ra mentioned by me before, also grew in
this district.

About ten o'clock we came upon the banks of a very fine river, with a
very broad bed, and steep banks on both sides. No doubt this was the
river we had seen to the eastward from our camp on the 9th instant. Mr.
Kennedy considered this stream to rise somewhere near Cape Tribulation,
and after running northward about thirty miles, to turn to the
south-west, the way it was running when we came upon it. In this place it
appeared a fine deep river, and we followed it in its south-west course,
at a short distance from its banks, for six or seven miles. The
south-east bank was, for the last three or four miles we traced it,
covered with a narrow belt of scrub, composed of Flagellaria, Jasminum,
Phyllanthus, and a rambling plant, belonging to the natural order
Verbenaceae, with terminal spikes of white, sweet-scented flowers. The
trees were principally Castanospermum, Melia, Rulingia, and
Sarcocephalus, and a beautiful tree belonging to the natural order
Bombaceae, probably to the genus Eriodendron, with large spreading
branches, which, as well as the trunk, were covered with spines. These
trees are from thirty to fifty feet in height, and produce large crimson
campanulate flowers, composed of five large stiff petals, about two
inches long; stamens numerous, all joining at the base, and divided again
into five parcels; the filaments are the same length as the petals; five
cleft stigma; large five-celled capsule, many-seeded cells, the seeds
being wrapped in a white silky cotton. This tree was deciduous, the
leaves being palmate, and grew on stiff soil: its large crimson flowers
attracted universal admiration.

We crossed the river at a spot where its banks were not so steep, and
where there was but from one to three feet of water; in some places the
bottom was sandy and in others rocky, but we could see rock only in the
bed of the river. We camped on the side of the river, on some recently
burned grass; five of the party went fishing a short distance up the
river, and caught a few fish. The country here to the west and the
south-west was open undulating forest land, which had been burned some
short time before, and the grass just growing again, formed beautiful
feed for our horses and sheep.

Towards evening about six or eight natives made their appearance, on the
same side of the river as our camp; when about two hundred yards from us
they shipped their spears in their