The men returned from the river in good time with the cattle, having neither seen nor heard the natives. The morning was beautiful, and we proceeded, hoping that the fine weather might last. We passed the place where we had halted on the 5th, and continued the journey for a mile or two further in a new direction, by which we cut off a considerable detour, and gained in direct distance about five miles. We encamped near a bare hill beyond which the river was about a mile distant. WEAK STATE OF THE CATTLE. There was scrub all round us and I did not like our position; but it was impossible to drive the wearied cattle further. As we approached this camp I heard the voice of one of the gins answered by that of a male, and "wite ma" was the subject of conversation; they might have been two miles from us, as the voices of the natives in the woods are audible, as just stated, a long way off, in a still evening. July 16. After a cold frosty night the morning was fine, and we continued our journey. At about a mile and a half we entered on our former track, and after five miles more we encamped on the ground which we had occupied on the 4th instant. By this short journey I hoped to refresh the cattle a little, and to make out a better one next day by getting through the brush and past the natives' bivouac. This camp of ours was a good mile from the river, and it was very necessary to send a separate party to remain on its bank all night with the cattle. July 17. In these times, when I saw the animals brought up by the men all safe from the river in the morning, I was wont to thank God in my heart for their preservation. This morning I set out on a direct line for our former camp, not so much for the sake of cutting off two miles, which we did, as to avoid the very soft and heavy ground through which we had travelled with difficulty in the journey down. In this last and more direct line we found excellent firm plains for nearly the whole of the way; and we fell in with our old route where I wished, exactly at our former camp. Thus we had got over a day's stage by half-past one o'clock. The cattle were tired, but as we would be here in the midst of scrub and brush, and close to a large camp of natives, we continued our route about five miles further, to the spot where we had before repaired the wheels, and we reached it at five o'clock. One poor bullock laid down by the way and we were obliged to leave it. We heard no natives on the river, although it was here that we first fell in with the tribe which followed us down; and from the absence of all natives now it seemed that they had heard of the affair on the river, and kept out of our way perhaps from fear of us; at all events their absence was a great comfort, and we hoped it might continue. July 18.