Their Adelaide journey was in fact an exploration trip, and an important one, as they followed the bank of the Murray below its junction with the Darling; this part of the river having been followed down before only by Sturt, and then only by water.
It was in January, 1838, that Hawdon and Bonney left Mitchell's crossing at the Goulburn River with cattle as pioneers on the overland route to Adelaide.

Unknown to them they were closely followed by E.J.Eyre, with another mob of cattle.

Eyre, as we shall afterwards see, was thrown out of the race through trying to make a short cut to avoid the sweeping bend of the river.

Bonney and Hawdon crossed the Murray above the junction of the Darling, and in places found the bed of the latter river dry.

The natives, strange to say, were quite friendly; perhaps they had taken to heart the lesson Mitchell had read them.