Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria Part 16

Cotton Vine: A plant, probably the same cynanolium of which the unripe milky pod is eaten by the natives about Lake Torrens.

Polygonum cunninghami: A very wiry shrubby bush, which always indicates that the ground where it grows is liable to be occasionally flooded. It is the same as the one from the Murray and Darling.

Mulga Scrub (an Acacia): This is frequently mentioned by Stuart; its botanical name is not known.

As it is desirable that all the routes from the Darling towards the Barcoo River should be known the following letter from Mr. Neilson is appended. The route he describes is almost on a direct line from Mount Rankine to Carpentaria.

Kennedy's XIX Camp, River Warrego, May 22 1862.

Dear Sir,

Agreeably to your request I beg to furnish you with a few memoranda of a journey made by Messrs. H. and F. Williams and myself from Mount Rankine on the Darling towards Cooper's Creek. We left the Darling on the 22nd of June 1861, and after crossing the Talywalka Creek at six miles camped on Mulyoh Spring, course north-west by west distance twenty-five miles. Our next day's journey was to Wentholey on the Paroo Creek upon the same bearing and a distance of forty miles. We then followed the Paroo Creek upward on a general course of north by east half east to the 29th parallel, when we struck out to the north-west, and on rising the range saw a large sheet of water. Camped upon it. It proved to be a lake of about twenty-five miles in circ.u.mference and very shallow. Our distance travelled, twenty-three miles from the boundary. Next day followed the same course and camped at thirty miles on a large clay-pan. Followed on the next day, and at ten miles came on a Boree Creek with water. Followed on bearing to the northward of north-west about half a point, and camped on a lateral creek containing pools of water and polygonum flats, and on examining the bed of the creek found some crayfish-eyes, and judged to be in the vicinity of a large water. Distance travelled twenty-six miles.

Next day followed the creek on a north-north-west bearing, and at eleven miles came to a large creek running rapid and having flooded flats extending two miles from its bed, and bearing marks of very high floods.

We crossed the creek and extended our journey about fifteen miles to the west; the country being cut up by creeks not then flooded but bearing evidences of high floods. Our rations being short we turned back. From this point I consider our position to be within about thirty-five miles of Cooper's Creek. We followed the creek we left, running down for about fifty miles on a south-west by south course. A larger volume of water comes down this creek than what comes down the Warrego, and it contains some fine reaches of water where the creeks meet and form one channel. I believe it to be identical with the Nive of Mitch.e.l.l, never traced out, and in its position with the Paroo forms a line of communication practicable in all seasons from Mount Rankine on the Darling to Cooper's Creek, and by Cooper's Creek upwards to the Thomson, completes, with your discoveries, a perfect and practicable line of communication to Carpentaria.

I have doubt to venture an opinion that it is quite practicable to make a cross-country track from this to the junction of the Thompson and Cooper from the knowledge I have formed; but I think the requirements of the case are better met by striking the Cooper where it takes the turn westward (i.e.. where Sturt followed it to the east) that point being more adapted to the wants of the more southern settlers.

I have forwarded a tracing of my route to Mr. Gregory by my letter of February 26th last, and just give you the foregoing crude data to go upon, and of which you may make what use you think proper.

I beg to remain,

Yours faithfully,

John Neilson.

Landsborough Esquire.

The head of the Barcoo River was discovered by Sir Thomas Mitch.e.l.l who named it the Victoria River. He described it as probably having its outlet at Carpentaria. Kennedy was sent to trace it, but unfortunately he had a dry season to contend with; so much so that some distance below the junction of the Thomson he found its channel perfectly dry and had to return. He followed it however sufficiently far to enable him to make tolerably sure that it was the head of Cooper's Creek. Gregory afterwards, by following it down, on his route to South Australia ascertained this to be the case. Another river, previously discovered by Captain Wickham, in Northern Australia, had been called by him the Victoria: because of this, and from Kennedy having learned the native name of Mitch.e.l.l's Victoria to be the Barcoo, it is now generally known by that designation.

Tintinalagy, Darling River, July 22 1862.

Sir,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21st ultimo handed to me on the 14th instant at Mount Murchison by Mr. Verdon.

You will no doubt have received my last letter informing you that, as I was led to suppose that the gra.s.s was better at Mount Murchison than at Menindie, I remained there for instructions from you.

As I had come to the conclusion that, as Mr. Howitt was in South Australia, it would be unnecessary for me to take any steps to inform him of my return from the Gulf of Carpentaria in accordance with the instructions I received from you, we are here on our way to Melbourne.

Having lost some of our horses we have been delayed here for a few days, and may be delayed longer as the camel is away. The camel I should have mentioned earlier we brought with us from Bunnawanah.

