Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/65

 researches, he received intelligence that the fate of the party had been ascertained. He resolved, however, still to pursue the journey across Australia, a contingency for which the expedition had been fully fitted out.

Amongst the lakes and creeks of this country, the natives were found to be, comparatively speaking, exceedingly numerous; as many as from 200 to 300 would be found around some one of the lakes, and from 400 to 500 upon a creek, all being in good physical condition, and apparently amply supplied with food, chiefly the fish of these waters. There seemed to be large numbers to the eastward, upon the Cooper and in its neighbourhood, some of whom on one occasion, during McKinlay's search at Lake Massacre, were disposed to be hostile. In estimating numbers some allowance must be made for the fact that these natives were not stationary at the places where they were respectively seen. They doubtless wandered freely about over a certain range of country occupied by tribes mutually friendly, or connected with each other; so that bodies of natives successively met with may have consisted to some extent of those who had been previously seen. Thus at Lake Jeannie many "old friends" came about, whose acquaintance had been made at Lake Buchanan, fifty miles away. We must also bear in mind that Stuart in his preceding expedition in these latitudes could see no