178 
Sir T. Mitchell's Expedition into the 
conduct of all the men deserves my approbation; but that 
especially of the party with me has been admirable. 
We have had no collision with the aborigines, although parties 
of them on different occasions visited my party at the camp 
during my absence; very significantly declared, brandishing their 
spears or clubs, that the country was theirs, and making signs 
to my men to quit and follow me. On such occasions the 
firmness and forbearance of my party have been such as to 
discourage any attempts of further annoyance. 
I have the honour to be, 
Sir, 
Your Excellency’s most obedient, humble servant, 
T. L. Mitchell, 
Surveyor-General. 
To His Excellency the Governor 
of New South Wales. 
No. 2. 
Camp on the River Balonne, in long. 148“ 46 45 E., lat. 28° 2' S. 
9th November, 1846. 
Sir, —The three remarkable summits of high land to which I 
alluded in my last despatch, are three volcanic cones, which I 
named Mounts Pluto, Hutton, and Playfair. These form an 
obtuse angled triangle, and the longest side being towards the 
west, 1 hoped to find in the neighbourhood a branch of high 
land extending north-west, forming a division of the waters, the 
discovery of which I found necessary before I could hope to 
discover rivers running in that direction. I take leave to add, 
that this was the chief object of the present journey, as it was of 
my journey in 1831. No person had seen that interior country, 
nor the waters properly belonging to the basin of Carpentaria; I 
have now the satisfaction to inform your Excellency that the 
result has exceeded my most sanguine expectations. 
