Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia
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Title: Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia
Author: Charles Sturt
Release date: September 28, 2004 [eBook #4976]
Most recently updated: December 28, 2020
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION INTO CENTRAL AUSTRALIA ***
Produced by Col Choat
EXPEDITION INTO CENTRAL AUSTRALIA
IN 2 VOLUMES. (both in this one eBook)
STURT, CHARLES (1795-1869)
PRODUCTION NOTES:
1. Notes have been placed in square brackets[] where indicated in
the published text or at the end of the paragraph, as appropriate.
2. Italics in the published text have been capitalised in the eBook,
with the exception of common and scientific names appearing in the
appendices at the end of volume 2, which appear in the eBook as
normal text.
3. Plates and maps have not been included. Plates to both volumess
have been listed in the Table of Contents.
4. Errata have been corrected. Original text has been placed in
the eBook between braces{}.
NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION INTO CENTRAL AUSTRALIA PERFORMED UNDER THE
AUTHORITY OF HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT, DURING THE YEARS 1844, 5, AND 6,
TOGETHER WITH A NOTICE OF THE PROVINCE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA IN 1847.
IN 2 VOLUMES.
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE EARL GREY, ETC. ETC. ETC.
MY LORD,
Although the services recorded in the following pages, which your Lordship
permits me to dedicate to you, have not resulted in the discovery of any
country immediately available for the purposes of colonization, I would
yet venture to hope that they have not been fruitlessly undertaken, but
that, as on the occasion of my voyage down the Murray River, they will be
the precursors of future advantage to my country and to the Australian
colonies.
Under present disappointment it must be as gratifying to those who
participated in my labours, as it is to myself to know that they are not
the less appreciated by your Lordship, because they were expended in a
desert.
I can only assure your Lordship, that it has been my desire to give a
faithful description of the country that has been explored, and of the
difficulties attending the task; nor can I refuse myself the anticipation
that the perusal of these volumes will excite your Lordship's interest
and sympathy. I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's
Most obedient humble servant,
CHARLES STURT.
London, November 21,1848.
NOTICE.
It might have been expected that many specimens, both of Botany and
Ornithology, would have been collected during such an Expedition as that
which the present narrative describes, but the contrary happened to be
the case.
I am proud in having to record the name of my esteemed friend, Mr. Brown,
the companion of Flinders, and the learned author of the "Prodromus Novae
Hollandiae," to whose kindness I am indebted for the Botanical Remarks
in the Appendix.
To my warm-hearted friend, Mr. Gould, whose splendid works are before the
Public, and whose ardent pursuits in furtherance of his ambition, I have
personally witnessed, I owe the more perfect form in which my
ornithological notice appears.
I have likewise to acknowledge, with very sincere feelings, the assistance
I have received from Mr. Arrowsmith, in the construction of my Map,
to whose anxious desire to ensure correctness and professional talent I am
very greatly indebted.
I hope the gentlemen whose names I have mentioned will accept my best
thanks for the assistance they have afforded me in my humble labours. It
is not the least of the gratifications enjoyed by those who are employed
on services similar to which I have been engaged, to be brought more
immediately in connection with such men.
London, November 21, 1848.
CONTENTS
VOLUME I.
CHAPTER I CHARACTER OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT--OF ITS RIVERS--
PECULIARITY OF THE DARLING--SUDDEN FLOODS TO WHICH IT IS
SUBJECT--CHARACTER OF THE MURRAY--ITS PERIODICAL RISE--BOUNTY
OF PROVIDENCE--GEOLOGICAL POSITION OF THE TWO RIVERS--
OBSERVATIONS--RESULTS--SIR THOMAS MITCHELL'S JOURNEY TO THE
DARLING--ITS JUNCTION WITH THE MURRAY--ANECDOTE OF
MR. SHANNON--CAPTAIN GREY'S EXPEDITION--CAPTAIN STURT'S
JOURNEY--MR. EYRE'S SECOND EXPEDITION--VOYAGE OF THE
BEAGLE--MR. OXLEY'S OPINIONS--STATE OF THE INTERIOR IN 1828--
CHARACTER OF ITS PLAINS AND RIVERS--JUNCTION OF THE
DARLING--FOSSIL BED OF THE MURRAY--FORMER STATE OF THE
CONTINENT--THEORY OF THE INTERIOR.
CHAPTER II PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE--ARRIVAL AT MOORUNDI--NATIVE
GUIDES--NAMES OF THE PARTY--SIR JOHN BARROW'S MINUTE--REPORTS
OF LAIDLEY'S PONDS--CLIMATE OF THE MURRAY--PROGRESS UP THE
RIVER--ARRIVAL AT LAKE BONNEY--GRASSY PLAINS--CAMBOLI'S
HOME--TRAGICAL EVENTS IN THAT NEIGHBOURHOOD--PULCANTI--
ARRIVAL AT THE RUFUS--VISIT TO THE NATIVE FAMILIES--RETURN
OF MR. EYRE TO MOORUNDI--DEPARTURE OF MR. BROWNE TO
THE EASTWARD.
CHAPTER III MR. BROWNE'S RETURN--HIS ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRY--CHANGE OF
SCENE--CONTINUED RAIN--TOONDA JOINS THE PARTY--STORY OF THE
MASSACRE--LEAVE LAKE VICTORIA--ACCIDENT TO FLOOD--TURN
NORTHWARDS--CROSS TO THE DARLING--MEET NATIVES--TOONDA'S
HAUGHTY MANNER--NADBUCK'S CUNNING--ABUNDANCE OF FEED--SUDDEN
FLOODS--BAD COUNTRY--ARRIVAL AT WILLIORARA--CONSEQUENT
DISAPPOINTMENT--PERPLEXITY--MR. POOLE GOES TO THE RANGES--
MR. BROWNE'S RETURN--FOOD OF THE NATIVES--POSITION OF
WILLIORARA.
CHAPTER IV TOONDA'S TRIBE--DISPOSITION OF THE NATIVES--ARRIVAL OF
CAMBOLI--HIS ENERGY OF CHARACTER--MR. POOLE'S RETURN--LEAVE
THE DARLING--REMARKS ON THAT RIVER--CAWNDILLA--THE OLD
BOOCOLO--LEAVE THE CAMP FOR THE HILLS--REACH A CREEK--WELLS--
TOPAR'S MISCONDUCT--ASCEND THE RANGES--RETURN HOMEWARDS--
EAVE CAWNDILLA WITH A PARTY--REACH PARNARI--MOVE TO THE
HILLS--JOURNEY TO N. WEST--HEAVY RAINS--RETURN TO CAMP--
MR. POOLE LEAVES--LEAVE THE RANGES--DESCENT TO THE PLAINS--
MR. POOLE'S RETURN--HIS REPORT--FLOOD'S CREEK--AQUATIC
BIRDS--RANGES DIMINISH IN HEIGHT.
CHAPTER V NATIVE WOMEN--SUDDEN SQUALL--JOURNEY TO THE EASTWARD--VIEW
FROM MOUNT LYELL--INCREASED TEMPERATURE--MR. POOLE'S RETURN--
HIS REPORT--LEAVE FLOOD'S CREEK--ENTANGLED IN THE PINE
FOREST--DRIVE THE CATTLE TO WATER--EXTRICATE THE PARTY--STATE
OF THE MEN--MR. POOLE AND MR. BROWNE LEAVE THE CAMP--PROCEED
NORTHWARDS--CAPT. STURT LEAVES FOR THE NORTH--RAPID
DISAPPEARANCE OF WATER--MUDDY CREEK--GEOLOGICAL FORMATION--
GYPSUM--PUSH ON TO THE RANGES--RETURN TO THE CREEK--AGAIN
ASCEND THE RANGES--FIND WATER BEYOND THEM--PROCEED TO THE
W.N.W.--RETURN TO THE RANGES--ANTS AND FLIES--TURN TO THE
EASTWARD--NO WATER--RETURN TO THE CAMP--MR. POOLE FINDS
WATER--MACK'S ADVENTURE WITH THE NATIVES--MOVE THE CAMP.
CHAPTER VI THE DEPOT--FURTHER PROGRESS CHECKED--CHARACTER OF THE
RANGES--JOURNEY TO THE NORTH-EAST--RETURN--JOURNEY TO THE
WEST--RETURN--AGAIN PROCEED TO THE NORTH--INTERVIEW WITH
NATIVES--ARRIVE AT THE FARTHEST WATER--THE PARTY SEPARATES--
PROGRESS NORTHWARDS--CONTINUE TO ADVANCE--SUFFERINGS OF THE
HORSE--CROSS THE 28TH PARALLEL--REJOIN MR. STUART--JOURNEY TO
THE WESTWARD--CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY--FIND TWO PONDS OF
WATER--THE GRASSY PARK--RETURN TO THE RANG--EXCESSIVE HEAT--
A SINGULAR GEOLOGICAL FEATURE--REGAIN THE DEPOT.
CHAPTER VII MIGRATION OF THE BIRDS--JOURNEY TO THE EASTWARD--FLOODED
PLAINS--NATIVE FAMILY--PROCEED SOUTH, BUT FIND NO WATER--
AGAIN TURN EASTWARD--STERILE COUNTRY--SALT LAGOON--DISTANT
HILLS TO THE EAST--RETURN TO THE CAMP--INTENSE HEAT--OFFICERS
ATTACKED BY SCURVY--JOURNEY TO THE WEST--NO WATER--FORCED TO
RETURN--ILLNESS OF MR. POOLE--VISITED BY A NATIVE--SECOND
JOURNEY TO THE EASTWARD--STORY OF THE NATIVE--KITES AND
CROWS--ERECT A PYRAMID ON MOUNT POOLE--PREPARATIONS FOR A
MOVE--INDICATIONS OF RAIN--INTENSE ANXIETY--HEAVY RAIN--
MR. POOLE LEAVES WITH THE HOME RETURNING PARTY--BREAK UP THE
DEPOT--MR. POOLE'S SUDDEN DEATH--HIS FUNERAL--PROGRESS
WESTWARD--THE JERBOA--ESTABLISHMENT OF SECOND DEPOT--NATIVE
GLUTTONY--DISTANT MOUNTAINS SEEN--REACH LAKE TORRENS--
EXAMINATION OF THE COUNTRY N.W. OF IT--RETURN TO THE DEPOT--
VISITED BY NATIVES--PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE AGAIN INTO THE
NORTHWEST INTERIOR.
CHAPTER VIII LEAVE THE DEPOT FOR THE NORTH-WEST--SCARCITY OF WATER--FOSSIL
LIMESTONE--ARRIVE AT THE FIRST CREEK--EXTENSIVE PLAINS--
SUCCESSION OF CREEKS--FLOODED CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY--POND
WITH FISH--STERILE COUNTRY--GRASSY PLAINS--INTREPID NATIVE--
COUNTRY APPARENTLY IMPROVES--DISAPPOINTMENTS--WATER FOUND--
APPEARANCE OF THE STONY DESERT--NIGHT THEREON--THE EARTHY
PLAIN--HILLS RAISED BY REFRACTION--RECOMMENCEMENT OF THE SAND
RIDGES--THEIR UNDEVIATING REGULARITY--CONJECTURES AS TO THE
DESERT--RELATIVE POSITION OF LAKE TORRENS--CONCLUDING
REMARKS.
CHAPTER IX FLOOD'S QUICK SIGHT--FOREST FULL OF BIRDS--NATIVE WELL--
BIRDS COLLECT TO DRINK--DANGEROUS PLAIN--FLOOD'S HORSE
LOST--SCARCITY OF WATER--TURN NORTHWARD--DISCOVER A LARGE
CREEK--BRIGHT PROSPECTS--SUDDEN DISAPPOINTMENT--SALT LAGOON--
SCARCITY OF WATER--SALT WATER CREEK--CHARACTER OF THE
INTERIOR--FORCED TO TURN BACK--RISK OF ADVANCING--THE
FURTHEST NORTH--RETURN TO AND EXAMINATION OF THE CREEK--
PROCEED TO THE WESTWARD--DREADFUL COUNTRY--JOURNEY TO THE
NORTH--AGAIN FORCED TO RETURN--NATIVES--STATION ON THE
CREEK--CONCLUDING REMARKS.
PLATES TO VOLUME I.
Chaining over the Sandhills
Sketch of the Route
Sunset on the Murray
Colonel Gawler's Camp on the Murray
Ana-branch of the Darling
Mus Conditor
Parnari
Lower put of the Rocky Glen
Geological formation of the Ranges
Put of the Northern Range
General appearance of the Northern Ranges at their termination
Native Village
The Depot Glen
Milvus Affinis
Water Hole
Red Hill, or Mount Poole
Mr. Poole's Grave
Lake Torrens
Pond with Fish
Native Well
* * * * *
Mr. Arrowsmith, has prepared a large Map of Captain Sturt's routes into
the centre of Australia, from the original protractions and other official
documents, now in his hands.
On this Map are delineated the whole of the details resulting from his
numerous route,--the dates marking his daily progress--the description
of the country--its dip-the depressed Stony Desert, which is probably the
great northern prolongation of the Torrens Basin of Mr. Eyre,--&c. &c. &c.
This Map in two sheets may be had in a cover, price 7 shillings.
VOLUME II.
CHAPTER I REFLECTIONS ON OUR DIFFICULTIES--COMMENCE THE RETREAT--EYRE'S
CREEK--PASS THE NATIVE WELL--RECROSS THE STONY DESERT--FIND
ANOTHER WELL WITHOUT WATER--NATIVES--SUCCESSFUL FISHING--
VALUE OF SHEEP--DECIDE ON A RETREAT--PROPOSE THAT MR. BROWNE
SHOULD LEAVE--HIS REFUSAL TO DESERT THE PARTY--MR. BROWNE'S
DECISION--PREPARE TO LEAVE THE CAMP--REMARKS ON THE CLIMATE--
AGAIN LEAVE THE DEPOT--SINGULAR EXPLOSION--DISCOVER A LARGE
CREEK--PROCEED TO THE NORTH--RECURRENCE OF SAND RIDGES--SALT
WATER LAKE--AGAIN STRIKE THE STONY DESERT--ATTEMPT TO
CROSS IT.
CHAPTER II THE HORSES--ASCEND THE HILLS--IRRESOLUTION AND RETREAT--
HORSES REDUCED TO GREAT WANT--UNEXPECTED RELIEF--TRY THE
DESERT TO THE N.E.--FIND WATER IN OUR LAST WELL--REACH THE
CREEK--PROCEED TO THE EASTWARD--PLAGUE OF FLIES AND ANTS--
SURPRISE AN OLD MAN--SEA-GULLS AND PELICANS--FISH--POOL OF
BRINE--MEET NATIVES--TURN TO THE N.E.--COOPER'S CREEK TRIBE,
THEIR KINDNESS AND APPEARANCE--ATTEMPT TO CROSS THE PLAINS--
TURN BACK--PROCEED TO THE NORTHWARD--EFFECTS OF REFRACTION--
FIND NATIVES AT OUR OLD CAMP AND THE STORES UNTOUCHED--
COOPER'S CREEK, ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
CHAPTER III CONTINUED DROUGHT--TERRIFIC EFFECT OF HOT WIND--THERMOMETER
BURSTS--DEATH OF POOR BAWLEY--FIND THE STOCKADE DESERTED--
LEAVE FORT GREY FOR THE DEPOT--DIFFERENCE OF SEASONS--
MIGRATION OF BIRDS--HOT WINDS--EMBARRASSING POSITION--
MR. BROWNE STARTS FOR FLOOD'S CREEK--THREE BULLOCKS SHOT--
COMMENCEMENT OF THE RETREAT--ARRIVAL AT FLOOD'S CREEK--STATE
OF VEGETATION--EFFECTS OF SCURVY--ARRIVE AT ROCKY GLEN--
COMPARISON OF NATIVE TRIBES--HALT AT CARNAPAGA--ARRIVAL AT
CAWNDILLA--REMOVAL TO THE DARLING--LEAVE THE DARLING--STATE
OF THE RIVER--OPPRESSIVE HEAT--VISITED BY NADBUCK--ARRIVAL
AT MOORUNDI.
CHAPTER IV REMARKS ON THE SEASON--DRY STATE OF THE ATMOSPHERE--
THERMOMETRICAL OBSERVATIONS--WINDS IN THE INTERIOR--DIRECTION
OF THE RANGES--GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS--NON-EXISTENCE OF ANY
CENTRAL CHAIN--PROBABLE COURSE OF THE STONY DESERT--WHETHER
CONNECTED WITH LAKE TORRENS--OPINIONS OF CAPTAIN FLINDERS--
NO INFORMATION DERIVED FROM THE NATIVES--THE NATIVES--THEIR
PERSONAL APPEARANCE--DISPROPORTION BETWEEN THE SEXES--THE
WOMEN--CUSTOMS OF THE NATIVES--THEIR HABITATIONS--FOOD--
LANGUAGE--CONCLUSION.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE SEA COAST AND INTERIOR OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA;
WITH OBSERVATIONS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH ITS INTERESTS.
CHAPTER I DUTIES OF AN EXPLORER--GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF SOUTH
AUSTRALIA--DESCRIPTION OF ITS COAST LINE--SEA MOUTH OF THE
MURRAY--ENTERED BY MR. PULLEN--RISK OF THE ATTEMPT--
BEACHING--ROSETTA HARBOUR--VICTOR HARBOUR--NEPEAN BAY--
KANGAROO ISLAND--KINGSCOTE--CAPT. LEE'S INSTRUCTIONS FOR
PORT ADELAIDE--PORT ADELAIDE--REMOVAL TO THE NORTH ARM--
HARBOUR MASTER'S REPORT--YORKE'S PENINSULA--PORT LINCOLN--
CAPT. LEE'S INSTRUCTIONS--BOSTON ISLAND--BOSTON BAY--
COFFIN'S BAY--MR. CAMERON SENT ALONG THE COAST--HIS REPORT--
POSITION OF PORT ADELAIDE.
CHAPTER II PLAINS OF ADELAIDE--BRIDGES OVER THE TORRENS--SITE OF
ADELAIDE--GOVERNMENT HOUSE BUILDINGS AND CHURCHES--SCHOOLS--
POLICE--ROADS--THE GAWLER--BAROSSA RANGE--THE MURRAY BELT--
MOORUNDI--NATIVES ON THE MURRAY--DISTANT STOCK STATIONS--
MOUNT GAMBIER DISTRICT--ITS RICHNESS--ASCENT TO MOUNT LOFTY--
MOUNT BARKER DISTRICT--SCENE IN HINDMARSH VALLEY--PROPORTION
OF SOIL IN THE PROVINCE--PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL--
PORT LINCOLN--CLIMATE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA--RANGE OF THE
THERMOMETER--SALUBRITY.
CHAPTER III SEASONS--CAUSE WHY SOUTH AUSTRALIA HAS FINE GRAIN--EXTENT OF
CULTIVATION--AMOUNT OF STOCK--THE BURRA-BURRA MINE--ITS
MAGNITUDE--ABUNDANCE OF MINERALS--ABSENCE OF COAL--SMELTING
ORE--IMMENSE PROFITS OF THE BURRA-BURRA--EFFECT OF THE MINES
ON THE LABOUR MARKET--RELUCTANCE OF THE LOWER ORDERS TO
EMIGRATE--DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CANADA AND AUSTRALIA--THE
AUSTRALIAN COLONIES--STATE OF SOCIETY--THE MIDDLE CLASSES--
THE SQUATTERS--THE GERMANS--THE NATIVES--AUTHOR'S INTERVIEWS
WITH THEM--INSTANCES OF JUST FEELING--THEIR BAD QUALITIES--
PERSONAL APPEARANCE--YOUNG SETTLERS ON THE MURRAY--
CONCLUSION.
MR. KENNEDY'S SURVEY OF THE RIVER VICTORIA
APPENDIX
ANIMALS
BIRDS
NO. I. LIST OF SPECIMENS, AND THE NAMES OF THE VARIOUS ROCKS,
COLLECTED DURING THE EXPEDITION
NO. II. LOCALITIES OF THE DIFFERENT GEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS,
COLLECTED BY THE CENTRAL AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION
BOTANICAL APPENDIX, BY R. BROWN, ESQ., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.L.S, &C.
PLATES TO VOLUME II.
View from Stanley's Range
Native Grave
Cooper's Creek
Geophaps plumifera
Strzelecki's Creek
Mr. Eyre's House at Moorundi
Piesse's Knob
King William Street, Adelaide
Port Adelaide
Mount Bryan
Murray River
Cinclosoma Cinnamoneus
ERRATA
Errata have been corrected. Original text has been placed in
the eBook between braces{}.