This has been a bad season for coming down the river, so much so that one of the oldest settlers says he never saw the gra.s.s so scarce as it now is. We have however, I hope, got over the worst part of the river as the country is getting green from the rain that has fallen recently.

On our way to Euston I hope to dispose of the horses and material of the expedition. From Euston I intend sending Gleeson and a man I have hired with the camel to Melbourne. To pay their expenses I will advance Gleeson a sufficient sum. To Gleeson's a.s.sistant I have promised the usual wages from the date of our arrival at Euston. To drive the camel I will probably give them two riding-horses and a packhorse. With them I will send an Expedition horse and the foal that was dropped near the Gulf of Carpentaria, which I dare say the Royal Society will sell me to take to Queensland as a relic of my expedition. I hope you will excuse my engaging an a.s.sistant for Gleeson, as Mr. Bourne and the three aborigines, who have been a long time engaged in this expedition, are anxious to get to Melbourne to return to Queensland. When we reach Euston we intend taking the coach.

From the paper I learn there is an impression abroad that I did not come by a likely route for finding Burke's party, and that it appeared by my letter that I had been commissioned to open up a route for stock to the Gulf.

With regard to the latter I received the command of my party from the Colonial Secretary of Queensland, and he certainly gave me no instructions respecting the route I was to take, but for which he referred me to your instructions. In these it was contemplated that I should return by sea. Had it been contemplated that I was to have come back overland my instructions would have been, I dare say, to have come back by Mount Stuart. From having travelled in the end of last year about halfway to Mount Stuart from the Albert River depot, I consider that if I had waited a few weeks when I reached the 138th meridian I would have had the advantage of the wet season, and might have proceeded by that route, or at all events gone south from that meridian provided I had sufficient equipment for that purpose.

My opinion was, as may be seen in my correspondence with Captain Norman, that Burke and Wills had gone from their depot by Bowen Downs towards Carpentaria. I therefore came overland that way, and as I did not learn anything of their party from the blacks when I reached there I proceeded to the settled country.

For my part I must say that I think, with the information we had then, we took the most probable route for finding Burke's party. In all our expeditions we followed the watercourses and went over more ground than I thought it should have been possible to do with our small and shipwrecked equipment.

I never imagined that Burke and Wills would have been able to walk straight from Cooper's Creek across what I thought was in a great measure a desert to Carpentaria. It should also be remembered that when I wrote my letter to you on my arrival at the Darling River we had learned all about the fate of Burke's party, and the time was past for saying much about our want of success with respect to them.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

W. Landsborough.

Commander of Victorian and Queensland Party Organised at Brisbane.

In reply to the above he was instructed to sell his equipment and proceed to Melbourne.

About a month after Landsborough's arrival in Melbourne intelligence was received that McKinlay and his party, who had gone from South Australia in search of Burke and Wills in August of last year, had safely reached Port Denison in August of this year. No tidings of McKinlay had been heard from the time of his finding poor Gray's grave on Cooper's Creek, where he learned the fate of Burke and Wills. His future instructions were to proceed to Stuart's route and search for a goldfield on a part of it which had been described by Stuart as giving indications of being auriferous; but in consequence of the flooded state of the country he was unable to go in that direction. He therefore proceeded to Carpentaria, exploring the country chiefly in the middle part of his journey on a track betwixt Burke's and Landsborough's, and afterwards tracing down the Leichhardt River. At Carpentaria, where he expected to get supplies of flour, tea, and sugar, the depot being abandoned, his hopes were disappointed, and he was obliged to proceed to Port Denison, a distance of about 700 miles, without either of these articles. On his arrival at Melbourne with some members of his party the reception given to Landsborough and them by the public was so cordial that we consider the following report (taken from the Argus) of the meeting held to do them honour will be read with interest.

DEMONSTRATION IN HONOUR OF MESSRS. LANDSBOROUGH AND MCKINLAY.

A public meeting of the citizens of Melbourne was held last night at the Exhibition Building, in honour of the leaders of the Queensland and South Australian Contingent Exploration Expeditions and their parties, and to testify the admiration of the inhabitants of this colony at the successful and heroic manner in which those explorers had accomplished their mission. The doors were advertised to be open at seven o'clock, but it was not until about twenty minutes past that hour that they were unlocked. In the meantime a vast crowd which had commenced to a.s.semble as early as half-past six o'clock had gathered in front of the building and manifested considerable impatience to be admitted. Within a very few minutes after the doors were thrown open the s.p.a.cious edifice was densely crowded in every part. There were probably nearly 3000 persons present.

On the motion of Dr. Macadam the Honourable Matthew Hervey, M.L.C., was called upon to preside. He was surrounded on the platform by several members of the Exploration Committee and other gentlemen. Mr.

