WEST--HEAVY RAINS--RETURN TO
CAMP--MR. POOLE LEAVES--LEAVE THE RANGES--DESCENT TO THE PLAINS--MR.
POOLE'S RETURN--HIS REPORT--FLOOD'S CREEK--AQUATIC BIRDS--RANGES DIMINISH
IN HEIGHT.
Toonda left us on our arrival at this place, to go to his tribe at
Cawndilla, but returned the day Mr. Poole left us, with the lubras and
children belonging to it, and the natives now mustered round us to the
number of sixty-six. Nadbuck, who the reader will have observed was a
perfect lady's man, made fires for the women, and they were all treated
as our first visitors had been with a cup of tea and a lump of sugar.
These people could not have shewn a greater mark of confidence in us than
by this visit; but the circumstances under which we arrived amongst them,
the protection we had given to some of their tribe, and the kind
treatment we had adopted towards the natives generally, in some measure
accounted for this, nevertheless there was a certain restlessness amongst
the men that satisfied me they would not have hesitated in the
gratification of revenge if they could have mustered sufficiently strong,
or could have caught us unprepared.
It was clear that the natives still remembered the first visit the
Europeans had made to them, and its consequences, and that they were very
well disposed to retaliate. It was in this matter that Nadbuck's conduct
and representations were of essential service, for he did not hesitate to
tell them what they might expect if they appeared in arms.
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