* * * * * * *
VOLUME I
PREFACE.
The prominent part I have taken in the furtherance of Geographical
Discovery on the Australian continent, and the attention, it will
naturally be supposed, I have paid to the subject generally, will lead
the reader perhaps to expect that I should, at the commencement of a work
such as this, put him in possession of all the facts, with which I myself
am acquainted, as to the character of those portions of it, which had
been explored, before I commenced my recent labours. This may reasonably
be expected from me by my readers, not only to enable them to follow me
into the heartless desert from which, it may still be said, I have so
lately returned, with that distinctness which can alone secure interest
to my narrative; but, also, to judge whether the conclusions at which I
arrived, and upon which I acted, were such as past experience ought to
have led me to adopt.
It has struck me forcibly that such information would undoubtedly be
desirable, not only to render my own details clearer, but to explain my
views, since I should exceedingly regret that any imputation of rashness
or inconsistency were laid to my charge; or if it was thought, I had
volunteered hazardous and important undertakings, for the love of
adventure alone.
The field of Ambition, professionally speaking, is closed upon the
soldier during the period of his service in New South Wales. Had it been
otherwise, however, no more honourable a one could have been open to me,
when I landed on its shores in 1826, than the field of Discovery. I
sought and entered upon it, not without a feeling of ambition I am ready
to admit, for that feeling should ever pervade the breast of a soldier,
but also with an earnest desire to promote the public good, and certainly
without the hope of any other reward than the credit due to successful
enterprise. I pretend not to science, but I am a lover of it; and to my
own exertions, during past years of military repose, I owe the little
knowledge I possess of those branches of it, which have since been so
useful to me.
It will not be deemed presumptuous in me, I trust, to express a belief
that the majority of my readers will find much to interest them in the
perusal of this work; which I publish for several reasons--firstly, in
the hope, that a knowledge of the extremities to which I was driven, and
of the unusual expedients to which I was obliged to resort, in order to
save myself and my companions from perishing, may benefit those who shall
hereafter follow my example; secondly, that as I published an account of
my former services, my failing to do so in the present instance might be
taken as evidence that I lacked the moral firmness which enables men to
meet both success and defeat with equal self-possession; and thirdly,
because, I think the public has a right to demand information from those,
who, like myself, have been employed in the advancement of geographical
knowledge. I propose, therefore, to devote my preliminary chapter to a
short review of previous Expeditions of Discovery on the Australian
continent, and so to lay down its internal features, that my friends
shall not lose their way.
I propose, also, to give an account of the state of South Australia when
I left it in May last, for, as the expedition whose proceedings form the
subject matter of these volumes, departed from and returned to that
Province, such an account appears to me a fitting sequel to my narrative.
TRAVELS IN AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER I.
CHARACTER OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT--OF ITS RIVERS--PECULIARITY OF THE
DARLING--SUDDEN FLOODS TO WHICH IT IS SUBJECT--CHARACTER OF THE MURRAY
--ITS PERIODICAL RISE--BOUNTY OF PROVIDENCE--GEOLOGICAL POSITION OF THE
TWO RIVERS--OBSERVATIONS--RESULTS--SIR THOMAS MITCHELL'S JOURNEY TO THE
DARLING--ITS JUNCTION WITH THE MURRAY--ANECDOTE OF MR. SHANNON--CAPTAIN
GREY'S EXPEDITION--CAPTAIN STURT'S JOURNEY--MR. EYRE'S SECOND
EXPEDITION--VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE--MR. OXLEY'S OPINIONS--STATE OF THE
INTERIOR IN 1828--CHARACTER OF ITS PLAINS AND RIVERS--JUNCTION OF THE
DARLING--FOSSIL BED OF THE MURRAY--FORMER STATE OF THE CONTINENT--THEORY
OF THE INTERIOR.
The Australian continent is not distinguished, as are many other
continents of equal and even of less extent, by any prominent
geographical feature. Its mountains seldom exceed four thousand feet in
elevation, nor do any of its rivers, whether falling internally or
externally, not even the Murray, bear any proportion to the size of the
continent itself. There is no reason, however, why rivers of greater
magnitude, than any which have hitherto been discovered in it, should not
emanate from mountains of such limited altitude, as the known mountains
of that immense and sea-girt territory. But, it appears to me, it is not
in the height and character of its hilly regions, that we are to look for
the causes why so few living streams issue from them. The true cause, I
apprehend, lies in its climate, in its seldom experiencing other than
partial rains, and in its being subject to severe and long continued
droughts. Its streams descend rapidly into a country of uniform equality
of surface, and into a region of intense heat, and are subject, even at a
great distance from their sources, to sudden and terrific floods, which
subside, as the cause which gave rise to them ceases to operate; the
consequence is, that their springs become gradually weaker and weaker,
all back impulse is lost, and whilst the rivers still continue to support
a feeble current in the hills, they cease to flow in their lower
branches, assume the character of a chain of ponds, in a few short weeks
their deepest pools are exhausted by the joint effects of evaporation and
absorption, and the traveller may run down their beds for miles, without
finding a drop of water with which to slake his thirst.
In illustration of the above, I would observe that during the progress of
the recent expedition up the banks of the Darling, and at a distance of
more than 300 miles from its sources, that river rose from a state of
complete exhaustion, until in four days it overflowed its banks. It was
converted in a single night, from an almost dry channel, into a foaming
and impetuous stream, rolling along its irresistible and turbid waters,
to add to those of the Murray.
There can be no doubt, but, that this sudden rise in the river, was
caused by heavy rains on the mountains, in which its tributaries are to
be found, for the Darling does not receive any accession to its waters
below their respective junctions, of sufficient magnitude to account for
such an occurrence. [Note 1. below]
[Note 1. The principal tributaries of the Darling, are the Kindur, the
Keraula, the Namoy, and the Gwydir. They are beautiful mountain streams,
and rise in the hilly country, behind Moreton Bay, in lat. 27 degrees,
and in longitude 152 degrees E.]
When, on the return of the expedition homewards the following year, some
two months later in the season than that of which I have just been
speaking, Oct. 1844, there had been no recurrence of the flood of the
previous year, but the Darling was at a still lower ebb than before, and
every lagoon, and creek in its vicinity had long been exhausted and
waterless. [Note 2. below] Now, it is evident, as far as I can judge, that
if the rains of Australia were as regular as in other countries, its
rivers would also be more regular in their flow, and would not present the
anomaly they now do, of being in a state of rapid motion at one time,
and motionless at another.
[Note 2. It may be necessary to warn my readers that a creek in
the Australian colonies, is not always an arm of the sea. The same term
is used to designate a watercourse, whether large or small, in which the
winter torrents may or may not have left a chain of ponds. Such a
watercourse could hardly be called a river, since it only flows during
heavy rains, after which it entirely depends on the character of the soil,
through which it runs, whether any water remains in it or not.]
A lagoon is a shallow lake, it generally constitutes the back water of
some river, and is speedily dried up. In Australia, there is no surface
water, properly so called, of a permanent description.]
But, although I am making these general observations on the rivers, and
to a certain extent of climate of Australia, I would not be understood to
mean more than that its seasons are uncertain, and that its summers are
of comparatively long duration.
In reference to its rivers also, the Murray is an exception to the other
known rivers of this extensive continent. The basins of that fine stream
are in the deepest recesses of the Australian Alps--which rise to an
elevation of 7000 feet above the sea. The heads of its immediate
tributaries, extend from the 36th to the 32nd parallel of latitude, and
over two degrees of longitude, that is to say, from the 146 degrees to
the 148 degrees meridian, but, independently of these, it receives the
whole westerly drainage of the interior, from the Darling downwards.
Supplied by the melting snows from the remote and cloud-capped chain in
which its tributaries rise, the Murray supports a rapid current to the
sea. Taking its windings into account, its length cannot be less than
from 1300 to 1500 miles. Thus, then, this noble stream preserves its
character throughout its whole line. Uninfluenced by the sudden floods to
which the other rivers of which we have been speaking are subject, its
rise and fall are equally gradual. Instead of stopping short in its
course as they do, its never-failing fountains have given it strength to
cleave a channel through the desert interior, and so it happened, that,
instead of finding it terminate in a stagnant marsh, or gradually
exhausting itself over extensive plains as the more northern streams do,
I was successfully borne on its broad and transparent waters, during the
progress of a former expedition, to the centre of the land in which I
have since erected my dwelling.
As I have had occasion to remark, the rise and fall of the Murray are
both gradual. It receives the first addition to its waters from the
eastward, in the month of July, and rises at the rate of an inch a day
until December, in which month it attains a height of about seventeen
feet above its lowest or winter level. As it rises it fills in succession
all its lateral creeks and lagoons, and it ultimately lays many of its
flats under water.
The natives look to this periodical overflow of their river, with as much
anxiety as did ever or now do the Egyptians, to the overflowing of the
Nile. To both they are the bountiful dispensation of a beneficent
Creator, for as the sacred stream rewards the husbandman with a double
harvest, so does the Murray replenish the exhausted reservoirs of the
poor children of the desert, with numberless fish, and resuscitates
myriads of crayfish that had laid dormant underground; without which
supply of food, and the flocks of wild fowl that at the same time cover
the creeks and lagoons, it is more than probable, the first navigators of
the Murray would not have heard a human voice along its banks; but so it
is, that in the wide field of nature, we see the hand of an over-ruling
Providence, evidences of care and protection from some unseen quarter,
which strike the mind with overwhelming conviction, that whether in the
palace or in the cottage, in the garden, or in the desert, there is an
eye upon us. Not to myself do I accord any credit in that I returned from
my wanderings to my home. Assuredly, if it had not been for other
guidance than the exercise of my own prudence, I should have perished:
and I feel satisfied the reader of these humble pages, will think as I do
when he shall have perused them.
An inspection of the accompanying chart, will shew that the course of the
Murray, as far as the 138 degrees meridian is to the W.N.W., but that, at
that point, it turns suddenly to the south, and discharges itself into
Lake Victoria, which again communicates with the ocean, in the bight of
Encounter Bay. This outlet is called the "Sea mouth of the Murray," and
immediately to the eastward of it, is the Sand Hill, now called Barker's
Knoll--under which the excellent and amiable officer after whom it is
named fell by the hands of the natives, in the cause of geographical
research.
Running parallel with its course from the southerly bend, or great N.W.
angle of the Murray, there is a line of hills, terminating southwards, at
Cape Jarvis; but, extending northwards beyond the head of Spencer's Gulf.
These hills contain the mineral wealth of South Australia, and
immediately to the westward of them is the fair city of Adelaide.
On gaining the level interior, the Murray passes through a desert country
to the 140 degrees meridian, when it enters the great fossil formation,
of which I shall have to speak hereafter. In lat. 34 degrees, and in
long. 142 degrees, the Darling forms a junction with it; consequently, as
that river rises in latitude 27 degrees, and in long. 152 degrees, its
direct course will be about S.W. There is a distance of nine degrees of
latitude, therefore, between their respective sources, and, as the
Darling forms a considerable angle with the Murray at this junction, it
necessarily follows, as I have had occasion to remark, that the two
rivers must receive all the drainage from the eastward, falling into that
angle. If I have been sufficiently clear in explaining the geographical
position and character of these two rivers, which in truth almost make an
island of the S.E. angle of the Australian continent, it will only remain
for me to add in this place, that neither the Murray nor the Darling
receive any tributary stream from the westward or northward, and at the
time at which I commenced my last enterprise, the Darling was the
boundary of inland discovery, if I except the journey of my gallant
friend Eyre, to Lake Torrens, and the discovery by him of the country
round Mount Serle. Sir Thomas Mitchell had traced the Darling, from the
point at which I had been obliged from the want of good water to abandon
it, in 1828, to lat. 32 degrees 26 minutes, and had marked down some
hills to the westward of it. Still I do not think that I detract from his
merit, and I am sure I do not wish to do so, when I say that his having
so marked them can hardly be said to have given us any certain knowledge
of the Cis-Darling interior.
More than sixteen years had elapsed from the period when I undertook the
exploration of the Murray River, to that at which I commenced my
preparations for an attempt to penetrate Central Australia. Desolate,
however, as the country for the most part had been, through which I
passed, my voyage down that river had been the forerunner of events I
could neither have anticipated or foreseen. I returned indeed to Sydney,
disheartened and dissatisfied at the result of my investigations. To all
who were employed in that laborious undertaking, it had proved one of the
severest trial and of the greatest privation; to myself individually it
had been one of ceaseless anxiety. We had not, as it seemed, made any
discovery to gild our enterprise, had found no approximate country likely
to be of present or remote advantage to the Government by which we had
been sent forth; the noble river on whose buoyant waters we were hurried
along, seemed to have been misplaced, through such an extent of desert
did it pass, as if it was destined thus never to be of service to
civilized man, and for a short time the honour of a successful
undertaking, as far as human exertion could ensure it, was all that
remained to us after its fatigues and its dangers had terminated, as the
reader will conclude from the tenour of the above passage; for, although
at the termination of the Murray, we came upon a country, the aspect of
which indicated more than usual richness and fertility, we were unable,
from exhausted strength, to examine it as we could have wished, and thus
the fruits of our labours appeared to have been taken from us, just as we
were about to gather them. But if, amidst difficulties and
disappointments of no common description, I was led to doubt the wisdom
of Providence, I was wrong. The course of events has abundantly shewn how
presumptuous it is in man to question the arrangements of that Allwise
Power whose operations and purposes are equally hidden from us, for in
six short years from the time when I crossed the Lake Victoria, and
landed on its shores, that country formed another link in the chain of
settlements round the Australian continent, and in its occupation was
found to realize the most sanguine expectations I had formed of it. Its
rich and lovely valleys, which in a state of nature were seldom trodden
by the foot of the savage, became the happy retreats of an industrious
peasantry; its plains were studded over with cottages and corn-fields;
the very river which had appeared to me to have been so misplaced, was
made the high road to connect the eastern and southern shores of a mighty
continent; the superfluous stock of an old colony was poured down its
banks into the new settlement to save it from the trials and vicissitudes
to which colonies, less favourably situated, have been exposed; and
England, throughout her wide domains, possessed not, for its extent, a
fairer or a more promising dependency than the province of South
Australia. Such, there can be no doubt, have been the results of an
expedition from which human foresight could have anticipated no practical
good.
During my progress down the Murray River I had passed the junction of a
very considerable stream with it [Note 3. The Darling], in lat. 34 degrees
8 minutes and long. 142 degrees. Circumstances, however, prevented my
examining it to any distance above its point of union with the main river.
Yet, coming as it did, direct from the north, and similar as it was to the
Darling in its upper branches, neither had I, nor any of the men then with
me, and who had accompanied me when I discovered the Darling in 1828, the
slightest doubt as to its identity. Still, the fact might reasonably be
disputed by others, more especially as there was abundant space for the
formation of another river, between the point where I first struck the
Darling and this junction.
It was at all events a matter of curious speculation to the world at
large, and was a point well worthy of further investigation. Such
evidently was the opinion of her Majesty's Government at the time, for in
accordance with it, in the year 1835, Sir Thomas Mitchell, the
Surveyor-General of the colony of New South Wales, was directed to lead
an expedition into the interior, to solve the question, by tracing the
further course of the Darling. This officer left Sydney in May, 1835, and
pushing to the N.W. gradually descended to the low country on which the
Macquarie river all but terminates its short course. In due time he
gained the Bogan river (the New Year's Creek of my first expedition, and
so called by my friend, Mr. Hamilton Hume, who accompanied me as my
assistant, because he crossed it on that day), and tracing it downwards
to the N. W., Sir Thomas Mitchell ultimately gained the banks of the
Darling, where I had before been upon it, in latitude 30 degrees. He then
traced it downwards to the W.S.W {S.S.W. in published text} to latitude
32 degrees 26 seconds. At this point he determined to abandon all further
pursuit of the river, and he accordingly returned to Sydney, in
consequence, as he informs us, of his having ascertained that just below
his camp a small stream joined the Darling from the westward. The
Surveyor-General had noticed distant hills also to the west; and it is
therefore to be presumed that he here gave up every hope of the Darling
changing its course for the interior, and of proving that I was wrong
and that he was right. The consequence, however, was, that he left the
matter as much in doubt as before, and gained but little additional
knowledge of the country to the westward of the river.
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.
Fortunately, however, the Surveyor-General was enabled to satisfy himself
as to this locality, and he accordingly left the Murray, and traced the
junction upwards to the north for more than eight miles, when he was
suddenly illuminated. A ray of light fell upon him, and he became
convinced, as I had been, of the identity of this stream with the
Darling, and suddenly turning his back upon it, left the question as much
in the dark as before. Neither did he therefore on this occasion, throw
any light on the nature and character of the distantinterior.
In the year 1837 the Royal Geographical Society, assisted by Her
Majesty's Government, despatched an expedition under the command of
Lieuts. afterwards Captains Grey and Lushington--the former of whom has
since been Governor of South Australia, and is at the present moment
Governor in Chief of New Zealand--to penetrate into the interior of the
Australian continent from some point on the north-west or west coast; but
those gentlemen were unable to effect such object. The difficulties of
the country were very great, and their means of transport extremely
limited; and in consequence of successive untoward events they were
ultimately obliged to abandon the enterprise, without any satisfactory
result. But I should be doing injustice to those officers, more
particularly to Captain Grey, if I did not state that he shewed a degree
of enthusiasm and courage that deserve the highest praise.
As, however, both Sir Thomas Mitchell and Capt. Grey [Note 4. Journals of
Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, during the
years 1837-8-9, by Captain George Grey.] have published accounts of their
respective expeditions, it may not be necessary for me to notice them,
beyond that which may be required to connect my narrative and to keep
unbroken the chain of geographical research upon the continent.
In the year 1838, I myself determined on leading a party overland from
New South Wales to South Australia, along the banks of the Murray; a
journey that had already been successfully performed by several of my
friends, and among the rest by Mr. Eyre. They had, however, avoided the
upper branches of the Murray, and particularly the Hume, by which name
the Murray itself is known above the junction of the Murrumbidgee with
it. Wishing therefore to combine geographical research with my private
undertaking, I commenced my journey at the ford where the road crosses
the Hume to Port Phillip, and in so doing connected the whole of the
waters of the south-east angle of the Australian continent.
In this instance, however, as in those to which I have already alluded,
no progress was made in advancing our knowledge of the more central parts
of the continent.
In the year 1839 Mr. Eyre, now Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, fitted
out an expedition, and under the influence of the most praiseworthy
ambition, tried to penetrate into the interior from Mount Arden; but,
having descended into the basin of Lake Torrens, he was baffled at every
point. Turning, therefore, from that inhospitable region, he went to Port
Lincoln, from whence he proceeded along the line of the south coast to
Fowler's Bay, the western limit of the province of South Australia.
He then determined on one of those bold movements, which characterise all
his enterprises, and leaving the coast, struck away to the N.E. for Mount
Arden along the Gawler Range; but the view from the summit of that rugged
line of hills, threw darkness only on the view he obtained of the distant
interior, and he returned to Adelaide without having penetrated further
north than 29 degrees 30 minutes, notwithstanding the unconquerable
perseverance and energy he had displayed.
In the following year, the colonists of South Australia, with the
assistance of the local government, raised funds to equip another
expedition to penetrate to the centre of the continent, the command of
which was entrusted to the same dauntless officer. On the morning on
which he was to take his departure, from the fair city of Adelaide,
Colonel Gawler, the Governor, gave a breakfast, to which he invited most
of the public officers and a number of the colonists, that they might
have the opportunity of thus collectively bidding adieu to one who had
already exerted himself so much for the public good.
Few, who were present at that breakfast will ever forget it, and few who
were there present, will refuse to Colonel Gawler the mead of praise due
to him, for the display on that occasion of the most liberal and generous
feelings. It was an occasion on which the best and noblest sympathies of
the heart were roused into play, and a scene during which many a bright
eye was dim through tears.
Some young ladies of the colony, amongst whom were Miss Hindmarsh and
Miss Lepson, the one the daughter of the first Governor of the province,
the other of the Harbour-master, had worked a silken union to present to
Mr. Eyre, to be unfurled by him in the centre of the continent, if
Providence should so far prosper his undertaking, and it fell to my lot,
at the head of that fair company, to deliver it to him.
When that ceremony was ended, prayers were read by the Colonial Chaplain,
after which Mr. Eyre mounted his horse, and escorted by a number of his
friends, himself commenced a journey of almost unparalleled difficulty
and privation [Note 5. Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central
Australia, and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound, in the years
1840 and 41, by E. J. Eyre, Esq.]--a journey, which, although not
successful in its primary objects, yet established the startling fact,
that there is not a single watercourse to be found on the South coast of
Australia, from Port Lincoln to King George's Sound, a distance of more
than 1500 miles. To what point then, let me ask, does the drainage of the
interior set? It is a question of deep interest to all--a question bearing
strongly on my recent investigations, and one that, in connection with
established facts, will, I think, enable the reader to draw a reasonable
conclusion, as to the probable character of the country, which is hid from
our view by the adamantine wall which encircles the great Australian
bight.
