From the opinion I had formed of the distant interior, and from my knowledge of the country, both to the eastward and westward of me, I had no hope of finding it good within any reasonable distance.
Prepared, however, as I was for a bad country, I was not prepared for such as the natives described.
It was somewhat strange, that as we neared the supposed scene of the slaughter of the overlanders, we should fail in obtaining intelligence regarding it; neither were the natives, who must have participated in it, so high up the river as we now were, afraid of approaching us, as they undoubtedly would have been if they had been parties to it.

I began, therefore, to suspect that it was one of those reports which the natives are, unaccountably, so fond of spreading without any apparent object in view.
As we approached Williorara the course of the river upwards was somewhat to the westward of north.

The country had an improved appearance as we ascended it, and grass seemed to be more generally distributed over the flats.

We passed several large lagoons, which had already been filled from the river, and were much pleased with the picturesque scenery round them.
On the 7th Jones broke the pole of his dray, and Morgan again broke his shaft, but we managed to repair both without the loss of much time--and made about ten miles of northing during the day.
We hereabouts shot several new birds; and the dogs killed a very fine specimen of the Dipus of Mitchell, but, unfortunately, in the scuffle, they mangled it so much that we could not preserve it.
On the 8th the weather was oppressively hot, but we managed to get on some fifteen miles before we halted.
Our journey up the Darling had been of greater length than I had anticipated, and it appeared to me that I could not do better than reduce the ration of flour at this early stage of the expedition to provide the more certainly for the future.

I accordingly reduced it to eight pounds a week, still continuing to the men their full allowance of meat and other things.
Nadbuck had assured me on the 9th that if the bullocks did not put out their tongues we should get to Laidley's Ponds that day, but I hardly anticipated it myself, although I was aware we could not be many miles from them.
We had a great many natives in the neighbourhood at our encampment of the 8th, but they did not approach the tents.