxley's swamps and marshes transmuted into grassy
flats. In fact, so changed was the face of the land, that even the
landmarks of that explorer could scarcely be recognised.

Again his mind began to be troubled with doubts as to whether he had not
acknowledged the veracity of Sturt's judgment too hastily, for we find in
his journal that he again wavered, after professing that the identity
admitted of little doubt. Now, on the Lachlan, he reverted to his old
idea that the Darling drained a separate and independent basin of its
own. He wrote:--

"I considered it necessary to ascertain, if possible, and before the
heavy part of our equipage moved further forward, whether the Lachlan
actually joined the Murrumbidgee near the point where Mr. Oxley saw its
waters covering the face of the country, or whether it pursued a course
so much more to the westward as to have been mistaken for the Darling by
Captain Sturt."

Impelled by this doubt he undertook a long excursion to the westward with
no result but the discomfort of several thirsty nights and an unchanging
outlook across a level expanse of country bounded by an unbroken horizon.
He reached Oxley's furthest on the 5th of May, but did not find that
explorer's marked tree, though he found others marked by Oxley's party
with the date 1817.

On the 12th of May, he halted on the bank of the Murrumbidgee, which in
his opinion surpassed all the other Australian rivers he had yet seen. As
his orders were simply to clear up the last hazy doubts that wrapped the
Murray and Darling junction, and then to visit the southern bank of the
Murray, he did not take his heavy baggage on to the Darling, but formed a
stationary camp on the Murrumbidgee, and thence went on with a small
party. When they came to the Murray, they found their old enemies awatch
for them. It was afterwards ascertained that many of these a