On this long and remarkable journey, Mr. Eyre again found it impossible
to penetrate to the north, but steadily advancing to the westward, he
ultimately reached the confines of Western Australia, with one native
boy, and one horse only. Neither, however, did this tremendous
undertaking throw any light on the distant interior, and thus it almost
appeared that its recesses were never to be entered by civilized man.
From this time neither the government of South Australia, or that of New
South Wales, made any further effort to push geographical inquiry, and
all interest in it appeared to have past away.
It remains for me to observe, however, that, whilst these attempts were
being made to prosecute inland discovery, Her Majesty's naval service was
actively employed upon the coast. Captain Wickham, in command of the
Beagle, was carrying on a minute survey of the intertropical shores of
the continent, which led to the discovery of two considerable rivers, the
Victoria and the Albert, the one situated in lat. 14 degrees 26 minutes
S. and long. 129 {139 in published text} degrees 22 minutes E., the other
in lat. 17 degrees 35 minutes and long. 139 degrees 54 minutes;
but in tracing these up to lat. 15 degrees 30 minutes and 17 degrees
58 minutes, and long. 130 degrees 50 minutes and 139 degrees
28 minutes respectively, no elevated mountains were seen, nor
was any opening discovered into the interior. Captain Wickham
having retired, the command of the Beagle devolved on Lieut. now
Captain Stokes, to whose searching eye the whole of the coast was more or
less subjected, and who approached nearer to the centre than any one had
ever done before [Note 6. below], but still no light was thrown on
that hidden region; and the efforts which had been made both on land and
by water, were, strictly speaking, unsuccessful, to push to any conclusive
distance from the settled districts on the one hand, or from the coast
into the interior on the other. Reasoning was lost in conjecture, and men,
even those most interested in it, ceased to talk on the subject.
[Note 6. Discoveries in Australia, and Expeditions into the Interior,
surveyed during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, between the years 1837
and 43, by Captain J. Lort Stokes.]
It may not be of any moment to the public to be made acquainted with the
cause which led me, after a repose of more than fourteen years, to seek
the field of discovery once more. It will be readily admitted, that from
the part, as I have observed in my preface, which I had ever taken in the
progress of Geographical Discovery on the Australian continent, I must
have been deeply interested in its further developement.
I had adopted an impression, that this immense tract of land had formerly
been an archipelago of islands, and that the apparently boundless plains
into which I had descended on my former expeditions, were, or rather had
been, the sea-beds of the channels, which at that time separated one
island from the other; it was impossible, indeed, to traverse them as I
had done, and not feel convinced that they had at one period or the other
been covered by the waters of the sea. It naturally struck me, that if I
was correct in this conjecture, the difficulty or facility with which the
interior might be penetrated, would entirely depend on the breadth and
extent of these once submarine plains, which in such case would now
separate the available parts of the continent from each another, as when
covered with water they formerly separated the islands. This hypothesis,
if I may so call it, was based on observations which, however erroneous
they may appear to be, were made with an earnest desire on my part to
throw some light on the apparently anomalous structure of the Australian
interior. No one could have watched the changes of the country through
which he passed, with more attention than did I--not only from a natural
curiosity, but from an anxious desire to acquit myself to the
satisfaction of the Government by which I was employed.
When Mr. Oxley, the first Surveyor-General of New South Wales, a man of
acknowledged ability and merit, pushed his investigations into the
interior of that country, by tracing down the rivers Lachlan and
Macquarie, he was checked in his progress westward by marshes of great
extent, beyond which he could not see any land. He was therefore led to
infer that the interior, to a certain extent, was occupied by a shoal
sea, of which the marshes were the borders, and into which the rivers he
had been tracing discharged themselves.
My friend, Mr. Allan Cunningham, who was for several years resident in
New South Wales, and who made frequent journeys into the interior of the
continent as botanist to his late Majesty King George IV. and who also
accompanied Captain P. P. King, during his survey of its intertropical
regions, if he did not accompany Mr. Oxley also on one of his
expeditions, strongly advocated the hypothesis of that last-mentioned
officer; but as Mr. Cunningham kept on high ground on his subsequent
excursions, he could not on such occasions form a correct opinion as to
the nature of the country below him. His impressions were however much
influenced by the observations made by Captain King in Cambridge Gulf,
the water of which was so much discoloured, as to lead that intelligent
and careful officer to conclude, that it might prove to be the outlet of
the waters of the interior, and hence a strong opinion obtained, that the
dip of the continent was in the direction of that great inlet, or to the
W. N. W. I therefore commenced my investigations, under an impression
that I should be led to that point, in tracing down any river I might
discover, and that sooner or later I should be stopped by a large body of
inland waters. I descended rapidly from the Blue Mountains, into a level
and depressed interior, so level indeed, that an altitude of the sun,
taken on the horizon, on several occasions, approximated very nearly to
the truth. The circumference of that horizon was unbroken, save where an
isolated hill rose above it, and looked like an island in the ocean.
When I reached the point at which Mr. Oxley had been checked, I found the
Macquarie, not "running bank high," as he describes it, but almost dry;
and although ten years had passed since his visit to this distant spot,
the grass had not yet grown over the foot-path, leading from his camp to
the river; nor had a horse-shoe that was found by one of the men lost its
polish. In this locality there are two hills, to which Mr. Oxley gave the
names of Mount Harris and Mount Foster, distant from each other about
five miles, on a bearing of 45 degrees to the west of south. Of these two
hills Mount Foster is the highest and the nearest, and as the Macquarie
runs between them to the westward, it must also be closer than Mount
Harris to the marshes. I therefore naturally looked for any discovery
that was to be made from Mount Foster, and I according ascended that hill
just as the sun was setting. I looked in vain however for the region of
reeds and of water, which Mr. Oxley had seen to the westward; so
different in character were the seasons, and the state of the country at
the different periods in which the Surveyor-General and I visited it.
From the highest point I could gain I watched the sun descend; but I
looked in vain for the glittering of a sea beneath him, nor did the sky
assume that glare from reflected light which would have accompanied his
setting behind a mass of waters. I could discover nothing to intercept me
in my course. I saw, it is true, a depressed and dark region in the line
of the direction in which I was about to go. The terrestrial line met the
horizon with a sharp and even edge, but I saw nothing to stay my
progress, or to damp my hopes. As I had observed the country from Mount
Foster, so I found it to be when I advanced into it. I experienced little
difficulty therefore in passing the marshes of the Macquarie, and in
pursuing my course to the N. W. traversed plains of great extent, until
at length I gained the banks of the Darling, in lat. 30 degrees. S. and
in long. 146 degrees. E. This river, instead of flowing to the N. W. led
me to the S. W.; but I was ultimately obliged to abandon it in
consequence of the saltness of its waters. I could not, however, fail to
observe that the plains over which I had wandered were wholly deficient
in timber of any magnitude or apparently of any age, excepting the trees
which grew along the line of the rivers; that the soil of the plains was
sandy, and the productions almost exclusively salsolaceous. Their extreme
depression, indeed their general level, since they were not more than 250
or 300 feet above the level of the sea, together with their general
aspect, instinctively, as it were, led the mind to the conviction that
they had, at a comparatively recent period, been covered by the ocean. On
my return to the Blue Mountains, and on a closer examination of the
streams falling from them into the interior, I observed that at a certain
point, and that too nearly on the same meridian, they lost their
character as rivers, and soon after gaining the level interior,
terminated in marshes of greater or less extent; and I further remarked
that at certain points, and that too where the channels of the rivers
seemed to change, certain trees, as the swamp oak, casuarina, and others
ceased, or were sparingly to be found on the lower country--a fact that
may not be of any great importance in itself, but which it is still as
well to record. The field, however, over which I wandered on this
occasion was too limited to enable me to draw any conclusions applicable
to so large a tract of land as the Australian continent. On this, my
first expedition, I struck the Darling River twice, 1st, as I have stated
in latitude 30 degrees S. and in long. 146 degrees; and seconndly, in
lat. 30 degrees 10 minutes 0 seconds S., and in long. 147 degrees
30 minutes E. From neither of these points was any elevation visible to
the westward of that river, but plains similar to those by which I had
approached it continued beyond the range of vision or telescope from the
highest trees we could ascend; beyond the Darling, therefore, all was
conjecture.
At the close of the year 1829, I was again sent into the interior to
trace its streams and to ascertain the further course of the Darling. I
proceeded on this occasion to the south of Sydney, and intersecting the
Murrumbidgee, a river at that time but little known, but which Mr. Hume
had crossed, in lat. 35 degrees 10 minutes, and long. 147 degrees 28
minutes 30 seconds E., on his journey to the south coast, at a very early
period of discovery, and which thereabouts is a clear, rapid and
beautiful stream. I traced it downwards to the west to lat. 34 degrees 44
minutes, and to long. 143 degrees 5 minutes 0 seconds E. or thereabouts,
having taken to my boats a few miles above the junction of the Lachlan
with it, in lat. 34 degrees 25 minutes 0 seconds and in long. 144 degrees
3 minutes E.; having at that point left all high lands 200 miles behind
me, and being then in a low and depressed country, precisely similar to
that over which I had crossed the previous year. As on the first
expedition, so on the present one, I descended rapidly into a country of
general equality of surface; reeds grew in extensive patches along the
line of the river, but beyond them sandy plains extended, covered with
salsolae of various kinds. From the Murrumbidgee, I passed into the
Murray, the largest known river in Australia, unless one of greater
magnitude has recently been discovered by Sir Thomas Mitchell to the
north.
In lat. 34 degrees and in long. 142 degrees, I arrived, (as I have
already had occasion to inform my readers), at the junction of a very
considerable stream with the Murray. At this point, being then 200 miles
distant from the south coast in a direct line, I was less than 100 feet
above the level of the sea; circumstances prevented my examining this new
river however for many miles above its junction with the main stream, but
coming, as I have elsewhere remarked, direct from the north, and
possessing, as it did, all the character and appearance of the Upper
Darling, I had no doubt as to its identity; in which case no stronger
fact could have been adduced to prove the southerly fall or dip of the
interior as far as it had been explored. Proceeding down the Murray, I
reached at length the commencement of the great fossil formation, through
which that river flows. This immense bed rose gradually before me as I
pushed to the westward, until it gained an elevation of from 2 to 250
feet, but on my turning southward, it presented an horizontal and
undulating surface, until at the point at which the river enters the Lake
Victoria, it suddenly dipped and ceased. The lower part of this formation
was entirely composed of Serritullae, but every description of shell with
the bones and teeth of sharks and other animals, have subsequently been
found in the upper parts of the bed, the summit of which is in many
places covered with oyster shells so little changed by time, as to appear
as if they had only just been thrown in a heap on the ground they occupy.
The general appearance of the country through which I had passed, and the
numerous deposits of fine sand upon the face of it, like sea dunes, still
more convinced me, that, when the events which had produced such a change
in the physical structure of the continent took place, a current of some
description or other must have swept over the interior from the
northward; and that this current had deposited the great fossil bed where
it now rests; for I cannot conceive that such a mass and mixture of
animal remains could have been heaped together in any other way. From the
outline of this bed, it struck me that some natural obstacle or other had
checked the detritus, brought down by the current, as sand and gravel are
checked and accumulated against a log or other impediment athwart a
stream, presenting a gradual ascent on the side next the current and a
sudden fall on the other. Such, in truth, is the apparent form of the
great fossil bed of the Murray. This idea, which struck me as I journeyed
down the river, was strengthened, when at a lower part of it I observed a
ridge of coarse red granite, running across the channel of the river, and
disappearing under the fossil formation on either side of it. It appeared
to me to be probable that this ridge of granite might rise higher in
other places, and that stretching across the current as it did, that is
to say from west to east, the great accumulation of fossil and other
remains had been gradually deposited against it, forming a gradual ascent
on the northern side of the ridge, and a precipitous fall upon the other.
I have already observed that at a particular point the rivers of the
interior, which I had traced on my first expedition, appeared to lose
their character as such, and that they soon afterwards ceased in some
extensive marsh, the evaporation and absorption over such extensive
surfaces being greater than the supply of water they received. This point
is about 250 or 300 feet above the level of the sea, and if we draw a
line eastward, from the summit of the fossil formation, and prolong it to
the western base of the Blue Mountains, we shall find that it will pass
over the marshes of the several rivers falling into the interior, and
will strike these rivers where their channels appear to fail, as if that
had been the former sea-level.
The impressions I have on this interesting subject are clear enough in my
own mind, but they are difficult to explain, and I fear I have but ill
expressed myself so as to be understood by my readers. I only wish
however to record my own ideas, and if I am in error in any particular, I
shall thank any one of the many who are better versed in these matters
than myself to correct me.
I have stated in a former part of this chapter, that I undertook a
journey to South Australia in 1838. I advert to the circumstance again
because it is connected with the present inquiry. After I had turned the
north-west angle of the Murray, and had proceeded southwards to latitude
34 degrees 26 minutes (Moorundi), where Mr. Eyre has built a residence, I
turned from the river to the westward, along the summit of the fossil
formation, which, at the distance of a few miles, was succeeded by
sandstone, and this rock again, as we gained the hills, by a fine slate,
and this again, as we crossed the Mount Barker and Mount Lofty ranges, by
a succession of igneous rocks, of a character and form such as could not
but betray to a less experienced geologist even than myself the abundant
mineral veins they contained. On descending to the plains of Adelaide I
again crossed sandstone, and to my surprise discovered that the city of
Adelaide stood on the same kind of fossil formation I had left behind me
on the banks of the Murray, and it was on the discovery of this fact that
the probability of the Australian continent having once been an
archipelago of islands first occurred to me.
A more intimate acquaintance with the opinions of Flinders, as to the
probable character of the interior of the continent, from the character
and appearance of the coast along the Great Australian Bight; the
information I have collected as to the extent of the fossil bed, and my
own past experience, have led me to the following general conclusions.
That the continent of Australia has been subjected to great changes from
subigneous agency, and that it has been bodily raised, if I may so
express myself, to its present level above the sea; that, as far as we
can judge, the north and N.E. portions of the continent are higher than
the southern or S.W. parts of it, and that there has consequently been a
current or rush of waters, from the one point to the other--that this
current was divided in its progress into two branches, by hills, or some
other intervening obstacle, and that one branch of it, following the line
of the Darling, discharged itself into the sea, through the opening
between the western shores of Encounter Bay and Cape Bernouilli; that the
other, taking a more westerly direction, escaped through the Great
Australian Bight. From what I could judge, the desert I traversed is
about the breadth of that remarkable line of coast, and I am inclined to
think that it (the desert) retains its breadth the whole way, as it comes
gradually round to the south, thus forming a double curve, from the Gulf
of Carpentaria, on the N.E. angle of the continent, to the Great Bight on
its south-west coast; but my readers will, as they advance into my
narrative, see the grounds upon which I have rested these ideas. If such
an hypothesis is correct, it necessarily follows, that the north and
north-west coasts of the Continent were once separated from the south and
east coasts by water; and as I have stated my impression that the current
from the north, passed through vast openings, both to the eastward and
westward of the province of South Australia, it as necessarily follows,
that that province must also have been an island. I hope it will be
understood that I started with the supposition that the continent of
Australia was formerly an archipelago of islands, but that some
convulsion, by which the central land has been raised, has caused the
changes I have suggested. It was still a matter of conjecture what the
real character of Central Australia really was, for its depths had been
but superficially explored before my recent attempt. My own opinion, when
I commenced my last expedition, inclined me to the belief, and perhaps
this opinion was fostered by the hope that such would prove to be the
case, as well as by the reports of the distant natives, which invariably
went to confirm it, that the interior was occupied by a sea of greater or
less extent, and very probably by large tracts of desert country.
With such a conviction I commenced my recent labours, although I was not
prepared for the extent of desert I encountered--with such a conviction I
returned to the abodes of civilized man. I am still of opinion that there
is more than one sea in the interior of the Australian continent, but
such may not be the case. All I can say is, Would that I had discovered
such a feature, for I could then have done more upon its waters tenfold,
than I was enabled to accomplish in the gloomy and burning deserts over
which I wandered during more than thirteen months. My readers, however,
will judge for themselves as to the probable correctness of my views, and
also as to the probable character of the yet unexplored interior, from
the data the following pages will supply. I have recorded my own
impressions with great diffidence, claiming no more credit than may
attach to an earnest desire to make myself useful, and to further
geographical research. My desire is faithfully to record my own feelings
and impulses under peculiar embarrassments, and as faithfully to describe
the country over which I wandered.
My career as an explorer has probably terminated for ever, and only in
the cause of humanity, had any untoward event called for my exertions,
would I again have left my home. I wish not to hide from my readers the
disappointment, if such a word can express the feeling, with which I
turned my back upon the centre of Australia, after having so nearly
gained it; but that was an achievement I was not permitted to accomplish.
CHAPTER II.
PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE--ARRIVAL AT MOORUNDI--NATIVE GUIDES--NAMES OF
THE PARTY--SIR JOHN BARROW'S MINUTE--REPORTS OF LAIDLEY'S PONDS--CLIMATE
OF THE MURRAY--PROGRESS UP THE RIVER--ARRIVAL AT LAKE BONNEY--GRASSY
PLAINS--CAMBOLI'S HOME--TRAGICAL EVENTS IN THAT NEIGHBOURHOOD--PULCANTI--
ARRIVAL AT THE RUFUS--VISIT TO THE NATIVE FAMILIES--RETURN OF MR. EYRE
TO MOORUNDI--DEPARTURE OF MR. BROWNE TO THE EASTWARD.
Entertaining the views I have explained in my last chapter, I wrote in
January, 1843, to Lord Stanley, at that time Her Majesty's principal
Secretary of State for the Colonies, tendering my services to lead an
expedition from South Australia into the interior of the Australian
continent. As I was personally unknown to Lord Stanley, I wrote at the
same time to Sir Ralph Darling, under whose auspices I had first
commenced my career as an explorer, to ask his advice on so important an
occasion. Immediately on the receipt of my letter, Sir Ralph addressed a
communication to the Secretary of State, in terms that induced his
Lordship to avail himself of my offer.
In May, 1844, Captain Grey, the Governor of South Australia, received a
private letter from Lord Stanley, referring to a despatch his Lordship
had already written to him, to authorise the fitting out of an expedition
to proceed under my command into the interior. This despatch, however,
did not come to hand until the end of June, but on the receipt of it
Captain Grey empowered me to organise an expedition, on the modified plan
on which Lord Stanley had determined.
Aware as I was of the importance of the season in such a climate as that
of Australia, I had written both to the Secretary of State, and to Sir
Ralph Darling, so that I might have time after the receipt of replies
from Europe, in the event of my proposals being favourably entertained,
to make my preparations, and commence my journey at the most propitious
season of the year, but my letter to Sir Ralph Darling unfortunately
miscarried, and did not reach him until three months after its arrival in
England. The further delay which took place in the receipt of Lord
Stanley's despatch, necessarily threw it late in the season before I
commenced my preparations for the long and trying task that was before
me. By the end of July, however, my arrangements were completed, and my
party organised, and only awaited the decision of Mr. John Browne, the
younger of two brothers who were independent settlers in the province,
whose services I was anxious to secure as the medical officer to the
expedition, to fix on the day when it should leave Adelaide.
On the 4th of the month (August), I saw Mr. W. Browne, who informed me
that his brother had determined to accept my proposals, and that he would
join me with the least possible delay; upon which I felt myself at
liberty to make definitive arrangements, and to direct that the main body
of the expedition should commence its journey on Saturday, the 10th. On
the morning of that day I attended a public breakfast, to which I had
been invited by the colonists, at the conclusion of which the party,
under the charge of Mr. L. Piesse (who subsequently acted as storekeeper)
proceeded to the Dry Creek, a small station about five miles from
Adelaide. At that place he halted for the night. Mr. Browne not having
yet joined me, I kept Davenport, one of the men, who was to attend on the
officers, with a riding horse for his use, and the spring cart (in which
the instruments were to be carried), for the purpose of forwarding his
baggage to the Murray, on the banks of which the party was to muster.
