than usual, and one that
was better timbered and better grassed than it had been at any distance
from the river.

I have mentioned that Toonda was attended by a young lad, his nephew,
who, with another young lad, joined us at Lake Victoria. These two young
lads used to keep in front with myself or Mr. Poole, or Mr. Browne, and
were quite an amusement to us. This day both of them disappeared, not
very long after we passed the last tribe. On making inquiries I
ascertained, to my surprise, that they had been forcibly taken back by
three men from the last tribe, and that both cried most bitterly at
leaving the party. The loss of his nephew greatly afflicted poor Toonda,
who sobbed over it for a long time. We could not understand why the
natives had thus detained the boys; but, I believe, they were members of
that tribe, between which and a tribe higher up the river some ground of
quarrel existed. After the departure of these boys we had only three
natives with us, who had been with the party from Lake Victoria, i. e.
Nadbuck, Toonda, and Munducki, a young man who had attached himself to
Kirby, who cooked for the men. The latter turned out to be a son of old
Boocolo, a chief of the Williorara tribe, whom I shall, ere long, have
occasion to introduce to the reader. Mr. Browne, with the assistance of
Nadbuck, gathered a good deal of information from the natives then with
us, as to the inhospitable character of the country to the north-west of
the Williorara, or Laidley's Ponds, that agreed very little with the
accounts we had previously heard. They stated that we should not be able
to cross the ranges, as they were covered with sharp pointed stones and
great rocks, that would fall on and crush us to death; but that if we did
get across them to the low country on the other side, the heat would kill
us all. That we should find neither water or grass, or wood to light a
fire with. That the native wells were very deep, and that the cattle
would be unable to drink out of them; and, finally, that the water was
salt, and that the natives let down bundles of rushes to soak it up.

Such was the account the natives gave of the region into which we were
going. We were of course aware that a great deal was fiction, but I was
fully prepared to find it bad enough. From the opinion I had formed of
the distant interior, and from my knowledge of the country, both to the
eastward and westward of me, I had no hope of finding it good within any