d make them quit that spot;
but the men had scarcely left the camp when the natives withdrew and
joined the tribe beyond, amid much laughter and noise.

A TRIBE FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.

These were some natives who had the day before arrived from the
south-east, having joined the fishing tribe while they were at our
present camp. These men of the south-east had a remarkable peculiarity of
countenance, occasioned by high cheek-bones and compressed noses. We
imagined we had met their bravado very successfully, for soon after they
had been chased from our camp part of them crossed the country to the
eastward, as if returning whence they came. They passed us at no great
distance, but did not venture to make further demonstrations with burning
boughs.

THE OLD MAN APPEARS AGAIN WITH A TRIBE FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.

At one o'clock the tribe for which the messenger had been sent, as I
concluded, the day before, appeared on a small clear hill to the
south-west of our camp, coming apparently from the very quarter where I
wished to go. They soon came up to our tents without ceremony, led on by
the same old thief who had followed us down the river, and who seemed to
have been the instigator of all this mischief. As he had been already
detected by us, and was aware that he was a marked man, it appeared that
he had coloured his head and beard black by way of disguise. This was a
very remarkable personage, his features decidedly Jewish, having a thin
aquiline nose and a very piercing eye, as intent on mischief as if it had
belonged to Satan himself. I received the strangers, who appeared to be a
stupid harmless-looking set, as civilly as I could, giving to one who
appeared to be their chief, a nail. I soon afterwards entered my tent and
they went northward towards the river, motioning that they were going for
food, but that they would return and sleep near us.

SMALL STREAMS FROM THE WEST. THE DARLING TURNS SOUTHWARD. RESOLVE TO
RETURN.

I became now apprehensive that the party could not be safely separated
under such circumstances, and when I ascertained, as I did just then,
that a small stream joined the Darling from the west, and that a range
was visible in the same direction beyond it, I discontinued the
preparations I had been making for exploring the river further with pack
animals, and determined to return. The identity of this river with that
which had been seen to enter the Murray now admitted of little doubt, and
the contin