A Source Book of Australian History Part 6

I would fain have lingered on my way to examine, as far as circ.u.mstances would permit, the beautiful country between the lake and the ranges; and it was with heartfelt sorrow that I yielded to necessity. My men were, indeed, very weak from poverty of diet and from great bodily fatigue.

Hopkinson, Mulholland, and Macnamee were miserably reduced.

It will be borne in mind that our difficulties were just about to commence, when those of most other travellers have ceased; and that instead of being a.s.sisted by the stream whose course we had followed, we had now to contend against the united waters of the eastern ranges, with diminished strength, and in some measure with disappointed feelings.

Under the most favourable circ.u.mstances, it was improbable that the men would be enabled to pull for many days longer in succession since they had not rested upon their oars for a single day, if I except our pa.s.sage across the lake, from the moment when we started from the depot; nor was it possible for me to buoy them up with the hope even of a momentary cessation of labour. We had calculated the time to which our supply of provisions would last under the most favourable circ.u.mstances, and it was only in the event of our pulling up against the current, day after day, the same distance we had compa.s.sed with the current in our favour, that we could hope they would last as long as we continued in the Murray. But in the event of floods or any unforeseen delay, it was impossible to calculate at what moment we might be driven to extremity.

On the other hand, it was sufficiently evident to me that the men were too much exhausted to perform the task that was before them without a.s.sistance, and that it would be necessary both for M'Leay and myself to take our share of labour at the oars. The cheerfulness and satisfaction that my young friend evinced at the opportunity that was thus afforded him of making himself useful, and of relieving those under him from some portion of their toil, at the same time that they increased my sincere esteem for him, were nothing more than what I expected from one who had endeavoured by every means in his power to contribute to the success of that enterprise upon which he had embarked. But although I have said thus much of the exhausted condition of the men, I would by no means be understood to say that they flagged for a moment, or that a single murmur escaped them. No reluctance was visible, no complaint was heard, but there was that in their aspect and appearance which they could not hide, and which I could not mistake. We re-entered the river on the 13th under as fair prospects as we could have desired. The gale which had blown with such violence in the morning gradually abated, and a steady breeze enabled us to pa.s.s our first encampment, by availing ourselves of it as long as daylight continued.

_Feb. 18th._ The breezes that had so much a.s.sisted us from the lake upwards, had now lost their influence, or failed to reach to the distance we had gained. Calms succeeded them, and obliged us to labour continually at the oars. We lost ground fast, and it was astonishing to remark how soon the men's spirits drooped again under their first efforts. They fancied the boat pulled heavily and that her bottom was foul, but such was not the case. The current was not so strong as when we pa.s.sed down, since the river had evidently fallen more than a foot, and was so shallow in several places that we were obliged to haul the boat over them. On these occasions we were necessarily obliged to get out of her into the water, and had afterwards to sit still and to allow the sun to dry our clothes upon us. The unemployed consequently envied those at the oars, as they sat shivering in their dripping clothes.

I have omitted to mention one remarkable trait of the good disposition of all the men while on the coast. Our sugar had held out to that point; but it appeared when we examined the stores that six pounds alone remained in the cask. This the men positively refused to touch. They said that, divided, it would benefit n.o.body; that they hoped M'Leay and I would use it, that it would last us for some time, and that they were better able to submit to privations than we were. The feeling did them infinite credit, and the circ.u.mstance is not forgotten by me. The little supply the kindness of our men left to us was, however, soon exhausted, and poor M'Leay preferred pure water to the bitter draught that remained. I have been sometimes unable to refrain from smiling as I watched the distorted countenances of my humble companions while drinking their tea and eating their damper.

_March 17th._ We had been drawing nearer the Morumbidgee every day; and the following afternoon, to our great joy, we turned our boat into the gloomy and narrow channel of the tributary. Our feelings were almost as strong when we re-entered it as they had been when we were launched from it into that river, on whose waters we had continued for upwards of fifty-five days; during which period, including the sweeps and bends it made, we could not have travelled less than 1,500 miles.

