by Piper and the other young natives that we should soon lose some of the men in charge of the cattle.  Those faithful fellows, on whose courage my own safety depended—­some of them having already but narrowly escaped the spears of these very savages on the former journey.  We soon discovered that the piece of water was not the river, by seeing the barbarians passing along the other side of it; and I thereupon determined to travel on as far as I could.  The river taking a great sweep to the southward, we proceeded some miles through an open forest of box or goborro; and when I at length met with sandhills and the Eucalyptus dumosa I continued to travel westward, not doubting but that I should reach the Murray by pursuing that course.  We looked in vain however during the whole day for its lofty trees, and in fact crossed one of the most barren regions in the world.

NIGHT WITHOUT WATER OR GRASS.

Not a spike of grass could be seen and the soil, a loose red sand, was in most places covered with a scrub like a thick-set hedge of Eucalyptus dumosa.  Many a tree was ascended by Burnett, but nothing was to be seen on any side different to what we found where we were.  We travelled from an early hour in the morning until darkness and a storm appeared to be simultaneously drawing over us.  I then hastened to the top of a small sandhill to ascertain whether there was any adjacent open space where even our tents might be pitched, and I cannot easily describe the dreariness of the prospect that hill afforded.  No signs of the river were visible unless it might be near a few trees which resembled the masts of distant ships on a dark and troubled sea; and equally hazardous now was this land navigation, from our uncertainty as to the situation of the river on which our finding water depended, and the certainty that, wherever it was, there were our foes before us, exulting perhaps in the thought that we were seeking to avoid them in this vile scrub.  On all sides the flat and barren waste blended imperceptibly with a sky as dismal and ominous as ever closed in darkness.  One bleak and sterile spot hard by afforded ample room for our camp; but the cattle had neither water nor any grass that night.

HEAVY RAIN.

A heavy squall set in and such torrents of rain descended as to supply the men with water enough; and indeed this was not the only occasion during the journey when we had been providentially supplied under similar circumstances.

May 26.

It appeared that we had not, even in that desert, escaped the vigilance of the natives, for Piper discovered, within three hundred yards of our camp, the track of two who, having been there on the preceding evening, had that morning returned towards the river.  At an early hour we yoked up our groaning cattle and proceeded, although the rain continued for some time.  I pursued by compass the bearing of the high trees I had seen, though they were somewhat to the northward of west.