For the first time this day we observed a ferruginous sandstone in the
bed of the Darling, and saw it cropping out from under the sand hills on
the western extremity of the flats.
Shortly after leaving the natives we arrived at a small plain, where they
could only just have killed a kangaroo that was lying on the ground
partly prepared for cooking. On seeing it I ordered the dogs to be tied
up, and left it untouched. Indeed if I had been fortunate enough to kill
a kangaroo at this place, I would have given it to these poor people.
Three of them, who afterwards came to our camp, mentioned the
circumstance, and seemed to be sensible of our feelings towards them.
There can be no doubt but that the Australian aboriginal is strongly
susceptible of kindness, as has been abundantly proved to me, and to the
influence of such feeling I doubtlessly owe my life; for if I had treated
the natives harshly, and had thrown myself into their power afterwards,
as under a kind but firm system I have ever done without the slightest
apprehension, they would most assuredly have slain me; and when I assure
the reader that I have traversed the country in every direction, meeting
numerous tribes of natives, with two men only, and with horses so jaded
that it would have been impossible to have escaped, he will believe that
I speak my real sentiments. Equally so the old native, (to whom the net
we discovered in the hollow of a tree where we first struck the Darling
belonged), evinced the greatest astonishment and gratification, when he
found that his treasure had been untouched by us.
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