Charles Sturt

“ The boat, however, almost immediately grounded on a shoal that stretched across the river, over which she was with some difficulty hauled into deeper water,—when we found ourselves opposite to a large junction from the eastward, little inferior to the river itself. Had I been aware of this circumstance, I should have been the more anxious with regard to any rupture with the natives, and I was now happy to find that most of them had laid aside their weapons and had crossed the junction, it appearing that they had previously been on a tongue of land formed by the two streams. ”

“ His former expedition ascertained the fate of the rivers Macquarie and Castlereagh, on which occasion he also discovered a river which, there is every reason to believe, is, in ordinary seasons, of considerable magnitude.
Should this, as Captain Sturt supposes, prove to be the same river as that above–mentioned, as uniting with the “Murray,” the existence of an interior water communication for several hundreds of miles, extending from the northward of “Mount Harris,” down to the southern coast of the colony, will have been established. ”

“ In a geographical point of view, I am happy to believe that the result of this expedition has been conclusive; and that, combined with the late one, it has thrown much light upon the nature of the interior of the vast Island; that the decline of waters, as far as the parallel of 139 degrees E., is to the south, and that the Darling is to the N.E. as the Murray is to the S.E. angle of the coast, the main channel by which the waters of the central ranges are thrown or discharged into one great reservoir. ”

“ M’Leay to the sea shore, having struck the coast at Encounter Bay, Cape Jervis, bearing by compass S. 81 degrees W. distant between three and four leagues, and Kangaroo Island S.E. extremity S. 60 degrees W. distant from nine to ten.
Thirty–two days had elapsed since we had left the depot, and I regretted in this stage of our journey, that I could not with prudence remain an hour longer on the coast than was necessary for me to determine the exit of the lake. From the angle of the channel on which we were, a bright sand–hill was visible at about nine miles distance to the E.S.E. ”

“ On the 3rd February it made away to the eastward of south, in reaches of from two to four miles in length. It gradually lost its sandy bed, and became deep, still, and turbid; the glen expanded into a valley, and the alluvial flats, which had hitherto been of inconsiderable size, became proportionally extensive. The Murray increased in breadth to more than four hundred yards, with a depth of twenty feet of water close into the shore, and in fact formed itself into a safe and navigable stream for any vessels of the minor class. ”

“ During the first stages of our journey upon this new river, which evidently had its rise in the mountains of the S.E., we made rapid progress to the W.N.W. through an unbroken and uninteresting country of equal sameness of feature and of vegetation. On the 23rd, as the boats were proceeding down it, several hundreds of natives made their appearance upon the right bank, having assembled with premeditated purposes of violence. ”

“ On the 14th January they entered a new river running from east to west, now called the “Murray,” into which the “Morumbidgee” flows.
After pursuing the course of the “Murray” for several days, the expedition observed another river (supposed to be that which Captain Sturt discovered on his former expedition) , uniting with the “Murray” which they examined about five miles above the junction. ”

“ The passage is at all periods of the tide rather more than a quarter of a mile in width, and is of sufficient depth for a boat to enter, especially on the off side; but a line of dangerous breakers in the bay will always prevent an approach to it from the sea, except in the calmest weather, whilst the bay itself will always he a hazardous place for any vessels to enter under any circumstances. ”

“ The expedition again proceeded down the “Murray,” and fell in with another of its tributaries flowing from the south east, which Captain Sturt has designated the “Lindesay;” and on the 8th February the “Murray” was found to enter or form a lake, of from fifty to sixty miles in length, and from thirty to forty in breadth, lying immediately to the eastward of gulf St. ”