Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/35

 The Forerunners ADELAIDE AND VICINITY westward from the moun- tainous country on the east. Their volume was known to be considerable, but no out- let to the ocean had been discovered, nor did their course lie in that direction. Did they lose themselves in a vast marshy labyrinth ? Were they absorbed by the hot sands of some immense interior desert ? Would they lead to some great and lovely inland sea ? Captain Sturt's expedition was de- signed to answer these questions ; and from the moment he reached the Murrumbidgee junction his difficult and perilous way lay plainly before him. It was to trace the Murray to its mouth. It led in and out among thousands of gum trees, which grew to the river's banks, and even from its bed. On either side were plains stretching for many miles, sometimes open and sometimes wooded. Upon the bends and commanding points aborigines gathered and gazed with eyes wide open with surprise and wonder and mouths agape. With the treacherous cunning, characteristic of the ignorant, they sought to attack the white men, or insanely threatened them in the impotence of their weakness. A critical moment arrived when the boat struck a sandbank, and the explorers had to land to push it into deep water again. The sandbank marked the confluence of the Darling with the Murray. Gathered on one side were natives in martial panoply. It seemed that a great tragedy was about to be enacted, when suddenly, with a warning cry, a native from the other side plunged into the stream, swam across, discoursed dramatically and earnestly to the assembled warriors, and finally moved them to give the explorers safe passage. The action of this black peacemaker probably saved the lives of several brave men, and was among the circumstances which culminated in the early colonisation of South Australia. A View ok the River Murray