These preparations were hardly complete, when two natives, accompanied by a large cream-coloured dog that howled mournfully, came down suddenly, shouting "Ho! ho!" upon the opposite bank, as though more clearly to reconnoitre our position.

They were fine looking men, with bushy hair and spare limbs, quite naked, and apparently unarmed--a usual indication among the aborigines of Australia that their intentions are peaceful.

They amused themselves for a time by making all sorts of gestures, shouting still "ho! ho!" to those of their body in concealment, from whom they had probably been detached for observation.
What they thought of us, strange intruders as we must have appeared to them, it is not possible fully even to imagine; at any rate they seemed impressed with some sort of respect either for our appearance, jaded as we were, or our position, and forbore any nearer approach.

I was of course very glad that no appeal to force was necessary: in the first place I should very reluctantly have resorted to it against those to whom we appeared in the character of invaders of a peaceful country, and in the second, had one of our party been wounded, the consequent delay would have rendered our return to the boats certainly a work of great difficulty, perhaps wholly impossible; for no considerations of expediency would in my mind have justified the abandonment of a defenceless comrade, wounded in the common cause, either to the natural dangers and privations of the country, or the barbarous revenge of its inhabitants.

They continued in force, upon the opposite bank, for some time, and then gradually withdrew.