470 
INFLUENCE OF THE 
and go again with me up the Darling, if I 
wished it. At Laidley’s Ponds I found the natives 
very friendly and well conducted, and one of them, 
a young man named Topar, was of such an open in- 
telligent disposition that although my own acquaint- 
ance with him was of very short duration, I did not 
hesitate to recommend him strongly to my friend 
Captain Sturt, as likely to be a willing and useful 
assistant. The following report from Captain Sturt, 
dated from Laidley’s Ponds, will best shew how far 
I was justified in expecting that a friendly intercourse 
might be maintained even with the Darling natives, 
and to what distance the influence of the Govern- 
ment station at Moorunde had extended, upon the 
conciliatory system that had been adopted, limited 
though it was by an inadequacy of funds to provide 
for such a more extended and liberal treatment of 
the Aborigines as I should wish to have adopted. 
“ Sir, — Feeling assured that the Governor would be anxious 
to hear from me as soon as possible after the receipt of my letters 
from Lake Victoria, I should have taken the earliest opportunity 
of forwarding despatches to his Excellency after I had ascertained 
whether the reports I had heard of the massacre of a party of 
overlanders at the lagoons on the Darling -was founded in fact 
or not ; but having been obliged to cross over from the ana-branch 
of the Darling to that river itself for water, — and its unlooked- 
for course having taken me greatly to the eastward, I had no 
opportunity by which to send to Moorunde, although I was most 
anxious to allay any apprehensions my former letter might have 
raised as to the safety of my party. I tried to induce several 
natives to be the bearers of my despatches, but they seemed un- 
