Page:Life and Adventures of William Buckley.djvu/141

118 At length Mr. Wedge expressed a wish that I should accompany him on an exploring excursion inland; so we started with two others, and three of the Sydney blacks, reaching Keingeang (as the natives called an extensive lake) the first night; and the next day Booneewang, a rising ground of considerable height, from whence may be seen a great extent of country. Mr. Wedge here took some sketches, and I pointed out to him the falls, near a place called Woorongo, where I had caught a vast quantity of eels. Of these falls he also took a view, calling them Buckley's Falls, out of compliment to me. We passed, the next day and the following, over a great extent of fine country; now jotted with the homesteads of many an industrious and wealthy settler.

It would be useless for me to describe a country at this time so generally known; suffice it to say, Mr. Wedge was surprised and delighted with the magnificence of its pastural and agricultural resources, making, I suppose, his reports accordingly.

I must state, however, that on this excursion we visited my old fishing hut, at the Karaaf River, and, on more than one occasion, we shot wild fowl on the rivers and lakes, in the presence of the natives; so as to occasion them to entertain great dread of the use of fire arms. I was authorised to tell those I met with, that if they would go to the settlement, presents would be made to them of blankets, knives, &c., and many promised to visit us.

For some time I found it as much as I could do to