k again to the base. All parental care seemed for the moment
lost in the overwhelming sense of present danger, caused by the strange
and unknown spectacle thus suddenly presented to the gaze of these poor
savages. Our white faces, curious garments, moving boats, the regular
motions and unaccustomed sounds of our heavy oars, must indeed have
filled them with amazement. I have since frequently remarked, that our
oars created more wonder, or alarm, among the various tribes who first
learnt through us the existence of their white brethren, than almost any
other instrument of which they could at all understand the use; perhaps,
as they propel their frail rafts with a spear, they jumped to the
conclusion, that our oars were also immense spears, which, being their
chief weapons, must have given us a formidable appearance. We noticed,
among the trees on the banks of this natural canal, two varieties of the
palm; both kinds had been observed by Mr. Brown in the Gulf of
Carpentaria, during Captain Flinders' voyage.

At the end of this reach, which extended for a mile and a half in a
South-East by South direction, the river was scarcely 50 yards wide, and
the depth had decreased from 12 to 6 feet; the current, scarcely
perceptible in the deep water, now ran with a velocity of from one to two
miles per hour. Here, therefore, the Fitzroy may be said to assume all
the more distinctive features of an Australian river: deep reaches,
connected by shallows, and probably forming, during the droughts which
characterize Australia, an unlinked chain of ponds or lagoons; and in
places, leaving no other indication of its former existence than the
water-worn banks and deep holes, thirsty and desolate as a desert plain.
At this point, the river divided into two branches, one having an
East-South-East, and the other a South-South-East direction. Anxious to
determine, which, as the larger, best deserved our exploration, we landed
at a high grassy point on the west bank. From the top of the highest tree
in the neighbourhood, I commanded an extensive view of the wide and
far-spread landscape then first submitted to the scrutiny of a European.
Varied and undefined are the thoughts called forth at such a moment; the
past, the present, and the future, at once occupy, and almost confound
the imagination. New feelings accompany new perceptions; and gazing for
the first time upon a vast and unknown land, the mind, restless and
active, as the roving life by