I have said that on the 10th of August I attended a public breakfast, to
which I and my party had been invited by the colonists, on the occasion
of our quitting the capital. I may be permitted in these humble pages to
express my gratitude to them for the kind and generous sympathy they have
ever evinced in my success in life, as well as the delicacy and
consideration which has invariably marked the expression of their
sentiments towards me. If, indeed, I have been an instrument, in the
hands of Providence, in bringing about the speedier establishment of the
province of South Australia, I am thankful that I have been permitted to
witness the happiness of thousands whose prosperity I have unconsciously
promoted. Wherever I may go, to whatever part of the world my destinies
may lead me, I shall yet hope one day to return to my adopted home, and
make it my resting-place between this world and the next. When I went
into the interior I left the province with storm-clouds overhanging it,
and sunk in adversity. When I returned the sun of prosperity was shining
on it, and every heart was glad. Providence had rewarded a people who had
borne their reverses with singular firmness and magnanimity. Their
harvest fields were bowed down by the weight of grain; their pastoral
pursuits were prosperous; the hills were yielding forth their mineral
wealth, and peace and prosperity prevailed over the land. May the
inhabitants of South Australia continue to deserve and to receive the
protection of that Almighty power, on whose will the existence of nations
as well as that of individuals depends!
Not having had time as yet to attend to my own private affairs, I was
unable to leave Adelaide for a few days after the departure of Mr.
Piesse. A similar cause prevented Mr. James Poole, who was to act as my
assistant, from accompanying the drays. On the 12th Mr. Browne arrived in
Adelaide, when he informed me that he had remained in the country to give
over his stock, and to arrange his affairs, to prevent the necessity of
again returning to his station. He had now, therefore, nothing to do but
to equip himself, when he would be ready to accompany me. When I wrote to
Mr. Browne, offering him the appointment of medical officer to the
expedition, I was personally unacquainted with him, but I was aware that
he enjoyed the respect and esteem of every one who knew him, and that he
was in every way qualified for the enterprise in which I had invited him
to join. Being an independent settler, however, I doubted whether he
could, consistently with his own interests, leave his homestead on a
journey of such doubtful length as that which I was about to commence.
The spirit of enterprise, however, outweighed any personal consideration
in the breast of that resolute and intelligent officer, and I had every
reason to congratulate myself in having secured the services of one whose
value, under privation, trial, and sickness, can only be appreciated by
myself.
The little business still remaining for us to do was soon concluded, and
as Mr. Browne assured me that it would not take more than two or three
days to enable him to complete his arrangements, I decided on our final
departure from Adelaide on the 15th of the month; for having received my
instructions I should then have nothing further to detain me. That day,
therefore, was fixed upon as the day on which we should start to overtake
the party on its road to Moorundi. The sun rose bright and clear over my
home on the morning of that day. It was indeed a morning such as is only
known in a southern climate; but I had to bid adieu to my wife and
family, and could but feebly enter into the harmony of Nature, as
everything seemed joyous around me.
I took breakfast with my warm-hearted friend, Mr. Torrens, and his wife,
who had kindly invited a small party of friends to witness my departure;
but although this was nominally a breakfast, it was six in the afternoon
before I mounted my horse to commence my journey. My valued friend, Mr.
Cooper, the Judge, had returned to Adelaide early in the day, but those
friends who remained accompanied us across the plain lying to the north
of St. Clare, to the Gawler Town road, where we shook hands and parted.
We reached Gawler Town late at night, and there obtained intelligence
that the expedition had passed Angus Park all well. I also learnt that
Mr. Calton, the master of the hotel, had given the men a sumptuous
breakfast as they passed through the town, and that they had been cheered
with much enthusiasm by the people.
On the 16th we availed ourselves of the hospitality of Mrs. Bagot, whose
husband was absent on his legislative duties in Adelaide, to stay at her
residence for a night. Nothing however could exceed the kindness of the
reception we met from Mrs. Bagot and the fair inmates of her house.
On the 17th we turned to the eastward for the Murray, under the guidance
of Mr. James Hawker, who had a station on the river. At the White Hut,
Mr. Browne, who had left me at Gawler Town, to see his sister at Lyndoch
Valley, rejoined me; and at a short distance beyond it, we overtook the
party in its slow but certain progress towards the river. At the Dust
Hole, another deserted sheep station on the eastern slope of the
mountains, I learnt that Flood, an old and faithful follower of mine,
whom I had added to the strength of the expedition at the eleventh hour,
was at the station. He was one of the most experienced stockmen in the
colonies, and intimately acquainted with the country. I had sent him to
receive over 200 sheep I had purchased from Mr. Dutton, which I proposed
taking with me instead of salt meat. He had got to the Dust Hole in
safety with his flock, and was feeding them on the hills when I passed.
The experiment I was about to make with these animals was one of some
risk; but I felt assured, that under good management, they would be of
great advantage. Not however to be entirely dependent on the sheep, I
purchased four cwt. of bacon from Mr. Johnson of the Reed Beds, near
Adelaide, by whom it had been cured; and some of that bacon I brought
back with me as sweet and fresh as when it was packed, after an exposure
of eighteen months to an extreme of heat that was enough to try its best
qualities. I was aware that the sheep might be lost by negligence, or
scattered in the event of any hostile collision with the natives; but I
preferred trusting to the watchfulness of my men, and to past experience
in my treatment of the natives, rather than to overload my drays. The
sequel proved that I was right. Of the 200 sheep I lost only one by coup
de soleil. They proved a very valuable supply, and most probably
prevented the men from suffering, as their officers did, from that
fearful malady the scurvy.
I had them shorn before delivery, to prepare them for the warmer climate
into which I was going. And I may here remark, although I shall again
have to allude to it, that their wool did not grow afterwards to any
length. It ceased indeed to grow altogether for many months, nor had they
half fleeces after having been so long as a year and a half unshorn.
I did not see Flood at the Dust Hole; but continuing my journey, entered
the belt of the Murray at 1 p.m., and reached Moorundi just as the sun
set, after a ride of four hours through those dreary and stunted brushes.
My excellent friend, Mr. Eyre, had been long and anxiously expecting us.
Altogether superior to any unworthy feeling of jealousy that my services
had been accepted on a field in which he had so much distinguished
himself, and on which he so ardently desired to venture again, his
efforts to assist us were as ceaseless as they were disinterested.
Whatever there was of use in his private store, whether publicly
beneficial or for our individual comfort, he insisted on our taking. He
had had great trouble in retaining at Moorundi two of the most
influential natives on the river to accompany us to Williorara (Laidley's
Ponds). Mr. Eyre was quite aware of the importance of such attachees, and
had spared no trouble in securing their services. Their patience however
had almost given way, and they had threatened to leave the settlement
when fortunately we made our appearance, and all their doubts as to our
arrival vanished. Nothing but jimbucks (sheep) and flour danced before
their eyes, and they looked with eager impatience to the approach of the
drays.
These two natives, Camboli and Nadbuck, were men superior to their
fellows, both in intellect and in authority. They were in truth two fine
specimens of Australian aborigines, stern, impetuous, and determined,
active, muscular, and energetic. Camboli was the younger of the two, and
a native of one of the most celebrated localities on the Murray. It bears
about N.N.E. from Lake Bonney, where the flats are very extensive, and
are intersected by numerous creeks and lagoons. There, consequently, the
population has always been greater than elsewhere on the Murray, and the
scenes of violence more frequent. Camboli was active, light-hearted, and
confiding, and even for the short time he remained with us gained the
hearts of all the party.
Nadbuck was a man of different temperament, but with many good qualities,
and capable of strong attachments. He was a native of Lake Victoria, and
had probably taken an active part in the conflicts between the natives
and overlanders in that populous part of the Murray river. He had
somewhat sedate habits, was restless, and exceedingly fond of the FAIR
sex. He was a perfect politician in his way, and of essential service to
us. I am quite sure, that so long as he remained with the party, he would
have sacrificed his life rather than an individual should have been
injured. I shall frequently have to speak of this our old friend Nadbuck,
and will not therefore disturb the thread of my narrative by relating any
anecdote of him here. It may be enough to state that he accompanied us to
Williorara, even as he had attended Mr. Eyre to the same place only a few
weeks before, and that when he left us he had the good wishes of all
hands.
In the afternoon of the day following that of our arrival at Moorundi,
Mr. Piesse arrived with the drays, and drew them up under the fine
natural avenue that occupies the back of the river to the south of Mr.
Eyre's residence. Shortly afterwards Davenport arrived with the light
cart, having the instruments and Mr. Browne's baggage. Flood also came up
with the sheep, so that the expedition was now complete, and mustered in
its full force for the first time, and consisted as follows of officers,
men, and animals:--
Captain Sturt, LEADER.
Mr. James Poole, ASSISTANT.
Mr. John Harris Browne, SURGEON.
Mr. M'Dougate Stuart, DRAFTSMAN.
Mr. Louis Piesse, STOREKEEPER.
Daniel Brock, COLLECTOR.
George Davenport,) SERVANTS
Joseph Cowley, )
Robert Flood, STOCKMAN.
David Morgan, WITH HORSES.
Hugh Foulkes, )
John Jones, )
---- Turpin, ) BULLOCK DRIVERS
William Lewis, sailor, )
John Mack )
John Kerby, WITH SHEEP.
11 horses; 30 bullocks; 1 boat and boat carriage; 1 horse dray; 1 spring
cart; 3 drays. 200 sheep; 4 kangaroo dogs; 2 sheep dogs.
The box of instruments sent from England for the use of the expedition
had been received, and opened in Adelaide. The most important of them
were two sextants, three prismatic compasses, two false horizons, and a
barometer. One of the sextants was a very good instrument, but the
glasses of the other were not clear, and unfortunately the barometer was
broken and useless, since it had the syphon tube, which could not be
replaced in the colony. I exceedingly regretted this accident, for I had
been particularly anxious to carry on a series of observations, to
determine the level of the interior. I manufactured a barometer, for the
tube of which I was indebted to Captain Frome, the Surveyor-General, and
I took with me an excellent house barometer, together with two brewer's
thermometers, for ascertaining the boiling point of water on Sykes'
principle. The first of the barometers was unfortunately broken on the
way up to Moorundi, so that I was a second time disappointed.
It appears to me that the tubes of these delicate instruments are not
secured with sufficient care in the case, that the corks placed to steady
them are at too great intervals, and that the elasticity of the tube is
consequently too great for the weight of mercury it contains. The
thermometers sent from England, graduated to 127 degrees only, were too
low for the temperature into which I went, and consequently useless at
times, when the temperature in the shade exceeded that number of degrees.
One of them was found broken in its case, the other burst when set to try
the temperature, by the over expansion of mercury in the bulb.
The party had left Adelaide in such haste that it became necessary before
we should again move, to rearrange the loads. On Monday, the 18th,
therefore I desired Mr. Piesse to attend to this necessary duty, and not
only to equalize the loads on the drays, and ascertain what stores we
had, but to put everything in its place, so as to be procured at a
moment's notice.
The avenue at Moorundi presented a busy scene, whilst the men were thus
employed reloading the drays and weighing the provisions. Morgan, who had
the charge of the horse cart, had managed to snap one of the shafts in
his descent into the Moorundi Flat, and was busy replacing it. Brock, a
gunsmith by trade, was cleaning the arms. Others of the men were
variously occupied, whilst the natives looked with curiosity and
astonishment on all they saw. At this time, however, there were not many
natives at the settlement, since numbers of them had gone over the Nile,
to make their harvest on the settlers.
On Monday I sent Flood into Adelaide with despatches for the Governor,
and with letters for my family, as well as to bring out some few trifling
things we had overlooked, and as Mr. Piesse reported to me on that day
that the drays were reloaded, I directed him, after I had inspected them,
to lash down the tarpaulines, and to warn the men to hold themselves in
readiness to proceed on their journey at 8 a.m. on the following
morning--for, as I purposed remaining at Moorundi with Mr. Eyre until
Flood should return, I was unwilling that the party should lose any time,
and I therefore thought it advisable to send the drays on, under Mr.
Poole's charge, until such time as I should overtake him. The spirit
which at this time animated the men ensured punctuality to any orders
that were given to them. Accordingly the bullocks were yoked up, and all
hands were at their posts at early dawn. As, however, I was about to
remain behind for a few days, it struck me that this would be a
favourable opportunity on which to address the men. I accordingly
directed Mr. Poole to assemble them, and with Mr. Eyre and Mr. Browne
went to join him in the flat, a little below the avenue. I then explained
to them that I proposed remaining at Moorundi for a few days after their
departure. I thought it necessary, in giving them over into Mr. Poole's
charge, to point out some of the duties I expected from them.
That in the first place I had instructed Mr. Poole to mount a guard of
two men every evening at sunset, who were to remain on duty until
sun-rise; that I expected the utmost vigilance from this guard, and that
as the safety of the camp would depend on their attention, I should
punish any neglect with the utmost severity. I then adverted to the
natives, and interdicted all intercourse with them, excepting with my
permission. That as I attributed many of the acts of violence that had
been committed on the river to this irritating source, so I would strike
the name of any man who should disobey my orders in this respect off the
strength of the party from that moment, and prevent his receiving a
farthing of pay; or whoever I should discover encouraging any of the
natives, but more particularly the native women, to the camp. I next drew
the attention of the men to themselves, and pointed out to them the ill
effects of discord, expressing my hope that they would be cheerful and
ready to assist one another, and that harmony would exist in the camp;
that I expected the most ready obedience from all to their superiors; and
that, in such case, they would on their part always find me alive to
their comforts, and to their interests. I then confirmed Mr. Piesse in
his post as store-keeper; gave to Flood the general superintendence of
the stock; to Morgan the charge of the horses, and to each bullock-driver
the charge of his own particular team. To Brock I committed the sheep,
with Kirby and Sullivan to assist, and to Davenport and Cowley (Joseph)
the charge of the officers' tents. I then said, that as they might now be
said to commence a journey, from which none of them could tell who would
be permitted to return, it was a duty they owed themselves to ask the
blessing and protection of that Power which alone could conduct them in
safety through it; and having read a few appropriate prayers to the men
as they stood uncovered before me, I dismissed them, and told Mr. Poole
he might move off as soon as he pleased. The scene was at once changed.
The silence which had prevailed was broken by the cracks of whips, and
the loud voices of the bullock-drivers. The teams descended one after the
other from the bank on which they had been drawn up, and filed past
myself and Mr. Eyre, who stood near me, in the most regular order. The
long line reached almost across the Moorundi flat, and looked extremely
well. I watched it with an anxiety that made me forgetful of everything
else, and I naturally turned my thoughts to the future How many of those
who had just passed me so full of hope, and in such exuberant spirits,
would be permitted to return to their homes? Should I, their leader, be
one of those destined to remain in the desert, or should I be more
fortunate in treading it than the persevering and adventurous officer
whose guest I was, and who shrank from the task I had undertaken. My eyes
followed the party as it ascended the gully on the opposite side of the
flat, and turned northwards, the two officers leading, until the whole
were lost to my view in the low scrub into which it entered. I was
unconscious of what was passing around me, but when I turned to address
my companions, I found that I was alone. Mr. Eyre, and the other
gentlemen who had been present, had left me to my meditations.
In the afternoon Kusick, one of the mounted police, arrived with
despatches from the Governor, and letters from my family. He had met
Flood at Gawler Town, whose return, therefore, we might reasonably expect
on the Friday.
Amongst the first purchases that had been made was a horse for the
service of the expedition, which had not very long before been brought in
from Lake Victoria, Nadbuck's location, distant nearly 200 miles from
Adelaide, where he had been running wild for some time. This horse was
put into the government paddock at Adelaide when bought, but he took the
fence some time during the night and disappeared, nor could he be traced
anywhere. Luckily, however, Kusick had passed the horses belonging to the
settlers at Moorundi, feeding at the edge of the scrub upon the cliffs,
and amongst them had recognised this animal, which had thus got more than
90 miles back to his old haunt. He had, however, fallen into a trap, from
which I took care he should not again escape; but we had some difficulty
in running him in and securing him.
Prior to the departure of the expedition from Adelaide, a considerable
quantity of rain had fallen there. Since our arrival at Moorundi also we
could see heavy rain on the hills, although no shower fell in the valley
of the Murray. Kusick informed us that he had been in constant rain, and
it was evident, from the dense and heavy clouds hanging upon them, that
it was still pouring in torrents on the ranges. We feared, therefore, and
it eventually proved to be the case, that Flood would not be able to
cross the Gawler on his return to us. He was, in fact, detained a day in
consequence of the swollen state of that little river, but swam his horse
over on the following day, at considerable risk both to himself and his
animal. He did not, in consequence, reach us until Saturday. In
anticipation, however, of his return on that day, we had sent Kenny, the
policeman stationed at Moorundi who was to accompany Mr. Eyre, up the
river in advance of us at noon, with Tampawang, the black boy I intended
taking with me, and had everything in readiness to follow them, as soon
as Flood should arrive. He did not, however, reach Moorundi until 5 p.m.
It took me some little time to reply to the communications he had
brought, but at seven we mounted our horses, and leaving Flood to rest
himself, and to exchange his wearied animal for the one we had recovered,
with Tenbury in front, left the settlement. The night was cold and
frosty, but the moon shone clear in a cloudless sky, so that we were
enabled to ride along the cliffs, from which we descended to one of the
river flats at 1 a.m. and, making a roaring fire, composed ourselves to
rest.
It may here be necessary, before I enter on any detail of the proceedings
of the expedition, to explain the general nature of my instructions, the
object of the expedition, and the reasons why, in some measure, contrary
to the opinion of the Secretary of State, I preferred trying the interior
by the line of the Darling, rather than by a direct northerly route from
Mount Arden.
As the reader will have understood, I wrote, in the year 1843, to Lord
Stanley, the then colonial minister, volunteering my services to conduct
an expedition into Central Australia. It appeared to his Lordship as well
as to Sir John Barrow, to whom Lord Stanley referred my report, that the
plan I had proposed was too extensive, and it was therefore determined to
adopt a more modified one, and to limit the resources of the expedition
and the objects it was to keep in view, to a certain time, and to the
investigation of certain facts. After expressing his opinion as to the
magnitude of the undertaking I had contemplated, "There is, however,"
says Sir J. Barrow, in a minute to the Secretary of State, "a portion of
the continent of Australia, to which he (Captain Sturt) adverts, that may
be accomplished, and in a reasonable time and at a moderate expense.
"He says, if a line be drawn from lat. 29 degrees 30 minutes and long.
146 degrees, N.W., and another from Mount Arden due north, they will meet
a little to the northward of the tropic, and there, I will be bound to
say, a fine country will be discovered. On what data he pledges himself
to the discovery of this fine country is not stated. It may, however, be
advisable to allow Mr. Sturt to realize the state of this fine country.
"This, however, is not to be done by pursuing the line of the Darling to
the latitude of Moreton Bay, which would lead him not far from the
eastern coast, where there is nothing of interest to be discovered, nor
does it appear advisable to pursue the Darling to the point to which he
and Major Mitchell have already been, for this reason. His preparations
will, no doubt, be made at Adelaide; from thence to the point in question
is about 600 miles, and from this point to the fine country, a little
beyond the tropic, is 700 miles, which together make a journey of 1300
miles. Now a line directly north from Adelaide, through Mount Arden, to
the point where it crosses the former in the fine country, is only 800
miles, making a saving, therefore, of 500 miles, which is of no little
importance in such a country as Australia.
"But Mr. Sturt assigns reasons for supposing that a range of mountains
will be found about the 29th parallel of latitude, and Mr. Eyre, whilst
exploring the Lake he discovered to the northward of the Gulf of St.
Vincent, Adelaide, notices mountains to the N.E., in about the latitude
of 28 degrees. Supposing, then, a range of mountains to exist about that
parallel, their direction will probably be found to run from N.E. to
S.W., which is that generally of the river Darling and its branches; and
in this case it may reasonably be concluded that these mountains form the
division of the waters, and that all the branches of the several rivers
(some of them of considerable magnitude) which have been known to fall
into the bays and gulfs on the W. and N.W. coasts, between the parallels
of 14 degrees and 21 degrees, have their sources on the northern side of
this range of mountains; but, even if no such range exists, it is pretty
evident, from what we know of the southern rivers, adjuncts chiefly of
the Darling, that somewhere about the latitudes of 28 degrees or 29
degrees the surface rises to a sufficient height to cause a division of
the waters, those on the northern side taking a northerly direction, and
those on the southern side a southerly one.
"To ascertain this point is worthy of a practical experiment in a
geographical point of view, as the knowledge of the direction that
mountains and rivers take, the bones and blood vessels of bodies
terrestrial give us at least a picture of the body of that skeleton. To
these Mr. Sturt will no doubt direct his particular attention, as
constituting the main object of such an expedition, and these, with the
great features of the country, its principal productions in the animal
and vegetable part of the creation, the state and condition of the
original inhabitants, will render a great service to the geography of the
southern part of Australia."
