Whilst the party were on the Mitchell, the natives mustered in force and fell upon the explorers with the greatest determination.
After a severe contest, in which heavy loss had been inflicted upon the savages, they sullenly and reluctantly retired.

From what was afterwards gathered from the semi-civilised natives about Somerset, these tribes followed the Jardines for nearly 400 miles.

This perseverance and inappeasable enmity had been equalled before only by the Darling natives.
It can be imagined how these incessant attacks, combined with the harassing nature of the country, gave the party all they could do to hold their own, and but for the prompt and plucky manner in which the attacks were met, not one of them would have survived.
After crossing the Mitchell, steering north, they got into poor country, thinly-grassed and badly-watered, with the natives still hanging on their flanks.

On the 28th of December, the blacks began to harass the horses, and another hard struggle took place.

Storms of rain now set in, and they had to travel through dismal tea-tree flats, with the constant expectation of being caught by a flood in the low-lying country.
In January, they had a gleam of hope.