94 
THREATENED ATTACK. 
initiation, it had lost all the character of those flooded tracts. 
The kind of country I have been describing, lay rather to 
the right than to the left of the river at this place, 
the latter continuing low and swampy, as if the country to 
the south of the river were still subject to inundation. As 
the expedition proceeded, the left bank gradually assumed 
the appearance of the right; both looked water-worn 
and perpendicular, and though not more than from nine to 
ten feet in height, their summits were perfectly level in 
receding, and bore diminutive box-timber, with widely-scat- 
tered vegetation. Not a single elevation had, as yet, 
broken the dark and gloomy monotony of the interior ; but 
as our observations were limited to a short distance from 
the river, our surmises on the nature of the distant country 
were necessarily involved in some uncertainty. 
On the 19th, as we were about to conclude our jour- 
ney for the day, we saw a large body of natives before 
us. On approaching them, they shewed every disposition 
for combat, and ran along the bank with spears in 
rests, as if only waiting for an opportunity to throw them at 
us. They were upon the right, and as the river was broad 
enough to enable me to steer wide of them, I did not care 
much for their threats ; but upon another party appearing 
upon the left bank, I thought it high time to disperse one 
or the other of them, as the channel was not wide enough 
to enable me to keep clear of danger, if assailed by both, as 
I might be while keeping amid the channel. I found, how- 
ever, that they did not know how to use the advantage they 