On this memorandum the Secretary of State observes, in a private letter
to Captain Grey, that came to hand before the receipt of Lord Stanley's
public despatch:--
"In considering Sir John Barrow's memorandum, enclosed in my public
despatch, you will see that a strong opinion is expressed against
ascending the Darling in the first instance, and in favour of making a
direct northerly course from Adelaide to Mount Arden. I do not wish this
to be taken as an absolute injunction, because I am aware that there may
be local causes why the apparently circuitous route may after all be the
easiest for the transport of provisions, and may really facilitate the
objects of the expedition. In like manner I do not wish to be understood
as absolutely prohibiting a return by Moreton Bay, extensive as that
deviation would be, if it should turn out that the exploration of the
mountain chain led the party so far to the eastward as to be able to
reach that point by a route previously known to Captain Sturt or to Major
Mitchell, more easily than they could return on their steps down the
Darling. What Captain Sturt will understand as absolutely prohibited, is
any attempt to conduct his party through the tropical regions to the
northward, so as to reach the mouths of any of the great rivers. The
present expedition will be limited in its object, to ascertaining the
existence and the character of a supposed chain of hills, or a succession
of separate hills, trending down from N.E. to S.W., and forming a great
natural division of the continent; to examining what rivers take their
source in those mountains, and what appears to be their course; to the
general lie of the country to the N.W. of the supposed chain; and to the
character of the soil and forests, as far as can be ascertained by such
an investigation as shall not draw the party away from their resources,
and shall make the south the constant base of their operations."
I presume, from the tenor of Sir John Barrow's memorandum, that he was
not fully aware of the insurmountable difficulties the course he
recommends presented. Valuing his judgment as I did on such an occasion,
and anxious as I was to act on the suggestions of the Secretary of State,
the strongest grounds could alone have made me pursue a course different
to that which had been recommended to me. Certainly the fear of any
ordinary difficulty would not have influenced me to reject the line
pointed out, but I felt satisfied that if Lord Stanley and Sir John
Barrow could be made aware of the nature of the country to the north of
Mount Arden, and the reasons why I considered it would be more
advantageous to take the line of the Darling, they would have concurred
in opinion with me. I would myself much rather have taken the line by
Mount Arden, since it would have been a greater novelty, and I would have
precluded the chance of any collision with the natives of the Darling,
more especially at that point to which I proposed to go, and at which Sir
Thomas Mitchell had had a rupture with them in 1836. The journeys of Mr.
Eyre had, however, proved the impracticability of a direct northerly
course from Mount Arden. Such a course would have led me into the
horseshoe of Lake Torrens; and although I might have passed to the
westward of it, I could hope for no advantage in a country such as that
which lies to the north of the Gawler Range. On the other hand, the
Surveyor-General of South Australia had attempted a descent into the
interior from the eastward, and had encountered great difficulties from
the want of water. Local inquiry and experience both went to prove the
little likelihood of that indispensable element being found to the north
of Spencer's Gulf. It appeared to me also that Sir John Barrow had
mistaken the point on the Darling to which I proposed going. It was not,
as he seems to have conjectured, to any point to which I had previously
been, but to an intermediate one. It is very true that if I had
contemplated pushing up the Darling to Fort Bourke, the distance would
have been 600 miles, and that, too, in a direction contrary to the one in
which I was instructed to proceed; but to Laidley's Ponds, in lat. 32
degrees 26 minutes 0 seconds S. and long. 142 degrees 30 minutes W., (the
point to which I proposed to go) the distance would have been a little
more than 300 miles. It was from this point that Sir Thomas Mitchell
retreated after his rupture with the natives in 1836; because, as he
himself informs us, he just then ascertained that a small stream joined
the Darling from the westward a little below his camp, and he likewise
saw hills in the same direction.
In consequence of the inhospitable character of the country to the north,
I had turned my attention to the above locality, and had been assured by
the natives, both of the Murray and the Darling, that the Williorara
(Laidley's Ponds) was a hill stream, that it came far from the N.W., that
it had large fish in it, and that its banks were grassy. It struck me,
therefore, that it would be a much more eligible line for the expedition
to run up the Darling to lat. 32 degrees 26 minutes, and then to trace
the Williorara upwards into the hills, with the chance of meeting the
opposite fall of waters, rather than to entangle myself and waste my
first energies amidst scrub and salt lagoons. As I understood my
instructions and the wishes of the Secretary of State, I was to keep on
the 138th meridian (that of Mount Arden) until I should reach the
supposed chain of mountains, the existence of which it was the object of
Lord Stanley to ascertain, or until I was turned aside from it by some
impracticable object. Lake Torrens being due north of Mount Arden would,
if I had taken that line, have been direct in my way, and I should have
had to turn either its eastern or its western flank. The
Surveyor-General, Captain Frome, had tried the former, but although he
went considerably to the eastward into the low and desert interior before
he turned northwards, he still found himself entangled in that sandy
basin, so that it appeared to me that I should do little more than clear
it on the course I proposed to take.
As the reader, however, will learn in the perusal of these pages, I was
wholly disappointed in the character of the Williorara. Where that
channel joins the Darling, the upward course of that river is to the
north-east; and as that was a course directly opposite to the one I felt
myself bound to take, I abandoned it and took at once to the hills. At my
Depot Prison, in lat. 29 degrees 40 minutes, and in long. 141 degrees 30
minutes E., I hoped that we had sufficiently cleared the north-east limit
of Lake Torrens; but when on the fall of rain we resumed our labours, we
measured 131 3/4 miles with the chain before we arrived on the shore of a
vast sandy basin, which I could not cross, and to the northward of which
I could not penetrate. Thus disappointed in my attempt to gain the 138th
meridian on a westerly course, as well as in my anticipation of finding
Lake Torrens connected with some more central feature, it appeared to me
that I could not follow out my instructions better than by attempting to
penetrate towards the centre of the continent on a north-west course, for
it was clear that if there were any ranges or any mountain chains
traversing the interior from north-east to south-west I should
undoubtedly strike them; but that if no such chains existed the proposed
course would take me to the Tropic on the meridian of 138 degrees, and
would enable me to determine the character of the interior, and more
central regions of the continent. In this attempt I succeeded in gaining
the desired meridian, but failed in reaching the Tropic. My position was
about 500 miles north of Mount Arden, 60 miles from the Tropic, and
somewhat less than 150 to the eastward of the centre of the Australian
continent. Forced back to my depot a second time, from the total failure
both of water and grass, in the quarter to which I had penetrated with
the above objects in view, having passed the centre in point of latitude,
I again left it on a due north course to ascertain if there were any
ranges or hills between my position and the Gulf of Carpentaria, as well
as to satisfy myself as to the character and extent of a stony desert I
had crossed on my last excursion. That iron region however again stopped
me in my progress northwards, and obliged me to fall back on a place of
safety. For fourteen months I kept my position in a country which never
changed but for the worse, and from which it was with difficulty that I
ultimately escaped; but as the minuter details of the expedition will be
given in the subsequent pages of this work, any mention of them here
would be superfluous. I shall only express my regret that we were unable
to make the centre or to gain the Tropic. As regards the objects for
which the expedition was fitted out, I hope it will be granted that they
were accomplished, and that little doubt can now be entertained as to the
non-existence of the mountain chains, the supposed existence of which I
was sent to ascertain. It would, however, have gratified me exceedingly
to have crossed into the Tropic, to have decided my own hypothesis as to
the fine country I ventured to predict would be found to exist beyond it.
My reasons for supposing which I thought I had explained in my first
letter to the Secretary of State, but as it would appear from an
observation in Sir John Barrow's memorandum, that I had not done so, I
deem it right briefly to record them here.
I had observed on my first expedition to the Darling, in 1828, when in
about lat. 29 degrees 30 minutes S. that the migration of the different
kinds of birds which visit the country east of the Darling during the
summer, was invariably to the W. N. W. Cockatoos and parrots that whilst
staying in the colony were known to frequent elevated land, and to select
the richest and best watered valleys for their temporary location, passed
in flights of countless number to the above-mentioned point. I had also
observed, during my residence in South Australia, that several of the
same kind of birds annually visited it, and that they came directly from
the north. I had seen the PSYTACUS NOVAE HOLLANDIAE and the SHELL
PARROQUET following the line of the shore of St. Vincent Gulf like
flights of starlings in England, and although intervals of more than a
quarter of an hour elapsed between the passing of one flight and that of
another, they all came from the north and followed in the same direction.
Now, although I am quite ready to admit that the casual appearance of a
few strange birds should not influence the judgment, yet I think that a
reasonable inference may be drawn from the regular and systematie
migration of the feathered races. Now, if we were to draw a line from
Fort Bourke to the W. N. W., and from Mount Arden to the north, we should
find that they would meet a little to the northward of the Tropic, and as
I felt assured of two lines of migration thus tending to the same point,
there could be little doubt but that the feathered races migrating upon
them rested at that point, for a time, so I was led to conclude that the
country to which they went would in a great measure resemble that which
they had left--that birds which delighted in rich valleys, or kept on
lofty hills, surely would not go into deserts and into a flat country;
and therefore it was that I was led to hope, that as the fact of large
migrations from various parts of the continent to one particular part,
seemed to indicate the existence either of deserts or of water to a
certain distance, so the point at which migration might be presumed to
terminate would be found a richer country than any which intervened. On
the late expedition, I accidentally fell into the line of migration to
the north-west, and birds that I was aware visited Van Diemen's Land
passed us, after watering, to that point of the compass. Cockatoos would
frequently perch in our trees at night, and wing their way to the
north-west after a few hours of rest; and to the same point wild fowl,
bitterns, pigeons, parrots, and parroquets winged their way, pursued by
numerous birds of the Accipitrine class. From these indications I was led
still more to conclude that I might hope for the realization of my
anticipations if I could force my own way to the necessary distance.
During our stay at Moorundi, the weather had been beautifully fine,
although it rained so much in the hills. A light frost generally covered
the ground, and a mist rose from the valley of the Murray at early dawn;
but both soon disappeared before the sun, and the noon-day temperature
was delicious--nothing indeed could exceed the luxury of the climate of
that low region at that season of the year, August.
We had directed Kenny, the policeman, and Tampawang, to bivouac in the
valley in which we ourselves intended to sleep, but we saw nothing of
them on our arrival there. The night was bitter cold, insomuch that we
could hardly keep ourselves warm, notwithstanding that we laid under
shelter of a blazing log. As dawn broke upon us, we prepared for our
departure, being anxious to escape from the misty valley to the clearer
atmosphere on the higher ground. At eight a.m. we passed the Great Bend
of the Murray, and I once more found myself riding over ground every inch
of which was familiar to me, since not only on my several journeys down
and up the river had I particularly noticed this spot, but I had visited
it in 1840 with Colonel Gawler, the then Governor of South Australia;
who, finding that he required relaxation from his duties, invited me to
accompany him on an excursion he proposed taking to the eastward of the
Mount Lofty Range, for the purpose of examining the country along the
shores of Lake Victoria and the River Murray, as far as the Great Bend.
It was a part of the province at that time but little known save by the
overlanders, and the Governor thought that by personally ascertaining the
capabilities of the country contiguous to the Murray, he might throw open
certain parts of it for location. Being at that time Surveyor-General of
the Province, I was glad of such an opportunity to extend my own
knowledge of the province to the north and northeast of Adelaide, more
especially as this journey gave me an opportunity to cross from the river
to the hills westward of the Great Bend. Not only was the land on the
Murray soon afterwards occupied to that point, but Colonel Gawler and I
also visited the more distant country on that occasion. Since my return,
indeed, from my recent labours, the line of the Murray is occupied to
within a short distance of the remoter stations of the colony of New
South Wales, and there can be no doubt but that in the course of a few
years the stock stations from the respective colonies will meet. I was
afraid, when I came the second time down the Murray, that I had
exaggerated the number of acres in the valley, but on further
examination, it appears to me that I did not do so; for as the traveller
approaches Lake Victoria the flats are very extensive, but more liable to
inundation than those on the higher points of the river, for being so
little elevated above the level of the water, especially those covered
with reeds, the smallest rise in the stream affects them. Lake Victoria,
although it looks like a clear and open sea, as you look from the point
of Pomundi, which projects into it to the south, is after all exceedingly
shallow, and is rapidly filling up from the decay of seaweed and the
deposits brought into it yearly by the floods of the Murray. No doubt but
that future generations will see that fine sheet of water confined to a
comparatively narrow bed, and pursuing its course through a rich and
extensive plain. When such shall be the case, and that the strength of
the Murray shall be brought to bear in one point only, it is probable its
sea mouth will be navigable, and that the scenery on this river will be
enlivened by the white sails of vessels on its ample bosom. I can fancy
that nothing would be more beautiful than the prospect of vessels,
however small they might be, coming with swelling sails along its
reaches. It may, however, be said, that it will be a distant day when
such things shall be realized. There is both reason and truth in the
remark; but Time, with his silent work, has already raised the flats in
the valley of the Murray, and as we are now benefiting by his labours, so
it is to be hoped will our posterity. However that may be, for it is a
matter only of curious speculation, nothing will stay the progress of
improvement in a colony which has received such an impulse as the
province of South Australia. As men retain their peculiarities, so, I
believe, do communities; and where a desirable object is to be gained, I
shall be mistaken if it is lost from a want of spirit in that colony.
Purposing, however, to devote a few pages to the more particular notice
of the state of South Australia, and the prospects it holds out to those
who may desire to seek in other lands more comforts and a better fortune
than they could command in their native country, I shall not here make
any further observation.
The morning, which had been so cold, gradually became more genial as the
sun rose above us, and both Mr. Eyre and myself forgot that we had so
lately been shivering, under the influence of the more agreeable
temperature which then prevailed.
As we turned the Great Bend of the Murray, and pursued an easterly
course, we rode along the base of some low hills of tertiary fossil
formation, the summits of which form the table land of the interior. We
were on an upper flat, and consequently considerably above the level of
the water as it then was. In riding along, Tenbury pointed out a line of
rubbish and sticks, such as is left to mark the line of any inundation,
and he told us, that, when he was a boy, he recollected the floods having
risen so high in the valley as to wash the foot of these hills. He
stated, that there had been no previous warning; that the weather was
beautifully fine, and that no rain had fallen; and he added that the
natives were ignorant whence the water came, but that it came from a long
way off. According to Tenbury's account, the river must have been fully
five and twenty feet higher than it usually rises; and judging from his
age, this occurrence might have taken place some twenty years before. As
we proceed up the Darling, we shall see a clue to this phenomenon. But
why, it may be asked, do not such floods more frequently occur? Is it
that the climate is drier than it once was, and that the rains are less
frequent? There are vestiges of floods over every part of the continent;
but the decay of debris and other rubbish is so slow, that one cannot
safely calculate how long it may have been deposited where they are so
universally to be found.
After passing the Great Bend, as I have already stated, we turned to the
eastward and overtook Mr. Poole at noon, not more than eight miles
distant. Some of the bullocks had strayed, and he had consequently been
prevented from starting so early as he would otherwise have done. The
animals had, however, been recovered before we reached the party, and
were yoked up; we pushed on therefore to a distance of nine miles,
cutting across from angle to angle of the river, but ultimately turned
into one of the flats and encamped for the night. We passed during the
day through some low bushes of cypresses and other stunted shrubs, but
they were not so thick as to impede our heavy drays, by the weight of
which every tree they came in contact with was brought to the ground. A
meridian altitude of Vega placed us in lat. 34 degrees 4 minutes 20
seconds S., by which it appeared that we had made four miles of southing,
the Great Bend being in lat. 34 degrees. Kenny and Tampawang had joined
the party before we overtook it, and Flood arrived in the course of the
afternoon. The cattle had an abundance of feed round our tents, and near
a lagoon at the upper end of the flat. The thermometer stood at 40
degrees at 7 p.m., with the wind at west.
On the morning of the 26th we availed ourselves of the first favourable
point to ascend from the river flats to the higher ground, since it
prevented our following the windings of the river and shortened our day's
journey. In doing this we sometimes travelled at a considerable distance
from the Murray--the surface of the country was undulating and sandy,
with clumps of stunted cypress trees, and eucalyptus dumosa scattered
over it. Low bushes of rhagodia, at great distances apart, were growing
on the more open ground; the soil, consisting of a red clay and sand,
only superficially covering the fossil formation beneath it. At 11 a.m.
we entered a dense brush of cypress and eucalypti growing in pure sand.
Fortunately for us the overlanders had cut a passage through it, so that
we had a clear road before us, but the drays sunk deep into the loose
sand in which these trees were growing, and the bullocks had a constant
strain on the yoke for six miles. We then broke into more open ground,
and ultimately reached the river in sufficient time to arrange the camp
before sunset, although we had 2 1/2 miles to travel on a S.W. course
before we found a convenient place to stop at. Our course during the day
having been S.S.E., we had thus been obliged to turn back upon it, but
this was owing to the direction the river here takes and was unavoidable.
At 6 p.m. the thermometer stood at 55 degrees of Farenheit, the barometer
at 30.000, and the boiling point of water by two thermometers with a
difference of 2 degrees 212 minutes and 214 minutes, respectively, our
distance from the sea coast being about 120 {180 in published text} miles
as the crow flies.
It was generally thought in Adelaide that having started so late in the
season, I should experience some difficulty in getting feed for the
cattle. From my experience, however, of the seasons in the low region
through which the Murray flows, I had no such anticipation. The only fear
I had, was, that we should be shut out from flats of the river by the
floods, as I knew it would be on the rise at the time we should be upon
it. To this point, however (and I may add, with few exceptions), we found
an abundance of feed, both along the line of the Murray and the Darling,
but at our present encampment our animals fared very indifferently, in
consequence of the poor nature of the soil. Our tents were pitched at the
northern extremity of a long flat, between the river and a serpentine
lagoon, which left but a narrow embankment between itself and the stream.
The soil of the flat was a cold white clay, on which there was scarcely
any vegetation, so that the cattle wandered and kept us about an hour
after our appointed hour of starting. There had been a sharp frost during
the night, and the morning was bitterly cold. At sunrise the thermometer
stood at 29 degrees, the dew point being 43 degrees, and the barometer at
29.700.
When we left this place, our course, for the first three miles, was along
the embankment separating the river from the lagoon, and I remarked that
although there was so little vegetation on the ground, there were some
magnificent trees on the bank of the river itself, which gradually came
up to the north-east. At three miles, however, our further course along
the flats was checked by the hills of fossil formation, which approached
the river so closely as to leave no passage for the drays between it and
them. We were, therefore, obliged to ascend to the upper levels, in doing
so we were also obliged to put two teams, or sixteen bullocks, to each
dray, and even then found it difficult to master the ascent.
Referring back to a previous remark, I would observe that the Murray
river is characterised by bold and perpendicular cliffs of different
shades of yellow colour, varying from a light hue to a deep ochre. These
cliffs rise abruptly from the water to the height of 250 and occasionally
300 feet. They occur first on one side of the river, and then on the
other, there being an open or a lightly-timbered flat on the opposite
side, with a line of trees almost invariably round it, especially along
the river. These flats are backed, at uncertain distances, by the fossil
formation, as by a natural inclosure--sometimes it rises perpendicularly
from the flats, but more generally assumes the character of sloping
hills. The cliffs occasionally extend, like a wall, along the river for
two or three miles, and look exceedingly well; but their constant
recurrence, at length fatigues the eye. At the point at which we had now
arrived this remarkable formation ceases, or, as we are going up the
river, I should perhaps be more correct if I said, begins. Above it a
long line of hills, broken by deep and rugged stony gullies, and with
steep sides, extends to the eastward (that also being the upward course
of the river). On gaining the crest of these hills we found ourselves, as
usual, on a flat table land, notwithstanding the broken faces of the
hills themselves. There was only a narrow space between them, and a low
thick brush of eucalyptus to the north. The soil was, as usual, a mixture
of clay and sand, with small rounded nodules of limestone. From this
ground, the view to the south as a medium point, was over as dark and
monotonous a country as could well be described. There was not a single
break in its sombre hue, nor was there the slightest rise on the visible
horizon; both to the eastward and westward we caught glimpses of the
Murray glittering amidst the dark foliage beneath us, but it made no
change in the character of the landscape.
We kept on the open ground, just cutting the heads of the gullies, and
advanced eight miles before we found a convenient spot at which to drive
the cattle down to water, and feed in the flats below, and into which it
appeared impracticable to get our drays. I halted, therefore, on the
crest of the hills, and sent Flood and three other men to watch the
animals, and to head them back if they attempted to wander. In the
afternoon we went down to the river, and on crossing the flat came upon
the dray tracks of some overland party, the leader of which had taken his
drays down the hills, notwithstanding the apparent difficulty of the
attempt. But what is there of daring or enterprise that these bold and
high-spirited adventurers will shrink from?
