The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 Part 11

"No stockyards nor cattle were visible, nor even smoke, although at the highest northern point of the bay I saw a ma.s.s of white objects, which might have been either tents or vessels."

But Mitch.e.l.l was not to arrive home without another fatality amongst his party. On October 13th, when looking for a crossing in a river, one of the men, named James Taylor, was drowned.

On the 17th, after pa.s.sing through a forest, they recognised with great satisfaction, the lofty "Yarra" trees, and the low verdant alluvial flats of the Murray. Once across the river, the boat was sunk in a deep lagoon, and the boat carriage left on the bank for the use of Stapylton. Three volunteers went back to meet him, and a.s.sist in crossing the Ovens and Goulburn. The advance party were now almost within the settled districts, and with the safe arrival of Stapylton at the Murrumbidgee, on November 11th, the history of the discovery of AUSTRALIA FELIX ends.

Sir Thomas Mitch.e.l.l had been singularly favoured during this journey, his route had led him through a country possessing every variety of feature, from snow-topped mountains to level plains, watered by permanently-flowing stream and rivers; fitted, as he says, for the immediate occupation of the grazier, and the farmer. It, therefore, was of more real benefit to the colony than the former exploratory journeys, that had met with only partial success in this respect.

He had well carried out his instructions, and obtained a full knowledge of the country south of the Murray, and of the rivers there; flowing either into that river, or into the sea; confirming the impression already entertained of the great value of the district, and the report of Hume and Hovell, who with their slender resources were unable to do much in the way of extended examination.

We have seen that the brothers Henty, of Tasmania, had formed a settlement at Portland Bay, and in 1835 the historic founding of Port Phillip settlement by Batman took place, so that the mere extension of settlement would soon have thrown open for settlement the splendid area that Mitch.e.l.l was just in time to claim as his discovery. The story of Batman's compact with the blacks, by which he a.s.serted his right to a princely territory is too well-known to require repet.i.tion; [Note, end of paragraph] it is scarcely necessary to add that such a preposterous demand was neither ratified by the government, nor recognised by the settlers.

[Note: The agreement was between Messrs. Batman, Gellibrand, Swanston, and Simpson, on the one side, and the natives were represented by Jagajaga, Cooloolook, Bungaree, Yanyan, Mowstrip, and Mommamala, the price was fixed at an annuity of two hundred a year, in return for 750,000 acres of land. Mr. Gellibrand afterwards perished in the bush with a companion, Mr. Hesse, having lost himself through persisting in keeping in the wrong direction, although warned by a guide who left them on finding Gellibrand determined to go wrong.]

It was through the energy of the Tasmanian colonists that this settlement of Port Phillip took place; as already noticed, Port Phillip was abandoned, almost without the slightest examination, by Colonel Collins in favour of Tasmania, and now, after thirty years had pa.s.sed, the abundant flocks and herds of the little island forced the owners to look to the mainland for extended pastures.

One of the incidents of the early settlement was also the discovery of Buckley, a white man, who having escaped from Collins' party in 1803, had been living with the natives ever since.

In 1836 Colonel Light surveyed the sh.o.r.es of St. Vincent's Gulf, and selected the site of the present city of Adelaide; Governor Hindmarsh and a company of emigrants soon after arrived, and the colony of South Australia was proclaimed.

The continent was now being invaded on three sides. From Perth on the western sh.o.r.e, from St. Vincent's Gulf and Port Phillip on the south, and from the settled districts of New South Wales and from Moreton Bay on the east.

Henceforth, the tale of exploration embraces many simultaneous expeditions; no longer is the whole of the narrative confined to the struggle of one man, hopelessly endeavouring to surmount the coast range, or toiling across the western plains, anxiously watched by the little community at Port Jackson. Each new-formed centre had their members pushing out, month after month, and continually adding to the knowledge of Australia.

As usual, the records of most of these private expeditions have not been preserved, and the utmost the historian can do is to trace out the broad lines of discovery, leaving the reader to consider the detail filled in by the monotonous, if valuable, and untiring efforts of the pioneer squatters. Already these men and their subordinates were close on the footsteps of the explorers; should the adventurer remain some months absent from civilization, he found, on his return, settlement far across what had been the frontier line when he departed. Hundreds of lives have been laid down in this service, under as strong a sense of duty, and under circ.u.mstances as heroic as any of the deaths in the roll of martial history, and the names of the victims unknown, and their graves unhonoured. They have only been members of the great band ever forcing a way, and smoothing a road for a commercial population, to whom their deeds, their struggles, their hopes, and their fates are often but a sealed book. But the feelings of a man who knows that he has founded homes for future thousands, must be a greater recompense than any his fellowmen could give him.

