" The scene
was of a kind that is seldom if ever witnessed in civilized life.
The reader may be assured we took good care of him and his companions;
but his excitement continued, even after he had laid down to sleep; yet,
he was the first man up on the following morning, to cut a canoe for Mr.
Browne, who wished to cross the river, with a young lad of the name of
Topar, a native of the place, who had been recommended to me by Mr. Eyre,
a fine handsome young man, about eighteen years of age, and exceedingly
prepossessing in appearance; but I am sorry to say with very few good
qualities. He was a boy about eight when Sir Thomas Mitchell visited the
neighbourhood, and, with his mother, was present at the unfortunate
misunderstanding between his men and the natives on that occasion.
The bark was not in a fit state to be stripped from the tree, so that
Camboli had a fatiguing task, but he got the canoe ready in sufficient
time for Mr. Browne to cross the river and visit Sir Thomas Mitchell's
last camp, which I had intended doing myself, in order to connect it with
my own, if circumstances had not, at that time, prevented me.
Mr. Poole returned on the 15th, after an absence of four days and a half.
He informed me that he had crossed the creek, as I had imagined, where
there was little or no vegetation in its vicinity. He then took up a
north-west course for the hills, and rode over flats of polygonum for
nine miles, when he crossed the bed of a large lagoon; arriving at a
round hill, somewhat detached from the main range, at half-past one, and
searched about for water, but found none, neither could the native point
out any to him.
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