I had hoped that the more elevated ground we here occupied, would have
been warmer than the flats on which we had hitherto pitched our tents,
but in this I was disappointed. The night was just as cold as if we had
been in the valley of the Murray. At sunrise the thermometer stood at 27
degrees, and we had thick ice in our pails.
At five miles from this place, having left the river about a mile to our
right, we arrived at the termination of this line of hills. They
gradually fell away to the eastward and disappeared; nor does the fossil
formation extend higher up the Murray. It here commences or terminates,
as the traveller is proceeding up or down the stream. A meridian altitude
on the hill just before we descended, placed it in lat. 34 degrees 9
minutes 56 seconds, so that we had still been going gradually to the
south. At the termination of the hills, the Murray forms an angle in
turning sharp round to that point, and after an extensive sweep comes up
again, so as to form an opposite angle; the distance between the two
being 14 or 15 miles, and from the ground on which we stood the head of
Lake Bonney bore E. 5 degrees S., distant six miles.
On descending from these hills we fell into the overland road, but were
soon turned from it by reason of the floods, and obliged to travel along
a sandy ridge, forming the left bank of a lagoon, running parallel to the
river, into which the waters were fast flowing; but finding a favourable
place to cross, at a mile distant, we availed ourselves of it, and
encamped on the river side. In the afternoon we had heavy rain from the
west. During it, Mr. James Hawker, a resident at Moorundi, joined us, and
took shelter in our tents. He had, indeed, kept pace with us all the way
from the settlement in his boat, and supplied us with wild fowl on
several occasions.
We had showers during the night, but the morning, though cloudy, did not
prevent our moving on to Lake Bonney, distant, according to our
calculation, between four and five miles. To determine this correctly,
however, I ordered Mr. Poole to run the chain from the river to the lake.
We had seen few or no natives as yet; but expecting to find a large party
of them assembled at Lake Bonney, Mr. Eyre went before us with Kenny and
Tenbury, leaving Nadbuck and Camboli to shew us the most direct line to
the mouth of the little channel which connects Lake Bonney with the
Murray, at which I purposed halting. The greater part of our way was
through deep sandy cypress brushes, so that the cattle had a heavy pull
of it. We reached our destination at 1 p.m., where we found Mr. Eyre,
with eight or nine natives, all, who were then in the neighbourhood.
The back-water of the Murray was fast flowing into the lake, which
already presented a broad expanse of water to the eye. It was covered
with wild fowl of various kinds, and there were several patches of reeds
in which they were feeding.
As I purposed stopping for a day or two, to rest the bullocks, I directed
Mr. Poole to survey the lake, whilst I undertook to lay down the creek or
channel connecting it with the river, in which service I enlisted Mr.
Hawker, who had formerly been on the survey, and whose name I gave to the
creek on the completion of our work.
Lake Bonney is a shallow sandy basin, which is annually filled by the
Murray; and as it rises, so, to a certain extent, it falls with the
river, until at length, being left very shallow, it is soon dried up. The
Hawker being too small to discharge the water equally with the fall of
the river, has a current in it after the river has lowered considerably,
for which reason I thought, when I passed it on my second expedition,
that it had been a tributary; but such is not the case--Lake Bonney
receiving no water save from the Murray. To the south of it, or next the
river, the ground is low, grassy, and wooded; but on every other side the
lake is confined by a low sand hill, of about fifteen feet in height,
behind which there is a barren flat covered with salsolaceous plants, and
exactly resembling a dry sea marsh, if I may say so. The more distant
interior is alternate brush and plain, and exceedingly barren. The day
after we arrived, however, Tenbury, with the dogs, killed four large
kangaroos and as he saw many more, it is to be presumed that thereabouts
they are pretty numerous. The lake is ten miles in circumference.
Hawker's Creek, taking its windings, is nearly six in length. The
latitude of our camp was 34 degrees 13 minutes 42 seconds S.; its
longitude 140 degrees 26 minutes 16 seconds. On September 1st. the
thermometer, at 8 A. M. and at noon, stood at 48 degrees and 60 degrees
respectively; the barometer at 29.750, and the boiling point was 212
degrees nearly, thus indicating that we had risen but a few feet above
the level of the sea. We left Lake Bonney on the 3rd of September, and
crossing the bank of sand by which it is confined, traversed the flat
behind it for about three miles, when we ascended some feet, and entered
a low brush that continued for nearly nine miles, with occasional
openings in it to that angle of the river which is opposite to the one at
the end of the fossil formation.
Our camp at this place was on one of the prettiest spots on the Murray.
Our tents were pitched on some sloping ground, sheltered from the S.W.
wind. The feed was excellent, and the soil of better quality than usual.
We had a splendid view of the river, which here is very broad and flanked
on the right by a dark clay cliff, which is exceedingly picturesque. On
the opposite side of the stream there is an extensive, well wooded and
grassy flat of beautiful and park-like appearance. Altogether it was a
cheerful and pleasant locality, and we were sorry to leave it so soon.
Our observations placed us in lat. 34 degrees 11 minutes 12 seconds S.
and in long. 140 degrees 39 minutes 42 seconds E. From this point the
general course of the Murray is much more to the north than heretofore,
so that on leaving it we had more of northing in our course than anything
else. Some strange natives brought up our cattle for us, to whom I made
presents; but although so kindly disposed, they did not follow us.
Indeed, the natives generally, seemed to regard our progress with
suspicion, and could not imagine why we were going up the Darling with so
many drays and cattle. Our sheep had now become exceedingly tame and
tractable; they followed the party like dogs, and I therefore felt
satisfied that I had not done wrong in bringing them with me. We
travelled on the 4th, over harder and more open ground than usual, having
extensive polygonium flats to our right. There were belts of brush
however on the plains, the soil and productions of which were sandy and
salsolaceous. At 4 1/2 miles we struck a lagoon, and coming upon a creek
at 13 miles, we halted, although the feed was bad, as the cattle were
unable to get to the river flats in consequence of the flooded state of
the creek itself.
On the 5th we travelled through a country that consisted almost entirely
of scrub on the poorest soil. However, we were now approaching that part
of the river at which the flats (extensive enough) are intersected by
numerous creeks and lagoons, so that our approach to the Murray was
likely to be cut off altogether. At 3 1/2 miles we again struck the creek
on the banks of which we had slept, and as it was the point at which the
native path from Lake Bonney also strikes it, I halted to take a meridian
altitude, which placed it in 34 degrees 4 minutes 5 seconds S. We had
allowed our horses to go and feed with their bridles through the
stirrups, and were sitting on the ground when we heard a shot, and a
general alarm amongst them, insomuch that we had some difficulty in
quieting them, more especially Mr. Poole's horse. It was at length
discovered that one of that gentleman's pistols had accidentally gone off
in the holster, to the dismay of the poor animal. Fortunately no damage
was done.
After noon, we pushed on, and at a mile crossed a creek, where we found a
small tribe of scrub natives, one of whom had a child of unusual fatness:
its flesh really hung about it; a solitary instance of the kind as far as
I am aware. We then traversed good grassy plains for about two miles,
when we fell in with another small tribe on a second creek: our
introduction to which was more than ordinarily ceremonious. The natives
remained seated on the ground, with the women and children behind them,
and for a long time preserved that silence and reserve which is peculiar
to these people when meeting strangers; however, we soon became more
intimate, and several of them joined our train. Our friend Nadbuck was
very officious (not disagreeably so, however), on the occasion, and
shewed himself a most able tactician, since he paid more attention to the
fair than his own sex, and his explanation of our movements seemed to
have its due weight.
We soon passed from the grassy plains I have mentioned, to plains of
still greater extent, and still finer herbage. Nothing indeed could
exceed the luxuriance of the grass on these water meadows, for we found
on crossing that the floods were beginning to incroach upon them. These
were marked all over with cattle tracks, many of them so fresh that they
could only have been made the night before, but independently of these
there were others of older date. The immense number of these tracks led
me to inquire from the natives if there were any cattle in the
neighbourhood, when they informed me that there were numbers of wild
cattle in the brushes to the westward of the flats, and that they came
down at night to the river for water and food. The grass upon the plain
over which we were travelling was so inviting, that I determined to give
the horses and bullocks a good feed, and turning towards the river with
Mr. Eyre, I directed Mr. Poole and Mr. Browne to try the brushes with
Flood and Mack, for a wild bullock, whilst we arranged the camp. We
scarcely had time to do this, however, when Mr. Browne returned to inform
me that soon after gaining the brush they had fallen in with a herd of
about fifty cattle, out of which they had singled and shot a fine animal,
and that on his way back to the camp the dogs had killed a large
kangaroo. Upon this I sent Morgan with the cart to fetch in the quarters
of the animal, and desired the natives to go with him to benefit by what
might be left behind, and to feast on the kangaroo. The beast the party
had killed fully justified Mr. Browne's account of it, and its fine
condition proved the excellent nature of the pastures on which it had
fed. We had not killed many of the sheep, as I was anxious to preserve
them, since they had given us little or no trouble, so that I was led to
hope that by ordinary care they would prove a most valuable and important
stock.
We were here unable to approach the river, and therefore encamped near a
creek, the banks of which were barren enough; however, as we had stopped
for the benefit of the cattle it was of no consequence. But although on
this occasion they were absolutely up to their middles in the finest
grass, the bullocks were not satisfied, but with a spirit of
contradiction common to animals as well as men they separated into mobs
and wandered away; the difficulty of recovering them being the greater,
because of the numerous tracks of other cattle in every direction around
us. We recovered them, however, although too late to move that day, and
it is somewhat remarkable to record, that this was the only occasion on
which during this long journey we were delayed for so long a time by our
animals wandering. Had it not been for Tampawang, whose keen eye soon
detected the fresher tracks, we might have been detained for several
days.
As Mr. Browne had been on horseback the greater part of the day, I left
him in the camp with Mr. Poole, both having been after the cattle, and in
the afternoon walked out with Mr. Eyre, to try if we could get to the
river, but failed, for the creeks were full of water, and our approach to
it or to the nearer flats was entirely cut off. So intersected indeed was
this neighbourhood, that we got to a point at which five creeks joined.
The scene was a very pretty one, since they formed a sheet of water of
tolerable size shaded by large trees. The native name of this place was
"Chouraknarup," a name by no means so harmonious as the names of their
places generally are. We had not commenced any collection at this time,
there being nothing new either in the animals or plants, but I observed
that everything was much more forward on this part of the river than near
Lake Bonney, although there was no material difference between the two
places in point of latitude. A meridian altitude of the sun gave our
latitude 34 degrees 1 minutes 33 seconds S., and one of Altair 34 degrees
2 minutes 2 seconds S.
The night of the 6th Sept. was frosty and cold, and we had thick ice in
the buckets. We left our camp on a N. by E. course, at 8 o'clock on the
morning of the 7th, and at 4 miles struck the river, where its breadth
was considerable, and it looked exceedingly well. The flooded state of
the creeks however prevented our again approaching it for several days.
Shortly after leaving the river we turned more to the eastward, having
gained its most northern reach. About noon we fell in with a few natives,
who did not trouble themselves much about us, but we found that their
backwardness was rather the result of timidity at seeing such a party
than anything else. We traversed large and well-grassed flats almost all
day long, and ultimately encamped on the banks of a creek of some size,
opposite to our tents the floods had made an island, on which we put our
cattle for security during the night.
Mr. Eyre and I were again disappointed in an attempt to gain the banks of
the Murray, but we returned to the camp with a numerous retinue of men,
women, and children, who treated us to a corrobori at night. The several
descriptions which have been given by others of these scenes, might
render it unnecessary for me to give my account of such here; but as my
ideas of these ceremonies may differ from that of other travellers, I
shall trespass on the patience of my readers for a few moments to
describe them. However rude and savage a corrobori may appear to those to
whom they are new, they are, in truth, plays or rather dramas, which it
takes both time and practice to excel in. Distant tribes visiting any
other teach them their corrobori, and the natives think as much of them
as we should do of the finest play at Covent Garden. Although there is a
great sameness in these performances they nevertheless differ. There is
always a great bustle when a corrobori is to be performed, and the men
screw themselves up to the acting point, as our actors do by other means
than these poor creatures possess. On the present occasion there was not
time for excitement; our's was as it were a family corrobori, or private
theatricals, in which we were let into the secrets of what takes place
behind the scenes. A party of the Darling natives had lately visited the
Murray, and had taught our friends their corrobori, in which, however,
they were not perfect; and there was consequently a want of that
excitement which is exhibited when they have their lesson at their
fingers' ends, and are free to give impulse to those feelings, which are
the heart and soul of a corrobori.
We had some difficulty in persuading our friends to exhibit, and we owed
success rather to Mr. Eyre's influence than any anxiety on the part of
the natives themselves. However, at last we persuaded the men to go and
paint themselves, whilst the women prepared the ground. It was pitch
dark, and ranging themselves in a line near a large tree, they each lit a
small fire, and had a supply of dry leaves to give effect to the acting.
On their commencing their chanting, the men came forward, emerging from
the darkness into the obscure light shed by the yet uncherished fires,
like spectres. After some performance, at a given signal, a handful of
dry leaves was thrown on each fire, which instantly blazing up lighted
the whole scene, and shewed the dusky figures of the performers painted
and agitated with admirable effect, but the fires gradually lowering, all
were soon again left in obscurity.
But, as I have observed, for some reason or other the thing was not
carried on with spirit, and we soon retired from it; nevertheless, it is
a ceremony well worth seeing, and which in truth requires some little
nerve to witness for the first time.
We had now arrived at Camboli's haunt, and were introduced by him to his
wife and children, of whom he seemed very proud; but a more ugly partner,
or more ugly brats, a poor Benedict could not have been blessed with.
Whether it was that he wished to remain behind, for he had not been very
active on the road, or taken that interest in our proceedings which
Nadbuck had done; or that our praises of his wife and pickaninnies had
had any effect I know not, but he would not leave his family, and so
remained with them when we left on the following morning. The
neighbourhood of our camp was, however, one of great celebrity--since in
it some of the most remarkable and most tragical events had taken place.
It was near it that the volunteers who went out to rescue Mr. Inman's
sheep, which had been seized by the natives to the number of 4,000, were
driven back and forced to retreat; not, I would beg to be understood,
from want of spirit, but because they were fairly overpowered and caught
in a trap. The whole of the party, indeed, behaved with admirable
coolness, and one of them, Mr. Charles Hawker, as well as their leader,
Mr. Fidd, shewed a degree of moderation and forbearance on the occasion
that was highly to their credit. Here also was the Hornet's Nest, where
the natives offered battle to my gallant friend, Major O'Halloran, whose
instructions forbade his striking the first blow. I can fancy that his
warm blood was up at seeing himself defied by the self-confident natives;
but they were too wise to commence an attack, and the parties, therefore,
separated without coming to blows. Here, or near this spot also, the old
white-headed native, who used to attend the overland parties, was shot by
Miller, a discharged soldier, I am sorry to say, of my own regiment. This
old man had accompanied me for several days in my boat, when I went down
the Murray to the sea coast in 1830, and I had made him a present, which
he had preserved, and shewed to the first overland party that came down
the river, and thenceforward he became the guide of the parties that
followed along that line. He attended me when I came overland from
Sydney, in 1838, on which occasion he recognised me, and would sleep no
where but at my tent door. He was shot by Miller in cold blood, whilst
talking to one of the men of the party of which unfortunately he had the
charge; but retribution soon followed. Miller was shortly afterwards
severely wounded by the natives; and, having aneurism of the heart, was
cautioned by his medical attendant never to use violent exercise; but,
disregarding this, when he had nearly recovered, he went one day to visit
a friend at the gaol in which he ought to have been confined, and in
springing over a ditch near it, fell dead on the other side, and wholly
unprepared to appear before that tribunal, to which he will one day or
other be summoned, to answer for this and other similar crimes.
About a dozen natives followed us from our camp, on the morning of the
8th. We again struck the creek, on which we had rested, and which had
turned to our right at 2 1/2 miles on an east by south course, and
followed along its banks, until it again trended too much to the south.
We crossed alluvial flats of considerable extent, on which there was an
abundance of grass. Just at the point at which we turned from the creek,
we ascended a small sand hill, covered with the amaryllis, then
beautifully in flower. The latitude of this little hill, from which the
cliffs on the most northern reach of the Murray bore N. 170 degrees E.
distant four miles, was 33 degrees 57 minutes 11 seconds; so that the
Murray does not extend northwards beyond latitude 34 degrees 1 minutes or
thereabouts. We again struck the creek, the course of which had been
marked by gum-trees, at six miles, and were forced by it to the N.E., but
ultimately turned it and descended southwards to the river; but as we
were cut off from it we encamped on a lagoon of great length, backed by
hills of a yellow and white colour, the rock being a soft and friable
sandstone, slightly encrusted with salt. We had, shortly before we
halted, passed a salt lagoon in the centre of one of the grassy flats,
but such anomalies are not uncommon in the valley of the Murray. That
part of the river which I have described, from the point where we shot
the bullock to this lagoon, appeared to me admirably adapted for a cattle
station, and has since been occupied as such.
As I have observed, the lagoon on which we encamped was backed by hills
of 150 or 200 feet elevation, which were covered with thick brush wood.
The flat between us and these hills was unusually barren, and all the
trees at the side of the lagoon were dead. Whether this was owing to
there being salt in the ground or to some other cause, there was here but
little grass for the cattle to eat, so that, although they were watched,
twenty of them managed to crawl away, and we were consequently delayed
above an hour and a half after our usual hour of starting, and commenced
our day's journey wanting two of our complement, but we stumbled upon
them in passing through the brush, in which they were very comfortably
lying down. We travelled for about six miles through a miserable
undulating country of sand and scrub. At noon we were abreast of a little
sandy peak that was visible from our camp, and is a prominent feature
hereabouts. This peak Mr. Browne and I ascended, though very little to
our gratification, for the view from it was as usual over a sea of scrub
to whatever quarter we turned. The peak itself was nothing more than a
sandy eminence on which neither tree or shrub was growing, and the whole
locality was so much in unison with it, that we called it "Mount Misery."
After passing this hill, and forcing through some stunted brush, we
debouched on open plains and got once more on the overland road, which
was distinctly marked by a line of bright green grass, that was springing
up in the furrows the drays had left. This road took us to the edge of a
precipitous embankment, from which we overlooked the river flowing
beneath it. This embankment was 60 or 70 feet high, and presented a steep
wall to the river; for although the Murray had lost the fossil cliffs it
was still flanked by high level plains on both sides, and cliffs of 100
or 120 feet in height, composed of clay and sand, rose above the stream,
the faces of which presented the appearance of fretwork, so deeply and
delicately had they been grooved out by rains. The soil of this upper
table land was a bright red ferruginous clay and sand. The vegetation was
chiefly salsolaceous, but there was, notwithstanding, no want of grass
upon it, though the tufts were very far apart. If our cattle had fared
badly at our last camp, they had no reason to complain at this; for we
encamped on a beautifully green flat, about seven miles short of the
Rufus, and about eight from the nearest point of Lake Victoria. There
were now seventeen natives in our train, amongst whom was one of
remarkable character. This was "Pulcanti," who was engaged in, wounded
and taken prisoner at an affair on the Rufus, to which I shall again have
to allude.
Whilst the police were conveying this man handcuffed to Adelaide, he
threw himself off the lofty cliffs at the Great Bend into the river
beneath, and attempted to escape by swimming across it, but he was
recaptured and taken safe to Adelaide, where subsequent kind treatment
had considerable influence on his savage disposition. His attempt to
escape was of the boldest kind, and was spoken of with astonishment by
those who witnessed it, but so desperate an act only proved how much more
these people value liberty than life. I am sure that bold savage would
have submitted to torture without a groan; he was the most repulsive
native in aspect that I ever saw, and had a most ferocious countenance.
The thick lip and white teeth, the lowering brow, and deep set but sharp
eye, with the rapidly retiring forehead all betrayed the savage with the
least intellect, but his demeanour was now quiet and inoffensive.
Mr. Eyre again preceded us to the Rufus, with Kenny and Tenbury; for
although we had been disappointed in seeing any natives at Lake Bonney,
it was hardly to be doubted but that we should find a considerable number
at Lake Victoria.
We joined Mr. Eyre about noon at the junction of the Rufus with the
Murray, and which serves like Hawker's Creek as a channel of
communication between that river and the Murray. Here Mr. Eyre had
collected 69 natives, who were about to go out kangarooing when he
arrived. They had their hunting spears and a few waddies, but no other
weapons.