CHAPTER V.

Lieutenants Grey and Lushington on the West Coast--Narrow escape--Start with an equipment of Timor ponies--Grey wounded by the natives--Cave drawings--Return, having discovered the Glenelg--Grey's second expedition--Landed at Bernier Island, in Shark's Bay, with three whale-boats--Cross to borne Island--Violent storm--Discovery of the Gascoyne--Return to Bernier Island--Find their CACHe of provisions destroyed by a hurricane--Hopeless position--Attempted landing at Gautheaume Bay--Destruction of the boats--Walk to Perth--Great sufferings--Death of Smith--Eyre and the overlanders--Discovery of Lake Hindmarsh--Exploration of Gippsland--Eyre's explorations to the north--Discovery of Lake Torrens--Disappointment in the country bordering on it--Determines to go to King George's Sound--Repeated attempts to reach the head of the Great Australian Bight--Loss of horses--Barren and scrubby country--Final determination to send back most of the party-- Starts with overseer and three natives--Hardship and suffering--Murder of the overseer by two of the natives--Eyre continues his journey with the remaining boy--Relieved by the MISSISSIPPI whaler--Reaches King George's Sound.

An expedition, most unique in its composition, now made an attempt on the west coast to penetrate inland, and also verify the existence or non-existence of the large river, still currently supposed to find its way into the sea at Dampier's Archipelago. The expedition was placed under the command of Lieutenant Grey, Mr. Lushington acting as second in command. It originated in England, and its members, with one exception, were what would locally be called "new chums." The one exception was a sailor, named Ruston, who had been with Captain King on one of his surveying voyages; an experience that, under an older leader might have made him a most serviceable man, but, otherwise, scarcely deserved the stress that Grey laid upon his acquisition. Most of the equipment was procured at the Cape of Good Hope, where a small vessel--the LYNHER--was chartered, and the landing-place in Australia was at Hanover Bay, on the extreme north-west coast, near the mouth of the Prince Regent's River; though, why this particular point was chosen, does not appear quite clear. Being becalmed a short distance from Hanover Bay, the foolish impetuosity of the young explorers very nearly put an abrupt ending to their journey. Grey, Lushington, and four men landed, and started to walk across to Hanover Bay, there to be picked up again by the LYNHER. It was December, the middle of a tropical summer, and they took with them two pints of water. They all very soon knocked up. Grey swam across an inlet to try and signal the schooner, and nearly lost his life doing so.

Fortunately, the the flashes of their guns, with which they kept firing distress signals, were noticed on board, and a boat came to their rescue.

This was an inauspicious beginning.

After landing the stores, the LYNHER sailed for Timor, to procure some ponies and other live stock, and on the 17th of January, 1838, she returned. At the end of January, Grey and his party started from the coast with twenty-six half-broken Timor ponies as a baggage train, and some sheep and goats. The rainy season had set in, and the stock began to die almost before they had well started, added to which, the party were entangled in steep ravines and spurs from the coast range, and their strength worn out in useless ascents and descents. On the 11th of February, they came into collision with the natives, and Grey was severely wounded.

On the leader recovering sufficiently to be lifted on one of the ponies, a fresh start was made, and on the 2nd of March they were rewarded by finding a river, which they called the Glenelg, unaware that Mitch.e.l.l had already usurped the name. The adventurers followed the course of this river upward, traversing good country, well gra.s.sed and timbered, so far as their limited experience allowed them to judge. Sometimes their route was on the river's bank, and at other times by keeping to the foot of a sandstone range that ran parallel with its course, they were enabled to cut off some wearisome bends.

The party continued on the Glenelg for many days until they were checked by a large tributary coming from the north, causing them to fall back on the range, both the river and its tributary being swollen and flooded. On this range they discovered some curious paintings and drawings in the caves scattered amongst the rocks, also a head in profile cut in the face of a sandstone rock. [See Appendix.] Unable to find a pa.s.s through the mountains, which barred their western progress, and greatly weakened by his wound, Grey determined to return, but before doing so he sent Mr.

Lushington some distance ahead, who, however, could find no noticeable change in the country.

The expedition, therefore retraced their footsteps, and on the 15th of April they reached Hanover Bay, and found the schooner at anchor, and H.M.S. BEAGLE lying in the neighbouring Port George the Fourth. Thus ended the first expedition; toil, danger, and hardships having been incurred for little or no purpose, the discovery of the Glenelg River being the only result obtained, and perhaps, some little experience. The party having embarked, they sailed for the Isle of France in the Mauritius, where they safely arrived.

In August, Grey visited the Swan River, and endeavoured to get a.s.sistance from Sir James Stirling, the Governor, to continue his explorations; no vessel being available, he had to wait some time before making a start, during which delay he made short excursions from Perth into the surrounding country.

