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his first expedition in 1831 down the Peel to the Karaula, he has heen identified as the most scientific of Australian explorers. In October, 1854, at the age of 63 years, he departed to that “undis covered country from whose bourn no traveller returns.” In March, 1836,^Major Mitchell left Sydney on his third expedition, having an excellent outfit and twenty five men, most of whom were convicts. He preferred such followers, as they were more subject to control, and disposed to behave well in order to procure indulgence. Mr. Stapylton was his assistant, and Piper and Barney his aboriginal attendants. The instructions he received were to trace the further course of the conjectured Darling from its junction with Sturt’s Murray. He succeeded in tracking out the Lachlan river through the Marshes, and found it joining the grassy, flowing Murrumbidgee. The Lachlan was merely a lot of pools. The travellers were fre quently all day without seeing water ; once they went 120 miles without perceiving any. Barney so grossly committed himself, as to compel the Major to send him back again. Falling in with a new tribe, he had been much struck with some ebon fair one, who had rewarded his friendly gaze with smiles. His heart was moved, and he must obtain her for his wife. So lost was he to all notions of propriety, as absolutely to propose firing upon the tribe, that he might frighten away the men and secure the Helen of his affections. Leaving the Murrumbidgee, Mitchell came upon the Murray, near the junction in the month of June. On the 27th of May his party had a conflict with the natives near Benanee lake. They kept up their firing for a quarter of an hour, and killed several. He went on to the Darling, trod its arid red sand, and was repelled by its densely scrubby banks. It was a dry season, for he was able to step dry shod over this great drainer of New South Wales. The map was found to indicate its position one degree too much to the westward. Now commenced the Port Phillip discovery. The major journeyed up the southern side of the Murray, until he fell in with a stream from the south, uniting with the father river near a small hill, which he called Swan Hill. He supposed it to be the Twisden or Hovell of Hume, now the Goulburn. This was a mistake ; it was the Loddon. He stood upon the granitic Mount Hope on June 28tli, and gazed upon promising plains ; “ a land so inviting and yet without inhabitants.” Three days after he discovered the Yarrayne ; and a week thence, the Loddon, in lat. 36| deg., though these two were found to be the same