We had now arrived at Nadbuck's native place, and he left us to join his
family, promising still to accompany us up the Darling. A principal
object Mr. Eyre had in joining me had been to distribute some blankets to
those natives who, living in the distance, seldom came to Moorundi to
benefit by the distribution of food and clothing there. In the position
we now occupied we were flanked by the Rufus to our left, and had the
Murray in front of us. The ground in our rear and to our right was rather
bushy, and numerous Fusani, covered with fruit, were growing there; Lake
Victoria being about four miles to our rear also. Considering the spirit
of the natives on this part of the Murray, the position was not very
secure, as we were too confined; but I had no apprehension of any attack
from them, they having for some time shewn a more pacific disposition,
and against whom we were otherwise always well prepared. As soon,
therefore, as the tents were pitched, we walked together along the bank
of the Rufus to its junction with the lake, but not seeing any of the
native families we turned back, until observing some young men on the
opposite side of the channel we called to them, and one of them ferried
us over in a canoe. We had then a long round of visits to make to the
different families of the natives, since they were all encamped on the
eastern or opposite side of the Rufus.
The first huts to which we went happened to be that of our friend
Nadbuck, and he introduced us, as Camboli had done, to his wives and
children, of whom the old gentleman was very proud. We then visited
eleven other huts in succession, after which we returned to the place
where the canoe had been left, with twelve patriarchs, to whom Mr. Eyre
(wisely selecting the oldest) intended making some presents. We were
again ferried across the Rufus, the current setting strong into Lake
Victoria at the time, and had well nigh gone down in our frail bark, to
the infinite amusement of our Charon. We had just time, however, to reach
the bank and to get out of her when she went down.
It was at this particular spot that the natives sustained so severe a
loss when Pulcanti was taken. They got between two fires, that of Mr.
Robinson's party of overlanders, with whom they had been fighting for
three days; and a party of police who, providentially for Mr. Robinson,
came up just in time to save him from being overwhelmed by numbers.
Astonished at finding themselves taken in flank, the blacks threw
themselves into the Rufus, and some effected their escape, but about
forty fell, whose grave we passed on our way back to the camp.
The natives who accompanied us pointed out the mound to Mr. Eyre and
myself as we walked along, and informed us that thirty of their relatives
laid underneath; but they did not seem to entertain any feelings of
revenge for the loss they had sustained.
On the morrow, my worthy friend left me, on his return to Moorundi,
together with Kenny and Tenbury, and a young native of the Rufus. We all
saw them depart with feelings of deep regret; but Mr. Eyre had important
business to attend to which did not admit of delay.
A little before Mr. Eyre mounted his horse, I had sent Mr. Browne, with
Flood and Pulcanti, to the eastward, to ascertain how high the backwaters
of the Murray had gone up the Ana-branch of the Darling, since that
ancient channel laid right in our way, and I was anxious if possible to
run up it, rather than proceed to the river itself, as being a much
nearer line. In the afternoon Mr. Poole and I moved the camp over to the
lake, and on the following day I directed him to ascertain its
circumference, as we should be detained a day or two awaiting the return
of Mr. Browne.
CHAPTER III.
MR. BROWNE'S RETURN--HIS ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRY--CHANGE OF
SCENE--CONTINUED RAIN--TOONDA JOINS THE PARTY--STORY OF THE
MASSACRE--LEAVE LAKE VICTORIA--ACCIDENT TO FLOOD--TURN NORTHWARDS--CROSS
TO THE DARLING--MEET NATIVES--TOONDA'S HAUGHTY MANNER--NADBUCK'S
CUNNING--ABUNDANCE OF FEED--SUDDEN FLOODS--BAD COUNTRY--ARRIVAL AT
WILLIORARA--CONSEQUENT DISAPPOINTMENT--PERPLEXITY--MR. POOLE GOES TO THE
RANGES--MR. BROWNE'S RETURN--FOOD OF THE NATIVES--POSITION OF WILLIORARA.
Lake Victoria is a very pretty sheet of water, 24 miles in
circumference {DIAMETER in published text}, very shallow, and at times
nearly dry. As I have previously observed of Lake Bonney, it is connected
with the Murray by the Rufus, and by this distribution of its waters,
the floods of the Murray are prevented from being excessive, or rising
above a certain height.
The southern shore of Lake Victoria is very picturesque, as well as the
line of the Rufus. The latter however is much wooded, whereas the S.W.
shore of the lake is low and grassy, and beautiful umbrageous trees adorn
it, in number not more than two or three to the acre. As Mr. Poole was
engaged near me, I remained stationary on the 13th, but on the following
day moved the camp seven miles to the westward, for his convenience. On
the 15th I again moved so as to keep pace with him, and was highly
delighted at the really park-like appearance of the scenery. This pretty
locality is now occupied as a cattle run, and must be a place of
amusement as well as profit.
We met Mr. Browne and Flood on their return to the camp from the journey
on which I had sent them, about an hour before we halted.
Mr. Browne informed me that the day he left me he rode for some miles
along the shore of the lake, and that after leaving it he encamped in the
scrub, having travelled about seventeen miles. The brush was very dense,
although there were open intervals; it consisted of trees and shrubs of
the usual kind, the soil was very sandy, and there was a good deal of
spinifex upon it.
The next day, still on a due east course (that on which he had travelled
from the lake), and at five miles from where he had slept, Mr. Browne
came on a salt lake, about 800 yards in circumference. A third of the bed
was under water, and half of the remainder was white with crystallized
salt, that glittered in the sun's rays, and looked like water at a
distance. At about five miles farther on there were two other lakes of
the same kind, but both were dry and without any salt deposits in their
beds. At five miles beyond these lakes Mr. Browne intersected the
Ana-branch of the Darling, which I had detached him to examine. To within
a short distance of the Ana-branch the country was similar to that
through which he had passed the day before, but on nearing it he crossed
an open plain. This old channel of the Darling had been crossed by Mr.
Eyre on a recent journey to the north, but at that time was dry. Where
Mr. Browne struck it the banks were rather high, and its course was N.W.
by W. It was about eighty yards wide, with a strong current running
upwards, caused by the back waters of the Murray. Its general course for
12 miles was N. by E. The country was very open, and high banks, similar
to those on the Murray, occurred alternately on either side. The channel
maintained the same appearance as far as Mr. Browne; rode and as he found
the waters still running upwards, he considered that the object of his
journey was attained, and that we should find no difficulty in pursuing
our route northwards along this new line. It may be necessary for me to
inform the reader that no water ever flows down the Ana-branch from the
north. When Mr. Eyre first arrived on its banks it was dry, and he was
consequently obliged to cross the country to the Darling itself, a
distance of between 40 and 50 miles. Pulcanti, the native I sent with Mr.
Browne, however, made a rough sketch of the two channels, by which it
appeared that the Ana-branch held very much to the eastward, in proof of
which he pointed to a high line of trees, at a great distance, as being
the line of the river Darling. Considering from this that, even if water
failed us in the Ana-branch, we should have no difficulty in crossing to
the main stream, and that however short our progress might be, it would
greatly curtail our journey to Laidley's Ponds, I decided on trying the
new route.
Mr. Browne saw a great many red kangaroos (foxy), some very young, others
very large; and he chased a jerboa, which escaped him. He also saw a new
bird with a black crest, about the size of a thrush.
The morning of the 14th had been cloudy, but the day was beautifully
fine; so that we had really enjoyed our march, if so it might be called.
From our tents there was a green and grassy slope to the shore of the
lake, with a group of two or three immense trees, at distances of several
hundred yards apart, and the tranquil waters lay backed by low blue
hills.
On the morning of the 15th the barometer fell to 27.672, the thermometer
standing at 56 degrees, at 8 a.m. The air was heavy, the sky dull, and
the flies exceedingly troublesome. All these indications of an
approaching change in the weather might have determined me to remain
stationary, but I was anxious to push on. I therefore directed Mr. Poole
to complete the survey of the lake, and at eleven moved the whole party
forward.
The picturesque scenery which had, up to this point, adorned the shores
of Lake Victoria ceased at two miles, when we suddenly and at once found
ourselves travelling on sand, at the same time amidst reeds. The rich
soil disappeared, the trees becoming stunted and low. As the travelling
was also bad, we went along the margin of the lake, where the sand was
firm, although marked with ripples like those left on the sea-shore by
the tide, between the water and a line of rubbish and weeds inside of us,
so that it appeared the lake had not yet risen so high as the former
year. We had moved round to its eastern side, which being its lea side
also, the accumulation of rubbish and sand was easily accounted for. We
traversed about eight miles of as dreary a shore as can be imagined,
backed, like Lake Bonney, by bare sand hills and barren flats, and
encamped, after a journey of thirteen miles, on a small plain, separated
from the lake by a low continuous sand ridge, on which the oat-grass was
most luxuriant. The indications of the barometer did not deceive us, for
soon after we started it began to rain, and did not cease for the rest of
the day, the wind being in the N.E. quarter.
It continued showery all night, nor on the morning of the 16th was there
any appearance of a favourable change. At nine a steady and heavy rain
setting in we remained stationary.
The floods in the Rufus had obliged us to make a complete circuit of the
lake, so that we had now approached that little stream to within six
miles from the eastward. Our friend Nadbuck, therefore, thinking that we
were about to leave the neighbourhood, rejoined the party. With him about
eighty natives came to see us, and encamped close to our tents;
forty-five men, sixteen women, and twenty-six children. I sent some of
the former out to hunt, but they were not successful.
Amongst the natives there were two strangers from Laidley's Ponds, the
place to which we were bound. The one was on his way to Moorundi, the
other on his return home. Pulcanti had given us a glowing account of
Laidley's Ponds, and had assured us that we should not only find water,
but plenty of grass beyond the hills to the N.W. of that place. This
account the strangers confirmed; and the one who was on his way home
expressing a wish to join us, I permitted him to do so; in the hope that,
what with him and old Nadbuck, we should be the less likely to have any
rupture with the Darling natives, who were looked upon by us with some
suspicion. I was, in truth, very glad to take a native of Williorara up
with me, because I entertained great doubts as to the reception we should
meet with from the tribe, on our arrival there, in consequence of the
unhappy occurrence that took place between them and Sir Thomas Mitchell,
during a former expedition; and I hoped also to glean from this native
some information as to the distant interior. Both the Darling natives
were fine specimens of their race. One in particular, Toonda, was a
good-looking fellow, with sinews as tough as a rope. It also appeared to
me that they had a darker shade of colour than the natives of the Murray.
Nadbuck turned out to be a merry old man, and a perfect politician in his
way, very fond of women and jimbuck (sheep), and exceedingly
good-humoured with all. He here brought Davenport a large quantity of the
fruit of the Fusanus, of which he made an excellent jam, too good indeed
to keep; but if we could have anticipated the disease by which we were
afterwards attacked, its preservation would have been above all price.
The natives do not eat this fruit in any quantity, nor do I think that in
its raw state it is wholesome. They appeared to me tol ive chiefly on
vegetables during the season of the year that we passed up the Murray,
herbs and roots certainly constituted their principal food.
I had hoped that the weather would have cleared during the night, but in
this I was disappointed. On the 17th we had again continued rain until
sunset, when the sky cleared to windward and the glass rose. We were
however unable to stir, and so lost another day. About noon Nadbuck came
to inform me that the young native from Laidley's Ponds, who was on his
way to Moorundi, had just told him that only a few days before he
commenced his journey, the Darling natives had attacked an overland party
coming down the river, and had killed them all, in number fifteen. I
therefore sent for the lad, and with Mr. Browne's assistance examined
him. He was perfectly consistent in his story; mentioned the number of
drays, and said that the white fellows were all asleep when the natives
attacked them amongst the lagoons, and that only one native, a woman, was
killed; the blacks, he added, had plenty of shirts and jackets. Doubtful
as I was of this story, and equally puzzled to guess what party could
have been coming down the Darling, it was impossible not to give some
little credit to the tale of this young cub; for he neither varied in his
account or hesitated in his reply to any question. I certainly feared
that some sad scene of butchery had taken place, and became the more
anxious to push my way up to the supposed spot, where it was stated to
have occurred, to save any one who might have escaped. I felt it my duty
also before leaving Lake Victoria to report what I had heard to the
Governor.
As the barometer fell before the rain, so it indicated a cessation of it,
by gradually rising. The weather had indeed cleared up the evening
before, but the morning of the 18th was beautifully fine and cool; we
therefore yoked up the cattle and took our departure from Lake Victoria
at 9 a.m. At first the ground was soft, but it soon hardened again.
Shortly after starting we struck a little creek, which trended to the
south, so that we were obliged to leave it, but we could trace the line
of trees on its banks to a considerable distance. We traversed plains of
great extent, keeping on the overland road until at length we gained the
river, and encamped on a small neck of land leading to a fine grassy
enclosure, into which we put our cattle. One side of this enclosure was
flanked by the river, the other by a beautiful lagoon, that looked more
like a scene on Virginia water than one in the wilds of Australia.
As we crossed the plains we again observed numerous cattle tracks, and
regularly beaten paths leading from the brushes to the river, to the very
point indeed where we encamped. The natives had previously informed us,
as far back as the place where we shot the first bullock, that we should
fall in with other cattle hereabouts; we did not however see any of them
during the day. Our tents were pitched on the narrow neck of land leading
to an enclosure into which we had turned our animals. It was so narrow
indeed that nothing could pass either in or out of it without being
observed by the guard, so that neither could our cattle escape or the
wild ones join them. It was clear, however, that we had cut off the
latter from their favourite pasture, for at night they were bellowing all
round us, and frequently approached close up to our fires. We had no
difficulty in distinguishing the lowing of the heifers from that of the
bullocks; of which last there appeared to be a large proportion in the
herd.
Some of our cattle were getting very sore necks, and our loads at this
time were too heavy for me to relieve them. Flood therefore suggested our
trying to secure two or three of the bullocks running in the bush. We
therefore arranged that a party should go out in the morning to scour the
wood, and drive any cattle they might find towards the river, at which I
was to be prepared to entice them to our animals. Accordingly Mr. Poole
and Mr. Browne, with Flood and Mack, started at sunrise. It was near
twelve, however, when Mr. Browne returned with Flood, who had met with a
sad accident, and had three of the first joints of the fingers of his
right hand carried off by the discharge of his fusee whilst loading. He
had incautiously put on the cap and was galloping at the time, but kept
his seat. Mr. Browne informed me they had seen a great many cattle, but
that they were exceedingly wild, and started off the moment the horsemen
appeared, insomuch that they could not turn them, and it was with a view
to drive them towards the river that Flood fired at them. However none
approached the camp. Mr. Poole returned late in the afternoon equally
unsuccessful. Mr. Browne dressed Flood's hand, who bore it exceedingly
well, and only expressed his regret that he should be of no use on the
Darling in the event of any rupture with the natives. I remained
stationary, as Mr. Browne thought it would be necessary to keep Flood
quiet for a day or two. On the following day we resumed our journey, and
reached the junction of the ancient channel of the Darling with the
Murray about 11. The floods were running into it with great velocity, and
the water had risen to a considerable height, so that many trees were
standing in it. I remained here until noon, when a meridian altitude
placed us in lat. 34 degrees 4 minutes 34 seconds. We then bade adieu to
the Murray, and turned northwards to overtake the party, which under
Nadbuck's guidance had cut off the angle into which we had gone. With the
Murray we lost its fine trees and grassy flats. The Ana-branch had a
broad channel and long reaches of water; but was wholly wanting in
pasture or timber of any size. The plains of the interior formed the
banks, and nothing but salsolae grew on them. We encamped at eight miles
from the junction, where there happened to be a little grass, but were
obliged to keep the cattle in yoke and the horses tethered to prevent
their wandering. As we advanced up the Ana-branch on the following day,
its channel sensibly diminished in breadth, and at eleven miles we
reached a hollow, beyond which the floods had not worked their way. Here
we found a tribe of natives, thirty-seven in number, by whom the account
we had heard of the massacre of the over-landers at the lagoons of the
Darling was confirmed. Nadbuck now informed me that we should have to
cross the Ana-branch and go to the eastward, and that it would be
necessary to start by dawn, as we should not reach the Darling before
sunset. Nadbuck had now become a great favourite, and there was a dry
kind of humour about him that was exceedingly amusing, at the same time
that his services were really valuable.
Toonda, on the other hand, was a man of singular temperament. He was
good-looking and more intelligent than any native I had ever before seen.
His habit was spare, but his muscles were firm, and his sinews like
whipcord He must indeed have had great confidence in his own powers to
have undertaken a journey of more than 200 miles from his own home. He
was very taciturn, and would rather remain at the officers' fire than
join his fellows.
The country we had passed through during the day had been miserable.
Plains of great extent flanked the Ana-branch on either side, on which
there were sandy undulations covered with stunted cypress trees or low
brush.
Flood had from the time of his accident suffered great pain; but as he
did not otherwise complain, Mr. Browne did not entertain any apprehension
as to his having any attack of fever.
On the morning of the 24th, the natives paid us an early visit with their
boys, and remained at the camp until we started. At the head of the water
they had made a weir, through the boughs of which the current was running
like a sluice; but the further progress of the floods was stopped by a
bank that had been gradually thrown up athwart the channel. Crossing the
Ana-branch at this point, we struck across barren sandy plains, on a
N.N.E. course. From them we entered a low brush, in which there were more
dead than living trees. At four miles this brush terminated, and we had
again to traverse open barren plains. At their termination we had to
force our way through a second brush, consisting for the most part of
fusani, acaciae, hakeae, and other low shrubs, but there were no
cypresses here as in the first brush. On gaining more open ground, the
country gradually rose before us, and a ferruginous conglomerate cropped
out in places. We at length began our descent towards the valley of the
Darling. The country became better wooded: the box-tree was growing on
partially flooded land, and there was no deficiency of grass. Mr. Browne
went on a-head with Toonda and Flood, whilst I and Mr. Poole remained
with the party. From the appearance of the country, however, I
momentarily expected to come on the river; but the approach to it from
the westward is extremely deceptive, and we had several miles of box-tree
flats to traverse before the gum-trees shewed their white bark in the
distance. We reached the Darling at half-past five, as the sun's almost
level beams were illuminating the flats, and every blade of grass and
every reed appeared of that light and brilliant green which they assume
when held up to the light. The change from barrenness and sterility to
richness and verdure was sudden and striking, and nothing certainly could
have been more cheering or cheerful than our first camp on the Darling
River. The scene itself was very pretty. Beautiful and drooping trees
shaded its banks, and the grass in its channel was green to the water's
edge. Evening's mildest radiance seemed to linger on a scene so fair, and
there was a mellow haze in the distance that softened every object. The
cattle and horses were up to their flanks in grass and young reeds, and
plants indicative of a better soil, such as the sowthistle, the mallow,
peppermint, and indigofera were growing in profusion around us. Close to
our tents there was a large and hollow gum-tree, in which a new fishing
net had been deposited, but where the owner intended to use it was a
puzzle to us, for it was impossible that any fish could remain in the
shallow and muddy waters of the Darling; which was at its lowest ebb, and
the current was so feeble that I doubted if it really flowed at all.
Whether the natives anticipated the flood which shortly afterwards
swelled it I cannot say, although I am led to believe they did, either
from habit or experience.
So abundant had been the feed that none of the cattle stirred out of
sight of the camp, and we should have started at an early hour, but for
the visit of an old native, the owner of the net we had discovered. It
was with some hesitation that he crossed the river to us, but he did so;
and as soon as he saw me he recognised me as having been in the boat on
the Murray in 1830, though fourteen years had passed since that time, and
he could only have seen me for an hour or two. He was not, however,
singular in his recollection of me, since one of the natives of the
Ana-branch also recollected me; and Tenbury, the native constable at
Moorundi, not only knew me the moment he saw me, but observed that a
little white man sat by my side in the stern of the boat, and that I had
something before me, which was a compass. There was a suspicious manner
about our visitor, for which we could not very well account; but it arose
from doubts he entertained as to the safety of his net, for after he had
seen that it had not been taken away, his demeanour changed, and he
expressed great satisfaction that we had not touched it.
We commenced our journey up the Darling at nine o'clock, on a course
somewhat to the westward {EASTWARD in published text} of north.
We passed flat after flat of the most vivid green, ornamented by clumps
of trees, sufficiently apart to give a most picturesque finish to the
landscape. Trees of denser foliage and deeper shade dropped over the
river, forming long dark avenues, and the banks of the river, grassed
to the water, had the appearance of having been made so by art.
We halted, after a journey of fourteen miles, on a flat little inferior
to that we had left, and again turned the cattle out to feed on the
luxuriant herbage around them.
