Letting the drays therefore move on, I remained behind with Mr.Scott, leading our horses, and trying to induce some of the natives to come up to us; for a long time, however, our efforts were in vain, but at last I succeeded in persuading a fine athletic looking man to approach within a moderate distance; I then shewed him a tomahawk, which I laid on the ground, making signs that I intended it for him.

When I had retired a little, he went and took it up, evidently comprehending its use, and appearing much pleased with the gift; the others soon congregated around him, and Mr.Scott and I mounting our horses, followed the party, leaving the sable council to discuss the merits of their new acquisition, and hoping that the unfavourable opinion with which we had at first impressed them, would be somewhat modified for the future.
Steering N.43 degrees W.for five miles, and then winding through the range, in the bed of a watercourse to the plains on the other side, we took a direction of E.20 degrees N.for fifteen miles, arriving about dark upon a small channel that I had crossed on the 14th of August.

Here was good feed for the horses, and plenty of water a little way up among the hills.

This watercourse I had not examined when I was here before, preferring to trace up the larger one beyond instead.

Had I followed this, I should easily have found water, and been relieved from much of the anxiety which I had then undergone.
In travelling through a country previously unexplored, no pains should be spared in examining every spot, even the most unlikely, where it is possible for water to exist, for after searching in vain, in large deep rocky and likely looking watercourses, I have frequently found water in some small branch or gorge, that had appeared too insignificant, or too uninviting to require to be explored.