Landsborough and Mr. McKinlay and some members of their respective exploring parties were present; as was also Mr. King, the companion of the unfortunate Burke and Wills; and also Mr. C. Verdon, who was recently the successful bearer of despatches from the Exploration Committee to Mr.

Howitt.

The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, congratulated the a.s.sembly upon having met together to pay a mark of respect to their distinguished fellow-countrymen, Messrs. Landsborough and McKinlay. (Applause.) They were doubtless aware of the circ.u.mstances under which those gentlemen had become conspicuous amongst the Australian community. Immediately upon the discovery of any danger attending the Victorian explorers Messrs. Burke and Wills--upon discovering that there was a possibility of their being unable to surmount the difficulties which surrounded them in the desert, it was thought desirable to start contingent expeditions from the neighbouring colonies, as well as from Victoria, in search of them. The people of Melbourne had a.s.sembled that evening to congratulate those distinguished gentlemen, Messrs. Landsborough and McKinlay, upon their safe return from their expeditions. They most cheerfully volunteered their services to the respective Governments under which they lived to proceed in search of Burke and Wills, and everyone was aware to some extent of the result of their labours. They had been most successful explorers. They proceeded in cheerfulness to encounter the dangers of the desert, such as in the eye of every individual unaccustomed to bush travelling seemed insurmountable. (Hear, hear.) They had all heard something of Mr. Landsborough's expedition from the statement which he had made before the Royal Society, and they knew something also of the expedition undertaken by Mr. McKinlay. The immense difficulties which each had experienced placed both gentlemen side by side as great and successful explorers. (Cheers.) Having briefly directed attention to the circ.u.mstances under which the meeting had a.s.sembled, he would detain them very little longer. He was sure that they had done their duty as inhabitants of Victoria in meeting to welcome back again to this colony the gentlemen who had been sent out in search of those who first crossed the continent of Australia and brought into conspicuous notice the great enterprise, which was first initiated by the colony of Victoria, of exploring the whole of this vast continent. (Applause.)

The Reverend Dr. Cairns, who was called upon to move the first resolution, remarked that this was a magnificent meeting, and that he had seldom been more delighted in the course of a long life. (Applause.) When Mr. McKinlay was received by the Royal Society he (Dr. Cairns) made the very natural remark that he supposed he would receive a welcome from the public of Melbourne (hear, hear) that, however cordial might be the welcome extended to him and to Mr. Landsborough by private committees or private societies, the community at large had a right to express their feelings, and in the most public manner to give a welcome to those successful explorers. (Applause.) He thought then, as he thought now, that in making that remark he not only expressed his own feelings but the feelings of the community in general. A very ill-natured notice of his opinion and conduct in the matter appeared in The Argus of that morning, but for what purpose it had been written he was unable to say. He rejoiced in the present meeting, however, as the best of all possible answers to such a piece of invidiousness. (Hear.) One of the characteristic signs of the present age was the very great progress of discovery in opening up regions of the earth which had hitherto been hermetically sealed even to the eye of intelligence. It was a very suggestive fact to his mind that the successful exploration of Central Africa and the great Australian Continent had been reserved for the present day, that until now these immense dominions had been unknown lands to the civilised world; and that not until the latter half of the nineteenth century had the honour been conferred on the enterprising sons of that wonderful little island far away in the north sea--peopled by Christian Britons--of penetrating the mystery, and finding out that, instead of stony deserts and inhospitable wilds, those countries contained luxuriant fields, abundant waters, and balmy woods--inviting homes for millions and millions of human beings, or rather let him say for flourishing nations. (Applause.) The present marked a great era in the history of this hemisphere. A benignant Providence had lifted the cloud of their ignorance, and they heard a kindly voice calling upon them to arise, to go forth, to possess, to subdue, to people this goodly land.

(Hear, hear.) The friends whose success they had met to celebrate that evening would henceforth have their names enrolled with those of Mitch.e.l.l, Leichhardt, Sturt, Gregory, and Burke and Wills, who had sacrificed their lives to their zeal. (Hear, hear.) To the two latter explorers belonged the praise--which time would never obscure or diminish--of having been the first to solve the practicability of traversing this great continent from south to north. The names which he mentioned const.i.tuted a brilliant catalogue; and he ventured to think that no inferior splendour would henceforth ill.u.s.trate the names--now familiar as household words--of Stuart, Landsborough, and McKinlay.

(Cheers and loud cries of "King.") The name of King ought also most a.s.suredly to be included. (Cheers.) They were a n.o.ble band, and he wished they had all been present that night. He rejoiced to have the opportunity of seeing those explorers who were present, of looking on their faces, speaking to them, shaking hands with them, and calling them friends.