Our daily journeys were short, and the head we made against the stream but trifling. The men lost the proper and muscular jerk with which they once made the waters foam and the oars bend. Their whole bodies swung with an awkward and laboured motion. Their arms appeared to be nerveless; their faces became haggard, their persons emaciated, their spirits wholly sunk; nature was so completely overcome, that from mere exhaustion they frequently fell asleep during their painful and almost ceaseless exertions. It grieved me to the heart to see them in such a state at the close of so perilous a service, and I began to reproach Robert Harris that he did not move down the river to meet us; but, in fact, he was not to blame. I became captious, and found fault where there was no occasion, and lost the equilibrium of my temper in contemplating the condition of my companions. No murmur, however, escaped them, nor did a complaint reach me that was intended to indicate that they had done all they could do. I frequently heard them in their tent, when they thought I had dropped asleep, complaining of severe pains, and of great exhaustion. "I must tell the Captain, to-morrow," some of them would say, "that I can pull no longer."

To-morrow came, and they pulled on, as if reluctant to yield to circ.u.mstances. Macnamee at length lost his senses. We first observed this from his incoherent conversation, but eventually from his manner.

He related the most extraordinary tales and fidgetted about eternally while in the boat. I felt it necessary, therefore, to relieve him from the oars.

_April 12th._ I determined on sending Hopkinson and Mulholland, whose devotion, intelligence and indefatigable spirits I well knew, forward to the plain.

The joy this intimation spread was universal. Both Hopkinson and Mulholland readily undertook the journey, and I, accordingly, prepared orders for them to start by the earliest dawn.

Six days had pa.s.sed since their departure; we remaining encamped. I had calculated on seeing Hopkinson again in eight days, but as the morrow would see us without food, I thought, as the men had had a little rest, it would be better to advance towards relief than to await its arrival.

On the evening of the 18th, therefore, we buried our specimens and other stores, intending to break up the camp in the morning. A singular bird, which invariably pa.s.sed it at an hour after sunset, and which, from the heavy flight, appeared to be of unusual size, had so attracted my notice, that in the evening M'Leay and I crossed the river in hope to get a shot at it. We had, however, hardly landed on the other side, when a loud shout called us back to witness the return of our comrades.

They were both of them in a state that beggars description. Their knees and ankles were dreadfully swollen and their limbs so painful that as soon as they arrived in the camp they sunk under their efforts, but they met us with a smiling countenance and expressed their satisfaction at having come so seasonably to our relief. They had, as I had foreseen, found Robert Harris on the plain, which they reached on the evening of the third day. They had started early the next morning on their return with such supplies as they thought we might immediately want. Poor Macnamee had in a great measure recovered, but for some days he was sullen and silent; the sight of the drays gave him uncommon satisfaction. Clayton gorged himself; but M'Leay, myself, and Fraser could not at first relish the meat that was placed before us.

THE INTERIOR. II

+Source.+--Life of Charles Sturt (Mrs. N.G. Sturt), pp. 230-232, 264-267, 279-280

Observations of the migrations of birds convinced Sturt that there was good land in the interior of New South Wales, and in 1844 he set out to find it. His expedition failed because the season was exceptionally dry, and he was obliged to turn back before he had accomplished his object.

"If a line be drawn from Lat. 29 30' and Long. 140 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 date Sturt pledges himself to the discovery of this fine country is not stated, but when later regretting his failure to reach the tropic and to set at rest his hypothesis of the better country to be found there, he briefly tells his reason for the supposition.

"Birds observed east of the Darling in the summer of 1828 in about lat.

29 30' S. and long. 144 had invariably migrated to the W.N.W.

c.o.c.katoos and parrots, known while in the colony to frequent the richest and best-watered valleys of the higher lands, would pa.s.s in countless flights to that point of the compa.s.s. In South Australia, in lat. 35 and long. 138, I had also observed that several birds of the same kind annually visited that Province from the north. I had seen the Psittacus Novae Hollandiae and the sh.e.l.l paroquet following the sh.o.r.eline of St.

Vincent's Gulf like flights of starlings in England. The different flights at intervals of more than a quarter of an hour, all came from the north, and followed in one and the same direction.

