In A Moment All Was As Still As The Grave, A Canoe Was Brought For Me To Cross, And I Found The Assembled Tribes Fully Painted And Armed, And Anxiously Waiting To Know What I Was Going To Do.

It was by this time nearly dark, and although I had no fears of their renewing the fight again

For the night, I knew they would do so early in the morning; I accordingly directed them to separate, and remove their encampments. One party I sent up the river, a second down it, a third remained where they were, and two others I made recross the water, and go up to encamp near my own residence. All this was accomplished solely by the influence I had acquired over them, for I was alone and unarmed among 300 natives, whose angry passions were inflamed, and who were bent upon shedding each others' blood.

By the assistance of the natives, I was enabled in December 1843, to ascend the Darling river as far as Laidley's Ponds (above 300 miles from Moorunde) when accompanied only by two other Europeans, and should have probably been enabled to reach Mount Lyell (100 miles further) but that a severe attack of illness compelled me to return. My journey up the Darling had, however, this good effect, that it opened a friendly communication with natives who had never before come in contact with the white man, except in enmity or in contest, and paved the way for a passage upon friendly terms of any expedition that might be sent by that route to explore the continent.

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