The Darling must have been in the state in which we found it for a great
length of time, and I am led to infer, from the very grassy nature of its
bed, that it seldoms contains water to any depth, or length of time,
since in such case the grass would be killed. Its flats, like those of
the Murray, are backed by lagoons, but they had long been dry, and the
trees growing round them were either dead or dying.
With the exception of the tribe at the Ana-branch, and the old man, we
had seen no natives since leaving the Murray; but, from the reports we
had heard of the recent massacre of the overland party at Williorara, and
the character of the Darling blacks, I was induced to take double
precautions as I journeyed up the river, and had the camp so formed that
it could not be surprised. Two drays were ranged close to each other on
either side, the boat carriage formed a face to the rear, and the tents
occupied the front; thus leaving sufficient room in the centre to fold
the sheep in netting. The guard, augmented to six men, occupied a tent at
one angle. My own tent was in the centre of the front, and another tent
at the angle opposite the guard tent. So that it would have been
difficult for the natives to have got at the sheep (which they most
coveted), without alarming us. Still, although we had no apprehension of
the natives, both Nadbuck and Toonda were constantly on the watch, and it
was evident the former considered himself in no mean capacity at this
time. He put on an air of great importance, and shewed great anxiety
about our next interview with the natives; but Toonda took everything
quietly, and there was a haughty bearing about him, that contrasted
strangely with the bustling importance of his companion.
We here heard that there was a large encampment of natives about three
miles above us, but none of them ventured to our camp; nor, it is more
than probable, were the people aware of our being in the neighbourhood;
but our friend Nadbuck, as I have stated, was in a great bustle, and
shewed infinite anxiety on the occasion. Neither were his apprehensions
allayed on the following morning when we started. He went in advance to
prepare the natives for our approach, and to ask permission for us to
pass through their territory, but returned without having found them. Not
long afterwards it was reported that the natives were in front.
On hearing this the old gentleman begged of me to stop the party, and
away he went, full of bustle and importance, to satisfy himself. In a few
minutes he returned and said we might go on. We had halted close to the
brow of a gentle descent into a small creek junction at this particular
spot, and on advancing a few paces came in view of the natives, assembled
on the bank of the river below. Men only were present, but they appeared
to have been taken by surprise, and were in great alarm. They had their
spears for hunting, and a few hostile weapons, but not many; and
certainly had not met together with any hostile intention.
Some of the men were very good looking and well made, but I think the
natives of the Darling generally are so. They looked with astonishment on
the drays, which passed close to them; and I observed that several of
them trembled greatly. At this time Nadbuck had walked to some little
distance with two old men, holding each by the hand in the most
affectionate manner, and he was apparently in deep and earnest
conversation with them. Toonda, on the other hand, had remained seated on
one of the drays, until it descended into the creek. He then got off, and
walking up to the natives, folded his blanket round him with a haughty
air, and eyed the whole of them with a look of stern and unbending pride,
if not of ferocity. Whether it was that his firmness produced any effect
I cannot say, but after one of the natives had whispered to another, he
walked up to Toonda and saluted him, by putting his hands on his
shoulders and bending his head until it touched his breast. This Toonda
coldly returned, and then stood as frigid as before, until the drays
moved on, when he again resumed his seat and left them without uttering a
word. Nadbuck had separated from his friends, after having as it seemed
imparted to them some important information, and coming up to myself and
Mr. Browne, whispered to us, "Bloody rogue that fellow, you look after
jimbuck." The contrast between these two men was remarkable: the crafty
duplicity of the one, and the haughty bearing of the other. But I am led
to believe that there was some latent cause for Toonda's conduct, since
he asked me to shoot the natives, and was so excited that he pushed his
blanket into his mouth, and bit it violently in his anger. On this I
offered him a pistol to shoot them himself, but he returned it to me with
a smile. Of course it will be understood that I should not have allowed
him to fire it.
Two of the old men followed when we left the other natives, to whom I
made presents in the afternoon; but it is remarkable that many of them
trembled whilst we staid with them, and although their women were not
present, they hovered on the opposite bank of the Darling all the time.
We kept wide of the river almost all day, travelling between the scrub
and lagoons, but we had occasionally to ascend and cross ridges of loose
sand, over which the bullock-drivers were obliged to help each other with
their teams. There was not the slightest change in the character of the
distant interior, but the vicinity of the Darling was thickly timbered
for more than three-quarters of a mile from its banks, but the wood was
valueless for building purposes.
I was exceedingly surprised at the course of the river at this point. We
had gone a good deal to the eastward the day before, but on this day we
sometimes travelled on a course to the southward of east, and never for
the whole day came higher up than east by north. The consequence was,
that we proceeded into a deep bight, and made no progress northwards up
the river. At our camp it had dwindled to a mere thread, so narrow was
the line of water in its bed. Its banks were as even and as smooth as
those of a fortification, and covered with a thick, even sward. There was
no perceptible current and the water was all muddy; but the scenery in
its precincts was still verdant and picturesque, grassy flats with
ornamental trees succeeding each other at every bend of the stream.
The dogs killed a large kangaroo on the plains, the greater part of which
we gave to the natives, all indeed but a leg, which Jones, whose duty it
was to feed them, reserved for the dogs. Yet this appropriation excited
Toonda's anger. "Kangaroo mine, sheep yours," said he, threatening Jones
with his waddy; but he soon recovered his temper, and carried off his
share of the animal, subduing his feelings with as much apparent facility
as he had given vent to them.
About this time the weather had become much warmer, although we had
occasional cold winds. We started early on the morning of the 27th,
without the intention of making a long journey, because the bullocks had
been kept in yoke all night. We travelled for six miles over firm and
even plains, but soon afterwards got upon deep sand, through which the
teams fairly ploughed their way. I therefore turned towards the river,
and encamped on the first flat we reached, having run about ten miles on
an east-north-east course.
We here found the Darling so diminished in size, and so still, that I
began to doubt whether or not we should find water higher up. Its
channel, however preserved the appearance of a canal, with sloping grassy
sides, shaded by trees of drooping habit and umbrageous foliage, but the
soil of the flats had become sandy, and they appeared to be more subject
to inundation than usual.
About this time I regretted to observe that many of the bullocks had sore
necks, and I was in consequence obliged to make a different distribution
of them; an alternative always better if possible to avoid, as men become
attached to their animals, and part even with bad ones reluctantly.
On counting our sheep at this camp, I found that we had 186 remaining.
Toonda came as usual to take his share of one that had just been killed;
but I said, No! that, according to his own shewing, he had no claim to
any--thinking this the best way of speaking to his reason.
He seemed much astonished at the view I took of the matter, but on his
acknowledging himself in error, I forgave his recent ebullition and
allowed him his wonted meal; for, although I was always disposed to be
kind to the natives, I still felt it right to shew them that they were
not to be unruly. Neither is it without great satisfaction that I look
back to the intercourse I have had with these people, from the fact of my
never having had occasion to raise my arm in hostility agianst them.
The cattle fared well on the luxuriant grass into which they had been
turned when we halted, and as they had no inducement to wander, so they
were close to the camp at daybreak, and we started at 7 on an
east-north-east course, which at a mile we changed to a northerly one;
but soon afterwards finding that a pine ridge crossed our course, and
extended to the banks of the river, I turned to the north-west to avoid
it, but the country becoming generally sandy I again turned towards the
stream, and by going round the sandy points instead of over them,
lessened the labour to the cattle, although I increased the distance. We
were glad to find that the Darling held a general northerly course, or
one somewhat to the westward of that point, for we had during the last
three or four days made a great deal of easting, and I had thus been
prevented making the rapid progress I anticipated to Laidley's Ponds.
I had observed for more than twenty miles below us that the immediate
precincts of the river were not so rich in soil, or the flats so
extensive as at first; they now however began to open out, and assumed
the character and size of those of the Murray. The state of the two
rivers however was very different, for the Darling still continued
without breadth or current, (I speak of its appearance in lat. 33 degrees
43 minutes S.) whilst the Murray ever presents its bright and expanded
waters to the view.
We had communicated with a native tribe the day before that of which I am
now speaking, and again this day fell in with another, which we evidently
took by surprise. All the men had their spears, but on seeing us approach
they quietly deposited them under a tree. Amongst these people there was
another native who recognised me as an old acquaintance of fourteen
years' standing; but I began to doubt these patriarchs, to whom I
generally made a present for old acquaintance sake. This tribe numbered
forty-eight. All of them were handsome and well-made men, though short in
stature, and their lower extremities bore some proportion to their busts.
For the first time this day we observed a ferruginous sandstone in the
bed of the Darling, and saw it cropping out from under the sand hills on
the western extremity of the flats.
Shortly after leaving the natives we arrived at a small plain, where they
could only just have killed a kangaroo that was lying on the ground
partly prepared for cooking. On seeing it I ordered the dogs to be tied
up, and left it untouched. Indeed if I had been fortunate enough to kill
a kangaroo at this place, I would have given it to these poor people.
Three of them, who afterwards came to our camp, mentioned the
circumstance, and seemed to be sensible of our feelings towards them.
There can be no doubt but that the Australian aboriginal is strongly
susceptible of kindness, as has been abundantly proved to me, and to the
influence of such feeling I doubtlessly owe my life; for if I had treated
the natives harshly, and had thrown myself into their power afterwards,
as under a kind but firm system I have ever done without the slightest
apprehension, they would most assuredly have slain me; and when I assure
the reader that I have traversed the country in every direction, meeting
numerous tribes of natives, with two men only, and with horses so jaded
that it would have been impossible to have escaped, he will believe that
I speak my real sentiments. Equally so the old native, (to whom the net
we discovered in the hollow of a tree where we first struck the Darling
belonged), evinced the greatest astonishment and gratification, when he
found that his treasure had been untouched by us.
The flats of the Darling are certainly of great extent, but their verdure
reached no farther than the immediate precincts of the river at this part
of its course. Beyond its immediate neighbourhood they are perfectly
bare, but lightly wooded, having low and useless box-trees (the Gobero of
Sir Thomas Mitchell), growing on them. Their soil is a tenacious clay,
blistered and rotten. These flats extend to uncertain distances from the
river, and vary in breadth from a quarter of a mile to two miles or more.
Beyond them the country is sandy, desolate, and scrubby. Pine ridges,
generally lying parallel to the stream, render travelling almost
impracticable where they exist, whilst the deep fissures and holes on the
flats, into which it is impossible to prevent the drays from falling,
give but little room for selection. Our animals were fairly worn out by
hard pulling on the one, and being shaken to pieces on the other.
Some days prior to the 29th, Mr. Browne and I, on examining the waters of
the river, thought that we observed a more than usual current in it;
grass and bark were floating on its surface, and it appeared as if the
water was pushed forward by some back impulse. On the 28th it was still
as low as ever; but on the morning of the 29th, when we got up it was
wholly changed. In a few hours it had been converted into a noble river,
and had risen more than five feet above its recent level. It was now
pouring along its muddy waters with foaming impetuosity, and carrying
away everything before it. Whence, it may be asked, come these floods?
and was it from the same cause that the Murray, as Tenbury stated, rose
so suddenly? Such were the questions that occurred to me. From the
natives I could gather nothing satisfactory. We were at this time between
three and four hundred miles from the sources of the Darling, and I could
hardly think that this fresh had come from such a distance. I was the
more disposed to believe, perhaps, because I hoped such would be the
case, that it was caused by heavy rains in the hills to the north-west of
Laidley's Ponds, and that it was pouring into the river through that
rivulet.
The natives who had accompanied us from the last tribe left at sunset, as
is their custom, after having received two blankets and some knives.
Being anxious to get to Laidley's Ponds, I started early, with the
intention of making a long journey, but circumstances obliged me to halt
at six miles. We crossed extensive and rich flats the whole of the way,
and found as usual an abundance of feed for our cattle. It would perhaps
be hazardous to give an opinion as to the probable availability of the
flats of the Darling: those next the stream had numerous herbs, as
spinach, indigoferae, clover, etc., all indicative of a better soil; but
the out flats were bare of vegetation, although there was no apparent
difference in their soil. One peculiarity is observable in the Darling,
that neither are there any reeds growing in its channel or on the flats.
Our journey on the last day of September terminated at noon, as we
arrived at a point from which it was evident the river takes a great
sweep to the eastward; and Nadbuck informed me that by going direct to
the opposite point, where, after coming up again, it turned to the north,
we should cut off many miles, but that it would take a whole day to
perform the journey. I determined therefore to follow his advice, and to
commence our journey across the bight at an early hour the following
morning, the 1st of October. I availed myself of the remainder of the day
to examine the country for some miles to the westward, but there was no
perceptible change in it. The same barren plains, covered sparingly with
salsolae and atriplex, characterised this distant part of the interior;
and sandy ridges covered with stunted cypress trees, acaciae, hakeae, and
other similar shrubs, proved to me that the productions of it were as
unchanged as the soil.
As we had arranged, we broke up our camp earlier than usual on the 1st of
October, for, from what Nadbuck had stated, I imagined that we had a long
journey before us; but after going fifteen miles, we gained the river,
and found that it was again trending to the north. It had now risen more
than bank high, and some of its flats were partly covered with water. We
had kept a N.N.W. course the whole day, and crossed hard plains without
any impediment; but, although we kept at a great distance from the
stream, we did not observe any improvement in the aspect of the country.
Our specimens, both of natural history and botany, were as yet very
scanty; but we found a new and beautiful shrub in blossom, on some of the
plains as we crossed the bight; and Mr. Browne discovered three nests of
a peculiar rat, that have been partially described by Sir Thomas
Mitchell.
Mr. Browne was fortunate enough to secure one of these animals, which is
here figured. The nests they construct are made of sticks, varying in
length from three inches to three feet, and in thickness from the size of
a quill to the size of the thumb. They were arranged in a most systematic
manner, so as to form a compact cone like a bee-hive, four feet in
diameter at the base, and three feet high. This fabric is so firmly
built, as to be pulled to pieces with difficulty. One of these nests had
five holes or entrances from the bottom, nearly equi-distant from each
other, with passages leading to a hole in the ground, beneath which I am
led to conclude they had their store. There were two nests of grass in
the centre of the pyramid, and passages running up to them diagonally
from the bottom. The sticks, which served for the foundations of the
nests, were not more than two or three inches long, and so disposed as to
form a compact flooring, whilst the roofs were arched. The nests were
close together, but in separate compartments, with passages communicating
from the one to the other.
In a pyramid that we subsequently opened, there was a nest nearly at the
top; so that it would appear that these singular structures are common to
many families, and that the animals live in communities. The heap of
sticks, thus piled up, would fill four large-sized wheel-barrows, and
must require infinite labour. This ingenious little animal measures six
inches from the tip of the nose to the tail, which is six inches long.
The length of the head is two and a half inches, of the ears one and a
quarter, and one inch in breadth. Its fur is of a light brown colour, and
of exceedingly fine texture. It differs very little in appearance from
the common rat, if I except the length of its ears, and an apparent
disproportion in the size of the hind feet, which were large. The one
figured is a male, which I obtained from one of the natives who followed
us to the camp.
At this period of our journey the weather was exceedingly cold, and the
winds high. We were about 45 miles from Laidley's Ponds; but could not,
from the most elevated point, catch a glimpse of the ranges in its
neighbourhood. It appeared to me that the river flats were getting
smaller on both sides of it, the river still continuing to rise. It was
now pouring down a vast body of water into the Murray. There was,
however, an abundance of luxuriant pasture along its banks. Late in the
afternoon the lubras (wives) of the natives, at our camp, made their
appearance on the opposite side of the river, and Nadbuck, who was a
perfect gallant, wanted to invite them over; but I told him that I would
cut off the head of the first who came over with my long knife--my sword.
The old gentleman went off to Mr. Browne, to whom he made a long
complaint, asking him if he really thought I should execute my threat.
Mr. Browne assured him that he was quite certain I should not only cut
off the lubra's head, but his too. On this Nadbuck expressed his
indignation; but however much he might have ventured to risk the lubra's
necks, he had no idea of risking his own.
One of the natives who visited us at this place was very old, with hair
as white as snow. To this man I gave a blanket, feeling assured it would
be well bestowed; although a circumstance occurred that had well night
prevented my behaving with my usual liberality to the natives who were
here with us. The butcher had been killing a sheep, and carelessly left
the steel, an implement we could ill spare, under the tree in which he
had slung the animal: and it was instantly taken by the natives. On
hearing this, I sent for Nadbuck and Toonda, and told them that I should
not stir until the steel was brought back, or make any more presents on
the river. On this there was a grand consultation between the two. Toonda
at length went to the natives, who had retired to some little distance,
and, after some earnest remonstrances, he walked to the tree near which
the sheep had been killed, and, after looking at the ground for a moment,
began to root up the ground with his toes, when he soon discovered the
stolen article, and brought it to me. The thief was subsequently brought
forward, and we made him thoroughly ashamed of himself; although I have
no doubt the whole tribe would have applauded his dexterity if he had
succeeded.
The day was exceedingly cold, as the two or three previous ones had been,
but still the temperature was delightful. We travelled, on this day,
across the river flats, which again opened out to a distance of two or
three miles; the ground, however, was of a most distressing character,
and we had to cross several sandy points projecting into them, so that
the poor animals were much jaded. This, however, was only the beginning
of their troubles, for we were, in like manner, obliged to travel for
several successive days over the same kind of ground--land on which
floods have gradually subsided, and which has been blistered and cracked
by solar heat. Travelling on this kind of ground was, indeed, more
distressing to the cattle than even the hard pull over sand; for it was
impossible for the bullock-drivers to steer clear of the many fissures
and holes on these flats, and the shock, when the drays fell into any of
them, was so great, that it shook the poor brutes almost to pieces.
From this period to the 9th there was a sameness in our progress up the
Darling. On the 3rd we crossed a small creek, into which the waters of
the river were flowing fast; and which both Nadbuck and Toonda informed
us joined Yertello Lake, and that the Ana-branch was on the other side of
the lake. This explanation accounted to us for a statement made by
Toonda, shortly after he first joined us, that the Ana-branch hereabouts
formed a great lake. On the 4th a little rain fell, but not in such
quantity as to interfere with our travelling. On the 5th we passed a
tribe of natives, in number about thirty-four. We were again led by
Nadbuck across the country, to avoid the more circuitous route along the
river. We passed through a more pleasing country than usual, and one that
was better timbered and better grassed than it had been at any distance
from the river.
I have mentioned that Toonda was attended by a young lad, his nephew,
who, with another young lad, joined us at Lake Victoria. These two young
lads used to keep in front with myself or Mr. Poole, or Mr. Browne, and
were quite an amusement to us. This day both of them disappeared, not
very long after we passed the last tribe. On making inquiries I
ascertained, to my surprise, that they had been forcibly taken back by
three men from the last tribe, and that both cried most bitterly at
leaving the party. The loss of his nephew greatly afflicted poor Toonda,
who sobbed over it for a long time. We could not understand why the
natives had thus detained the boys; but, I believe, they were members of
that tribe, between which and a tribe higher up the river some ground of
quarrel existed. After the departure of these boys we had only three
natives with us, who had been with the party from Lake Victoria, i. e.
Nadbuck, Toonda, and Munducki, a young man who had attached himself to
Kirby, who cooked for the men. The latter turned out to be a son of old
Boocolo, a chief of the Williorara tribe, whom I shall, ere long, have
occasion to introduce to the reader. Mr. Browne, with the assistance of
Nadbuck, gathered a good deal of information from the natives then with
us, as to the inhospitable character of the country to the north-west of
the Williorara, or Laidley's Ponds, that agreed very little with the
accounts we had previously heard. They stated that we should not be able
to cross the ranges, as they were covered with sharp pointed stones and
great rocks, that would fall on and crush us to death; but that if we did
get across them to the low country on the other side, the heat would kill
us all. That we should find neither water or grass, or wood to light a
fire with. That the native wells were very deep, and that the cattle
would be unable to drink out of them; and, finally, that the water was
salt, and that the natives let down bundles of rushes to soak it up.
Such was the account the natives gave of the region into which we were
going. We were of course aware that a great deal was fiction, but I was
fully prepared to find it bad enough. From the opinion I had formed of
the distant interior, and from my knowledge of the country, both to the
eastward and westward of me, I had no hope of finding it good within any
reasonable distance.
Prepared, however, as I was for a bad country, I was not prepared for
such as the natives described.
It was somewhat strange, that as we neared the supposed scene of the
slaughter of the overlanders, we should fail in obtaining intelligence
regarding it; neither were the natives, who must have participated in it,
so high up the river as we now were, afraid of approaching us, as they
undoub
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