natives, all of whom
had hidden themselves in the polygonum, except an old woman who was fast
asleep, but who did not faint on seeing Mr. Browne close to her when she
awoke. With this old lady we endeavoured to enter into conversation, and
in order to allay her fears gave her five or six cockatoos we had shot,
on which two other fair ones crept from behind the polygonum and advanced
towards us. Finding that the men were out hunting, and only the women
with the children were present, I determined to stop at this place until
the following morning, we therefore unloaded the horses and allowed them
to go and feed. A little before sunset, the two men returned to their
families. They were much astonished at seeing us quietly seated before
their huts, and approached us with some caution, but soon got reconciled
to our presence. One of them had caught a talpero and a lizard, but the
other had not killed any thing, so we gave him a dinner of mutton. The
language of these people was a mixture between that of the river and hill
tribes; but from what reason I am unable to say, although we understood
their answers to general questions, we could not gather any lengthened
information from them. I gave the elder native a blanket, and to the
other a knife, with both of which they seemed highly delighted, and in
return I suppose paid us the compliment of sending their wives to us as
soon as it became dusk, but as we did not encourage their advances they
left us after a short visit. The native who had killed the talpero,
skinned it the moment he arrived in the camp, and, having first moistened
them, stuffed the skin with the leaves of a plant of very astringent
properties. All these natives were very poor, particularly the men, nor
do I think that at this season of the year they can have much animal food
of any kind to subsist on. Their principal food appeared to be seeds of
various kinds, as of the box-tree, and grass seeds, which they pound into
cakes and bake, together with different kinds of roots.

On the 15th we started at 7 a.m., and crossing at the head of the water,
pursued a south course over extensive flooded plains, on which we again
lost the channel of the creek, as, after winding round a little
contiguous sand hill, it split into numberless branches; but although the
plains hereabouts were well grassed, the soil was not so good as that on
the plains above them. At six miles we ascended a sand hill, from which
we could see to