natives Hecknaduey, but we left the beaten track (which was so very steep
that it was usual to unload carts in order to pass) and took a new route,
which afforded an easier ascent. All had got up safely, and were
proceeding along a level portion, on the opposite side of the range, when
the axle of one of the carts broke, and it became necessary to leave it,
and place the load on the spare packhorses, and such of the bullocks,
taken out of the shafts, as had been broken in to carry packsaddles.

A SICK TRIBE.

We reached at length, a watercourse called Currungai, and encamped upon
its bank, beside the natives from Dart Brook, who had crossed the range
before us, apparently to join some of their tribe, who lay at this place
extremely ill, being affected with a virulent kind of smallpox. We found
the helpless creatures, stretched on their backs, beside the water, under
the shade of the wattle or mimosa trees, to avoid the intense heat of the
sun. We gave them from our stock some medicine; and the wretched
sufferers seemed to place the utmost confidence in its efficacy. I had
often indeed occasion to observe, that however obtuse in some things, the
aborigines seemed to entertain a sort of superstitious belief, in the
virtues of all kinds of physic. I found that this distressed tribe were
also strangers in the land, to which they had resorted. Their meekness,
as aliens, and their utter ignorance of the country they were in, were
very unusual in natives, and excited our sympathy, especially when their
demeanour was contrasted with the prouder bearing and intelligence of the
native of the plains, who had undertaken to be my guide.

INTERIOR WATERS.

Here I at length drank the water of a stream, which flowed into the