(Applause.) He was proud of these men, and all whom he was addressing must be proud of them also. They were worthy of esteem, they were ent.i.tled to applause; and mean, base, ineffably shabby, stupidly mean and base was the soul--if such a soul there were--that questioned their merit or grudged them a meet reward. (Applause.) He was delighted to have the opportunity of looking upon the two great heroes, Landsborough and McKinlay. They had undertaken and accomplished great things. Without deliberation they undertook the arduous task a.s.signed them and faced its hazards. They had to contemplate hard privations, and it might be disease, accident, or even a lingering and lonely death. These were the terms--the necessary terms--on which they engaged in their uncertain and perilous speculation. They went forth not knowing whither they went; but their Heavenly Father watched over them and protected them from dangers, seen and unseen. He was especially struck with the providence of G.o.d in the case of McKinlay. The flood of waters which troubled him might have been a deluge to sweep him away, but, by the gracious overruling providence of G.o.d his life was preserved, and he was now in their midst.

Both Landsborough and McKinlay had returned none the worse for wear, but fresh and blooming, he would say, for the tan which they got from the sun seemed to him to be the richest of blooms. (Laughter.) They were the very models of fine, stalwart men. He thanked G.o.d for it, who was the author of all their talents and all their gifts. Their wonderful success, under G.o.d, was attributable to their foresight, prudence, and for want of a better word he would say their bush experience. From the energy, sagacity, and unwearied patience which they had exercised the public had learnt some new things. From Mr. McKinlay they had learnt that it was possible to drive a flock of silly sheep all the way to Carpentaria and eat them up one by one at leisure. (Laughter.) They had further learnt that old horse was very palatable beef to a hungry man, and that boiled camel was a savoury morsel in a weary wilderness. (Renewed laughter.) From Mr. Landsborough they had learnt the important lesson that it was most wise to rest and refresh both man and beast upon that seventh day which had been ordained us a universal blessing. (Hear, hear.) He quite enjoyed hearing of Mr. Landsborough and his men luxuriating on a breakfast of meat and pig-weed, followed, after a due interval, by an epicurean dinner of cold rice and jam. (A laugh.) The result of their explorations had been immense, for they had probably tripled, or even quadrupled, the extent of territory in Australia available for settlement, and added greatly to the resources of the country. The advantages thus secured for pastoral purposes were beyond all calculation, though they could not now be appreciated as they would be hereafter. They deserved well of their country. In all ages such services as they had rendered had been regarded as national benefactions. The principle of the state rewarding such services had been recognised in this colony and had been reduced to practice. Recompense was decreed by Parliament to the discoverers of new goldfields, and the admirable const.i.tution of this colony had provided a most soothing consolation, in the shape of 1800 pounds per annum, to requite the devotion of those self-sacrificing spirits who consented to bow their studious heads and delicate shoulders to the responsibilities of government for the weary s.p.a.ce of two whole years. (Laughter.) If such were the case, what was the debt which the country owed to those great national benefactors, the explorers. Their discoveries had opened the eyes of the people of Australia to the fact that G.o.d had given them a most wealthy inheritance, which might be compared to the whole world in miniature. It had the best of every clime under the sun, and the gifts of nature were scattered with great profusion. As to the precious metals it might turn out that what had been found was only an earnest of what was to follow; but there could be no doubt that Australia was to be the woolgrower of the whole world, and that it would grow cotton to feed all the mills of England. Dr.

Cairns concluded by moving the following resolution:

That this meeting begs, in the most cordial manner, to welcome the explorers, Messrs. Landsborough and McKinlay, on their safe return, and to express admiration of the many excellent qualities displayed by them in the prosecution of their arduous enterprise, and considers that it is a duty to acknowledge the hand of Divine Providence in preserving them in the midst of danger.

Mr. King, who was received with great acclamation, said it afforded him much pleasure to be present on that occasion and join with so many of his fellow-colonists in congratulating Mr. Landsborough and Mr. McKinlay on their safe arrival in Melbourne. (Applause.) He was the more glad to offer his congratulations because he knew the arduous nature of the journey which Messrs. Landsborough and McKinlay had accomplished. He was little accustomed to appear or to speak in public, but he should have been sorry to miss this opportunity of expressing his thanks to Mr.

Landsborough and Mr. McKinlay for the manner in which they had endeavoured to come to the relief of the party of which Burke and Wills were at the head. However successful they might have been in that expedition they could have been of very little service to Burke and Wills, for it would have been impossible to reach them in time to save their lives. He had much pleasure in seconding the resolution and in congratulating Messrs. Landsborough and McKinlay upon their safe arrival in Victoria. (Cheers.)

The resolution was put and unanimously adopted amidst cheers, as were also the resolutions subsequently proposed.