This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ENTERPRISE AND ADVENTURE.
155

in honour of Sir George Murray, the Governor. The explorers were picked men, and included Mr. McLeay, a volunteer. The expedition was comprised in two boats, which started on the River Morumbidgee. The lands through which they sailed were remarkably beautiful and fertile; but their journey was not without its dangers; for they were often embarrassed by the sudden contractions and enlargements of the river, and often menaced by the natives, who wandered armed upon its banks. Such was the peculiar character of the navigation that they rose every morning with great doubts on their minds whether they were not thus early destined to witness the wreck and defeat of the expedition. The men generally placed themselves slowly and cautiously in the boat, so as to leave no part undefended. One stood at the bow, ready with poles to turn the boat's head from anything on which she might be drifting. Thus prepared, they allowed themselves to float with the stream, which was at all times dangerously full of floating trees and other incumbrances. Hopkinson, one of the men, constantly leaped from the boat upon apparenly rotten logs of wood, which did not appear capable of bearing his weight, the more effectually to save the boat. In every reach they encountered fresh difficulties. In some cases there lay across the stream huge trees, under the arched branches of which they were compelled to pass; but generally they had been carried roots foremost by the current, and therefore presented so many sharp points towards them as they came rushing on, that, had they struck any one of them, it must have gone through the boats. About noon one day they stopped to repair, and to take down