344 
Captain Sturt's Expedition into the 
the natives did not frequent the other side. The two natives still 
continued to accompany us as we rode along; and at about a mile 
and a half the taller native stopped at a hut, and introduced us to 
his father, an old and venerable patriarch. His son had evidently 
taken us under his charge. In a distance of little more than eight 
miles he led us to five tribes, who collectively might have numbered 
between fifty and sixty, men, women, and children. Each was 
encamped at a separate water-hole; the water in which was 
horribly muddy; but from each tribe we received an invitation to 
stop for the night, but I continued to ride on—somewhat it ap¬ 
peared to me, to the annoyance of my guide. However, when we 
left the last tribe, he and his companion set off at a run, and dis¬ 
appeared over a sand-hill, about a quarter of a mile in front of us. 
In the meantime the horses became tired, and one of my men 
Mark, became seriously indisposed, and I therefore determined on 
pulling up at the first water. I had been watching the movements 
of the natives, and felt satisfied that the sand-hill concealed some¬ 
thing unusual from our view; and although not altogether, I was 
in part prepared for what it did conceal. Our appearance on the 
crown of the hill was met by a loud shout from a body of more 
than three hundred natives on the flat immediately below. It | las 
seldom fallen to the lot of any traveller to witness a more interest¬ 
ing scene. I sat looking at the dark forms before me for some 
little time before I rode quietly down the hill, when I dismounted 
and giving my horse to Morgan, with Mr. Stuart walked into the 
midst of the natives. Although wholly unarmed, and evidently 
well-disposed, it was yet a moment for me to have all my eyes 
about me, and as I went to the natives I observed a small mound, 
on which four or five trees were growing, and on this at the dis¬ 
tance of forty feet from the native encampment—which occupied 
a rise of ground—1 determined to sleep. We were received very 
kindly ; men brought troughs of water to ourselves, and held them 
for the horses to drink out of, and they pointed out a hut for us 
to occupy, but I intimated my intention of sleeping under the 
trees, to which they gave a ready assent; nor did they, when we 
left to unpack the horses, come near us until we had arranged our 
little camp. A body of them then came to us, and out of sixty- 
