SUPPOSED TO BE THE BARLING. 
109 
claimed, on entering it, that we had got into an English river. 
Its appearance certainly almost justified the expression ; 
for the greenness of its banks was as new to us as the size 
of its timber. Its waters, though sweet, were turbid, and 
had a taste of vegetable decay, as well as a slight tinge of 
green. Our progress was watched by the natives with 
evident anxiety. They kept abreast of us, and talked in- 
cessantly. At length, however, our course was checked by 
a net. that stretched right across the stream. I say checked, 
because it would have been unfair to have passed over it 
with the chance of disappointing the numbers who appa- 
rently depended on it for subsistence that day. The mo- 
ment was one of intense interest to me. As the men rested 
upon their oars, awaiting my further orders, a crowd of 
thoughts rushed upon me. The various conjectures I had 
formed of the course and importance of the Darling passed 
across my mind. Were they indeed realized ? An ir- 
resistible conviction impressed me that we were now sailing 
on the bosom of that very stream from whose banks I 
had been twice forced to retire. I directed the Union Jack 
to be hoisted, and giving way to our satisfaction, we all 
stood up in the boat, and gave three distinct cheers. It 
was an English feeling, an ebullition, an overflow, which I 
am ready to admit that our circumstances and situation 
will alone excuse. The eye of every native had been fixed 
upon that noble flag, at all times a beautiful object, and to 
them a novel one, as it waved over us in the heart of a 
desert. They had, until that moment been particularly 