"Now although the casual appearance of a few strange birds should not influence the judgement, yet from the regular migrations of the feathered race, a reasonable inference may be drawn. Seeing then that these two lines (viz., from Fort Bourke about lat. 30 and long. 144 to the W.N.W., and from Mount Arden in lat. 35 long. 138 to the north) if prolonged would meet a little to the northward of the tropic, I formed the following conclusions:

"First, that the birds migrating on those lines would rest for a time at a point where those lines met.

"Secondly, that the country to which they went would resemble that which they had left, that birds which frequented rich valleys or high hills would not settle down in deserts and flat country.

"Thirdly, that the intervening country, whether owing to deserts or large sheets of water, was not such as these birds could inhabit.

Indeed, such large migrations from different parts to one particular, argued no less strongly the existence of deserts or of sea to a certain distance, than the probable richness of the country, to which as to a common goal these migrations tended.

"On the late expedition, at the Depot in lat. 29-1/2 and long. 142, I found myself in the direct line of migration to the north-west; and to that point of the compa.s.s, birds whom I knew to visit Van Diemen's Land would, after watering, pa.s.s on. c.o.c.katoos, after a few hours' rest, would wing their way to the north-west, as also would various water-birds, as well as pigeons, parrots, and paroquets, pursued by birds of the Accipitrine cla.s.s. From these indications I was led to look still more for the realization of my hopes, if I could but force my way to the necessary distance.

"I ran 170 miles without crossing a single water-course. I travelled over salsolaceous plains, crossed sand-ridges, was turned from my westward course by salt-water lakes; and at last, on October 19th, at about 80 miles to the east of my former track, I found myself on the brink of the Stony Desert. Coming suddenly on it I almost lost my breath. If anything, it looked more forbidding than before. Herbless and treeless, it filled more than half of the horizon. Not an object was visible on which to steer, yet we held on our course by compa.s.s like a ship at sea.

"Poor Browne was in excruciating pain from scurvy. Every day I expected to find him unable to stir. My men were ill from exposure, scanty food, and muddy water; my horses leg-weary and reduced to skeletons. I alone stood unscathed, but I could not bear to leave my companion in that heartless desert.

"Finding myself baffled to the north and to the west, seeing no hope of rain, realizing that my retreat was too probably already cut off, I reluctantly turned back to the depot, 443 miles distant, and only through the help of Providence did we at length reach it."

Sturt, as he mounted to begin his retreat, was nearly induced to turn again by "a flock of paroquets that flew shrieking from the north towards Eyre's Creek. They proved that to the last we had followed with unerring precision the line of migration."

SCOPE AND RESULTS OF CENTRAL EXPEDITION AS SUMMED UP BY STURT

My instructions directed me to gain the meridian of Mount Arden or that of 138, with a view to determine whether there were any chain of mountains connected with the high lands seen by Mr. Eyre to the westward of Lake Torrens, and running into the interior from south-west to north-east. I was ordered to push to the westward and to make the south the constant base of my operations. I was prohibited from descending to the north-coast, but it was left optional with me to fall back on Moreton Bay if I should be forced to the eastward. Whether I performed the task thus a.s.signed to me or wavered in the accomplishment of it; whether I fell short of my duty, or yielded only to insuperable difficulties, the world will be enabled to judge. That I found no fine country is to be regretted; however, I was not sent to find a fine country, but to solve a geographical problem. I trust I am not presumptuous in saying that, from a geographical point of view, the results of this expedition have been complete. If I did not gain the heart of the continent, no one will refuse me the credit of having taken a direct course for it. My distance from that hitherto mysterious spot was less than 150 miles. In ten days I should have reached the goal; and that task would have been accomplished had rain fallen when I was at my farthest north. Had I found such a river as the Victoria, I would have clung to it to the last; but those alone will really know the nature of the country who shall follow me into it When I determined on turning homewards, with mind depressed and strength weakened, it appeared to me that I had done all that man could do. Now, under the influence of restored health, I feel that I did far too little. I can only say that I would not hesitate again to plunge into those dreary regions, that I might be the first to place my foot in the centre of this vast territory, and finally to raise the veil which still shrouds its features, even though, like those of the veiled prophet, they should wither the beholder.

