About forty miles from Mitchell's Mount Abundance he met with the first
of a series of native statements that were destined to keep luring him
forward on a false scent. The story, as usual, was most circumstantial,
and did credit to the imaginations of the authors; two blacks offered to
conduct Hely to the scene of the massacre, and under their guidance he
started, It was a very dry season, and when they reached Mitchell's old
depot camp on the Maranoa, where, it will be remembered that his party
were encamped for four months, nothing of the fine sheet of water
mentioned by him was seen; it had shrunk to a shallow pool in a bed of
sand. Here the two guides insisted that the murder had taken place,
pointing to the remains of Mitchell's encampment as a proof thereof. This
naturally led Hely to disbelieve their statement, but the blacks added
such details to the original story as almost again convinced him. The
most minute search, however, resulted in nothing, and one of the natives
managed to make his escape. The other then altered his version of the
affair, and shifted the scene of the tragedy to the westward again, and
the party struck north-west to the Warrego.
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