72 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



for the final assault, he succeeded by singular tact, firmness and 

 kindness in preventing any actual fighting. It would seem that he 

 had won the confidence and regard of the tribes on the Murrum- 

 bidgee, and runners from these had evidently passed on a kind of 

 safe -conduct for him all down the line. 



A little over a week brought the explorers to the junction of 

 the Darling, and they devoted a day or two to examining it for a 

 short distance up the stream. The leader had some difficulty in 

 believing it to be the same river which he had discovered in his 

 previous journey so far away to the north. There it was scarcely 

 flowing, and as salt as the sea. Here it had a rapid current, and 

 its sweet waters abounded with fish ; yet in the absence of charts, 

 and with only rough calculations derived from natural objects and 

 the lay of the country, he came intuitively to the right conclusion. 

 For a fortnight after passing the Darling they held on a somewhat 

 monotonous course, with alternating hopes and fears. Whenever 

 the river trended to the southward, the vision of an approaching 

 sea-board cheered them on ; when it took an unwelcome bend to 

 the north, there would come the doubt whether it was bound for 

 some inland lake in the remote interior. The provisions were 

 getting light, most of the salt meat had to be thrown away, the 

 skiff had been abandoned, wild-fowl were very scarce, and the men 

 would not eat the fish. They were beginning also to show signs 

 of fag. The heat was very oppressive, and they suffered from sore 

 eyes, caused by the perspiration continually streaming down their 

 faces. They passed alternations of high cliffs and bare open plains, 

 stretching to the horizon on the north, until at last on the 3rd of 

 February the river took a permanent sweep to the south, widening 

 into magnificent reaches, and flowing through a broad valley shut 

 in by most picturesque and lofty cliffs. The south-west wind, while 

 it impeded their progress, was a delightful change from the blister- 

 ing heat of the upper river, and on the thirty-third day from their 

 embarkation they passed out on to the rippling waters of Lake 

 Alexandrina, and saw the faint outline of the ocean beyond the 

 sand hummocks which separate them from the waters of Encounter 

 Bay. The natives again appeared in great numbers on the various 

 points, and seemed determined to resist their landing; but they 