ACROSS THE CONTINENT. SOUTH TO NORTH. I

+Source.+--Papers relating to the Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition, 1861. Published in the _Argus_, pp. 2-5, 19-20

In the year 1860 an expedition was planned to travel from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The leader was Robert Burke, and though with Wills, Gray, and King he reached the Gulf, the return was fatal owing to the desertion of the Cooper's Creek Depot by the other members of the expedition.

In the course of his evidence before the Commission of Inquiry Mr. King, the sole survivor, said:

The day before we arrived at Cooper's Creek we were allowed to consume as much provisions as we chose, in expectations of finding supplies so soon. We had only one pound of dry meat when we got there. If we had found no provisions there, we should all have died. It was as much as any of us could do to travel along the side of the creek. We had been so weak, that for ten days before, we had scarcely been able to make much distance, or to walk about. I seemed to be worse than either Mr. Burke or Mr. Wills, but after we arrived at the Depot I improved much more than they did. We had no difficulty in finding the provisions there. We arrived in the moonlight at half-past seven o'clock at night, after having pushed on thirty miles that day. Mr. Burke rode on one of the camels, and I and Mr. Wills on the other. We had our revolvers with us, and had been continually shooting at the crows and hawks. When we got to the Depot Mr. Burke was a little ahead of Mr. Wills and myself. He had often before said, "I think I can see their tents ahead," and made several remarks like that until we arrived there. When we got near, he said, "I suppose they have shifted to some other part of the creek." It was Mr. Wills who first saw the tree-mark, and saw the things scattered about the stockade. He saw the words, "Dig three feet to the north-east," or north-west; I am not certain which. When he saw the date at which they came to the camp, and the date at which they left, he said at once, "They have left here to-day. If they had shifted to any other part of the creek, they would not have marked this." We set to work digging up the plant. We did not know where they had gone to, but thought they had left some instructions. Mr. Burke was too much excited to do anything, and Mr. Wills and myself dug up the plant. I got the bottle there and Mr. Burke said: "Whatever instructions they have left are in this bottle." I then opened it and handed it to him. When he had read it, he informed us that the other party, except Paton, and that the animals were in good working order, and that on account of no person coming up to them, they had made a start for Camp 60, taking a course S.E. for Bulloo. Mr. Burke then said it was madness to attempt to follow them, as their men were in good order, and their camel too. He said we could not expect to make forced marches, and catch them up. Had the latter said they were in a weak state, as it appeared they were, we should have tried at any rate to overtake them. We remained at the creek a few days, and Mr. Burke and Mr. Wills had a consultation as to what was best to be done.

We left no provisions behind us, but took everything with us. When we had consumed all the sugar but 12 lb. we gave some b.a.l.l.s of it to the camel. For a few days our princ.i.p.al food was porridge, which we preferred to anything else. We boiled it with water and sugar. In going down towards Mount Hopeless, we found we could not carry all the things we brought with us. We had to leave the camel-pads and such things. We made two attempts to get to Mount Hopeless. After losing one camel we remained at the creek some short time, till we recovered strength to start for Cooper's Creek again. We had only the clothes we stood in, and no bed-clothing but the camels' pads and two oilcloths. We had boots and trousers, such as they were.

BURKE'S LAST LETTER

The following is the despatch of Mr. Burke, left at the Depot at Cooper's Creek:

Depot No. 2, Cooper's Creek, Camp No. 65.--The return party from Carpentaria, consisting of myself, Wills and King (Gray dead) arrived here last night, and found that the depot party had only started on the same day. We proceed on to-morrow slowly down the creek towards Adelaide by Mount Hopeless, and shall endeavour to follow Gregory's track; but we are very weak. The two camels are done up, and we shall not be able travel faster than four or five miles a day. Gray died on the road from exhaustion and fatigue. We have all suffered much from hunger. The provisions left here will, I think, restore our strength. We have discovered a practicable route to Carpentaria, the chief portion of which lies on the 140th decree of east longitude. There is some good country between this and the Stony Desert. From there to the tropic the country is dry and stony. Between the tropic and Carpentaria a considerable portion is rangy, but it is well watered and richly gra.s.sed. We reached the sh.o.r.es of Carpentaria on 11th February, 1861.

Greatly disappointed at finding the party here gone.

(Signed) ROBERT O'HARA BURKE, Leader.

April 22nd, 1861.