ANOTHER ACCIDENT. 
81 
turbid, that it was impossible to see objects in it, notwith- 
standing the utmost diligence on the part of the men. 
About noon, we fell in with a large tribe of natives, but 
had great difficulty in bringing them to visit us. If they 
had heard of white men, we were evidently the first theyhad 
ever seen. They approached us in the most cautious man- 
ner, and were unable to subdue their fears as long as they re- 
mained with us. Collectively, these people could not have 
amounted to less than one hundred and twenty in number. 
As we pushed off from the bank, after having staid with 
them about half an hour, the whaleboat struck with such 
violence on a sunken log, that she immediately leaked on 
her starboard side. Fortunately she was going slowly at 
the time, or she would most probably have received some 
more serious injury. One of the men was employed during 
the remainder of the afternoon in bailing her out, and we 
stopped sooner than we should otherwise have done, in 
order to ascertain the extent of damage, and to repair it. 
The reeds terminated on both sides of the river some time 
before we pulled up, and the country round the camp was 
more elevated than usual, and bore the appearance of open 
forest pasture land, the timber upon it being a dwarf spe- 
cies of box, and the soil a light tenacious earth. 
About a mile below our encampment of the 12th, we at 
length came upon aconsiderable creek-junction from the S.E. 
Below it, the river increased both in breadth and depth ; its 
banks were lofty and perpendicular, and even the lowest levels 
were but partially covered with reeds. We met with fewer 
VOL. II. 
c 
