In the course of the following year Sir Thomas Mitchell was again sent
into the interior to complete the survey of the Darling. On this
occasion, instead of proceeding to the point at which he had abandoned
it, the Surveyor-General followed the course of the Lachlan downwards,
and crossing from that river to the Murrumbidgee, from it gained the
banks of the Murray. In due time he came to the disputed junction, which
he tells us he recognised from its resemblance to a drawing of it in my
first work. As I have since been on the spot, I am sorry to say that it
is not at all like the place, because it obliges me to reject the only
praise Sir Thomas Mitchell ever gave me; but I mention the circumstance
because it gives me the opportunity to relate an anecdote, connected with
the drawing, in which my worthy and amiable friend, Mr. Shannon, a
clergyman of Edinburgh, and a very popular preacher there, but who is now
no more, took a chief part. I had lost the original drawing of the
junction of the Murray, and having very imperfect vision at the time I
was publishing, I was unable to sketch another. It so happened that Mr.
Shannon, who sketched exceedingly well with the pen, came to pay me a
visit, when I asked him to try and repair my loss, by drawing the
junction of the Darling with the Murray from my description. This he did,
and this is the view Sir Thomas Mitchell so much approved. I take no
credit to myself for faithfulness of description, for the features of the
scene are so broad, that I could not but view them on my memory; but I
give great credit to my poor friend, who delineated the spot, so as that
it was so easily recognised. It only shews how exceedingly useful such
things are in books, for if Sir Thomas Mitchell had not so recognised the
view, he might have doubted whether that was really the junction of the
Darling or not, for he had well nigh fallen into the mistake of thinking
that he had discovered another river, when he came upon the Darling the
year before, and had as much difficulty in finding a marked tree of Mr.
Hume's upon its banks, as if it had been a needle in a bundle of straw.