"I was an overseer of the late exploring party under the Surveyor-General; I was with them on the 27th of May last; it was about that time the conflict took place between the party and the natives; I do not recollect the precise day; the natives had followed us for two days, and Major Mitchell gave me instructions to take half of the men and stop in the bush; the other half with Major Mitchell was to go on; we were to let the blacks pass us, and then come in behind them, not to fire at any of them until we heard or saw the party under the Major fire; the blacks had a native dog with them that noticed us in the bush; when they saw us they drew into a body, and they were beginning to draw down the bank towards the river, when one of the men of my party fired a shot at them, the blacks all took the river and were going to the other side; while they were crossing the river we fired, then we never saw any more of them; there were seven men of my party besides myself; they were all armed, each with a carbine; the man whom I stated to have fired first, did so before any of the Major's party fired, and without any orders from me; the man's name is Charles King; a good many of these blacks, five or six of them, I had seen before on the Darling, on the former expedition; King had also been on the former expedition; the blacks retired immediately after the first shot was fired; the shot made them run away; they were all men, and had every one of them bunches of ten or fifteen spears; this was the third day of their following us and they were getting more and more numerous; I think if we had delayed firing upon them another hour or two, they would have speared us; after the first shot was fired, I gave orders to the rest of the party to fire; I cannot tell how many of the blacks were killed; I did not see any dead blacks—nor any wounded; they continued diving and therefore we only saw them now and again; the river was, I believe, about one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty yards broad; there were some shots fired just as they were leaving the water, but they soon disappeared among the reeds which grew upon the banks; I dare say there might have been seventy or eighty shots fired—that includes the shots fired by both parties; they had bunches of spears, and continued to follow us, and watch our motions, at a considerable distance, keeping the party in sight; the four first whom I saw of that party had their spears shipped in their hands, but they did not heave them; they made a threatening motion, as if they meant to throw them at the party; it was my persuasion they would throw them; the men were beginning to be very frightened, and had not undressed themselves for two nights; it was from fear of the natives that they did not undress; I am satisfied that this was the same tribe I had seen the year before, on the Darling; I knew four or five, there might be six, whom I had seen the year before, and knew again; I do not know how far it was from the place we met them the year before, but I think it was a considerable distance; there were three blacks told Piper, a native who accompanied us from Bathurst, and Piper told me that they heard of the party coming again, and came over to fight us; I was not down at the river where the firing took place during the former expedition; I was at the camp, about half a mile distant; I saw, however, the tribe, several times, so as to be satisfied that four or five of them were the same; there was one on the journey before who came up in a very impudent way—took up handfuls of clay and heaved it at us."
