d also expressed to them on the previous evening his
apprehensions about the natives in the country before us. I was very
sorry for the loss of Mr. Brown. He was very comical, as indeed these
half-civilised aborigines generally are; he liked to be close-shaved,
wore a white neckcloth, and declared it to be his intention of becoming,
from that time forward a whitefellow. I concluded that he had returned to
his own tribe; and that he had been unwilling to acknowledge to me his
dread of the myall tribes. We proceeded up the valley, or to the
eastward, with the pack animals, and endeavoured to pass to the
northward, where we found a valley in that direction, but at length it
became impossible to go forward with some of the bullocks, which were not
used to carry packsaddles.

THE RANGE IMPASSABLE.

The passage was almost hopeless, indeed it was so bad that I was at
length convinced it might be easier to pass to the northward in ANY other
direction than this, and that it would not be prudent to struggle with
such difficulties, and separate my party for the purpose of crossing a
range, which, for all I could see, might be easily turned by passing
between its western extremity and the river Namoi.

RETURN TO TANGULDA.

We had now tried the course pointed out by The Bushranger, and, having
found that it was wholly impracticable, I determined upon returning to
Tangulda, and by pursuing the Namoi to endeavour to turn this range and
so enter the region beyond it. With this resolution I moved back to the
depot, which we left in the morning, and having reached it, made
preparations to retrace our course. Mr. White followed Maule's river for
some miles to the westward, so that we could judge of the direction in
which it fell into the Namoi. This evening as Burnett, the carpenter, was
seated beside a pool with his gun, silently engaged in watching some
ducks, two natives approached on the opposite side to fill a small vessel
with water, they looked around very cautiously, as if conscious that we
were near, but Burnett very prudently did not allow them to see him.

December 21.

The whole party having started early, we this day reached the former
encampment near Tangulda, a distance of twenty-one miles, in seven hours.

December 22.

I set out before the party moved off, in order to mark the line of route
for the carts, and to fix on a spot for the camp. I rode over firm and
level ground, on a bearing of 295 degrees, which I kn