160 DEPLORABLE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 
tempted to surprise the camp, but I believe they were urged 
from absolute necessity to procure subsistence for themselves, 
and that they intended robbery rather than personal violence. 
We left the interior in a still more deplorable state than 
that in which we found it ; but it is more than probable, that 
under other circumstances, we should have found it im- 
possible to traverse its distant plains, as it is certain that 
unless rain fell in less than three weeks, all communication 
with the Darling would have been cut otf. 
