APPENDIX NO. II. 
261 
and that ere night we should have possessed only the 
wrecks of the expedition. From this state of anxiety, 
however, we were unexpectedly relieved, by our arrival at 
2 p. m. at the termination of the Morumbidgee ; from which 
we were launched into a broad and noble river, flowing 
from E. to W. at the rate of two and a half knots per hour, 
over a clear and sandy bed, of a medium width of from 
three to four hundred feet. 
During the first stages of our journey upon this new 
river, which evidently had its rise in the mountains of the 
S.E. we made rapid progress to the W. N.W. through an 
unbroken and uninteresting country of equal sameness of 
feature and of vegetation. On the 23d, as the boats were 
proceeding down it, several hundreds of natives made their 
appearance upon the right bank, having assembled with 
premeditated purposes of violence. I was the more sur- 
prised at this shew of hostility, because we had passed on 
general friendly terms, not only with those on the Morum- 
bidgee, but of the new river. Now, however, emboldened 
by numbers, they seemed determined on making the first 
attack, and soon worked themselves into a state of frenzy 
by loud and vehement shouting. As I observed that the 
water was shoaling fast, I kept in the middle of the stream ; 
and, under an impression that it would be impossible for 
me to avoid a conflict, prepared for an obstinate resistance. 
But, at the very moment when, having arrived opposite to 
a large sand bank, on which they had collected, the fore- 
mostof the blacks had already advanced into the water, 
and 1 only awaited their nearer approach to fire upon them, 
their impetuosity was restrained by the most unlooked for 
and unexpected interference. They held back of a sudden, 
