ay. Here
we found a tribe of natives, thirty-seven in number, by whom the account
we had heard of the massacre of the over-landers at the lagoons of the
Darling was confirmed. Nadbuck now informed me that we should have to
cross the Ana-branch and go to the eastward, and that it would be
necessary to start by dawn, as we should not reach the Darling before
sunset. Nadbuck had now become a great favourite, and there was a dry
kind of humour about him that was exceedingly amusing, at the same time
that his services were really valuable.

Toonda, on the other hand, was a man of singular temperament. He was
good-looking and more intelligent than any native I had ever before seen.
His habit was spare, but his muscles were firm, and his sinews like
whipcord He must indeed have had great confidence in his own powers to
have undertaken a journey of more than 200 miles from his own home. He
was very taciturn, and would rather remain at the officers' fire than
join his fellows.

The country we had passed through during the day had been miserable.
Plains of great extent flanked the Ana-branch on either side, on which
there were sandy undulations covered with stunted cypress trees or low
brush.

Flood had from the time of his accident suffered great pain; but as he
did not otherwise complain, Mr. Browne did not entertain any apprehension
as to his having any attack of fever.

On the morning of the 24th, the natives paid us an early visit with their
boys, and remained at the camp until we started. At the head of the water
they had made a weir, through the boughs of which the current was running
like a sluice; but the further progress of the floods was stopped by a
bank that had been gradually thrown up athwart the channel. Crossing the
Ana-branch at this point, we struck across barren sandy plains, on a
N.N.E. course. From them we entered a low brush, in which there were more
dead than living trees. At four miles this brush terminated, and we had
again to traverse open barren plains. At their termination we had to
force our way through a second brush, consisting for the most part of
fusani, acaciae, hakeae, and other low shrubs, but there were no
cypresses here as in the first brush. On gaining more open ground, the
country gradually rose before us, and a ferruginous conglomerate cropped
out in places. We at length began our descent towards the valley of the
Darling. The country became better wooded: the box-tree was growing on