d--some of them having already but narrowly
escaped the spears of these very savages on the former journey. We soon
discovered that the piece of water was not the river, by seeing the
barbarians passing along the other side of it; and I thereupon determined
to travel on as far as I could. The river taking a great sweep to the
southward, we proceeded some miles through an open forest of box or
goborro; and when I at length met with sandhills and the Eucalyptus
dumosa I continued to travel westward, not doubting but that I should
reach the Murray by pursuing that course. We looked in vain however
during the whole day for its lofty trees, and in fact crossed one of the
most barren regions in the world.

NIGHT WITHOUT WATER OR GRASS.

Not a spike of grass could be seen and the soil, a loose red sand, was in
most places covered with a scrub like a thick-set hedge of Eucalyptus
dumosa. Many a tree was ascended by Burnett, but nothing was to be seen
on any side different to what we found where we were. We travelled from
an early hour in the morning until darkness and a storm appeared to be
simultaneously drawing over us. I then hastened to the top of a small
sandhill to ascertain whether there was any adjacent open space where
even our tents might be pitched, and I cannot easily describe the
dreariness of the prospect that hill afforded. No signs of the river were
visible unless it might be near a few trees which resembled the masts of
distant ships on a dark and troubled sea; and equally hazardous now was
this land navigation, from our uncertainty as to the situation of the
river on which our finding water depended, and the certainty that,
wherever it was, there were our foes before us, exulting perhaps in the
thought that we were seeking to avoid them in this vile scrub. On all
sides the flat and barren waste blended imperceptibly with a sky as
dismal and ominous as ever closed in darkness. One bleak and sterile spot
hard by afforded ample room for our camp; but the cattle had neither
water nor any grass that night.

HEAVY RAIN.

A heavy squall set in and such torrents of rain descended as to supply
the men with water enough; and indeed this was not the only occasion
during the journey when we had been providentially supplied under similar
circumstances.

May 26.

It appeared that we had not, even in that desert, escaped the vigilance
of the natives, for Piper discovered, within three hundred yards of our
camp, the t