On the 17th of February, 1839, he started once more in an American whaler, taking with him three whale-boats. The objects of this expedition are not very definite. The whaler was to land them and their boats at Shark's Bay, or on one of the islands: there they intended to form a depot. After examining the bay, and making such incursions inland as they found possible, they were to extend their operations to the north as long as their provisions lasted, when they would return to the depot and make their way south.

The party consisted of Grey himself, four of his former companions, a young volunteer, Mr. Frederick Smith, five other men, and a native, twelve in all. They were landed on Bernier Island, and at once their troubles commenced. The whaler sailed away taking with her, by an oversight, their whole supply of tobacco; there was no water on the island, and on the first attempt to start one of the boats was smashed up and nearly half a ton of stores lost. The next day they landed at Dorre Island, and that night both their boats were driven ash.o.r.e by a violent storm.

Two or three days were occupied repairing damages, and then they made the mainland and obtained a supply of fresh water.

They landed near the mouth of a river, which, however, was dry above tidal influence, and Grey christened it the Gascoyne. After a short examination of the surrounding country, they pulled up the coast to the north, and effecting a landing one night, both boats were swamped, to the great damage of their already spoiled provisions. Here Grey ascended a hill to look upon the surrounding country, and was so deceived by the mirage, that he believed he had discovered a great lake studded with islands; in company with three of his men he started on a weary tramp after the constantly shifting vision, needless to say without reaching it. Returning to the boats they found themselves prisoners for a time, until the wind dropped and the surf abated a little, and here they had to remain for a week sick, hungry and weary, and at one time threatened and attacked by the blacks. At last a slight cessation in the gale tempted them, and they got the boats out and made for the mouth of the Gascoyne, where they refilled their water breakers. On March 20th, they made an effort to fetch their depot on Bernier Island in the teeth of the foul weather, and reached it to find that during their absence a hurricane had swept the island, and their h.o.a.rded stores were scattered to the winds.

Their position was now nearly desperate, the southerly winds had set in, they had a surf-beaten sh.o.r.e to coast along, and no food of any sort worth mentioning, added to which, as may be well supposed, they were all weak and exhausted.

There was nothing for it, however, but to put out to sea again, and they managed to reach Gautheaume Bay on the 31st of March; in attempting a landing, the boat Grey was in was dashed on a rock, and the other boat too received such great damage that it was impossible to repair either of them. Nothing was now left, but to walk to Perth, and so wearied had the men become of fighting with the wind and sea, that they even welcomed this hazardous prospect as a change. They were about three hundred miles from the Swan River and had twenty pounds of damaged flour, and one pound of salt pork per man, to carry them there.

Soon after starting, a diversity of opinion sprang up about the best mode of progressing. Grey wished to get over as much ground as possible while their strength held out; most of the men, however, were in favour of proceeding slowly, taking constant rests. This feeling increased so much that, when within two hundred miles of Perth, Grey found it necessary to take with him some picked men, and push on, leaving the others to follow at their leisure. He reached Perth after terrible suffering and privation, and a relief party was at once sent out, but they only found one man, who had left the others, thinking they were travelling too slow.

Meanwhile, Walker, the second in charge, had come into Perth, and related that, being the strongest, he had pushed on in order to get relief sent back to the remainder. Another party, under Surveyor-General Roe, left in search, and after some trouble in tracking the erratic wanderings of the unfortunates, came upon them hopelessly gazing at a point of rocks, that stopped their march along the beach, not having sufficient strength left to climb it. They had been then three days without any water but sea water, and a revolting subst.i.tute, which they still had in their canteens. Poor young Smith, a lad of eighteen was dead. [ See Appendix.]

He had lain down and died two days before they were found. He was buried in the wilderness.

During these two expeditions Grey had faced death in every shape, and shown great powers of endurance, but the results of all his toil were but meagre, and of no very great importance. He had crossed and named the rivers running into the west coast, between where he abandoned his boats and the Moore River, but in the state he was in he knew little more than the fact that they were there, having neither strength nor resources to follow them up and determine their courses. Grey claims the discovery of the Gascoyne, Murchison, Hutt, Bower, Buller, Chapman, Greenough, Irwin, Arrowsmith, and Smith Rivers. This disastrous journey may be said to have concluded his services to Australia as an explorer, although he afterwards, when Governor of South Australia, made an excursion to the south-east, but it was through comparatively stocked and well-known country in the neighbourhood of the Glenelg and Mount Gambier. Before being appointed Governor of South Australia, he was Acting Government Resident at Albany, King George's Sound.

Grey's mishaps, and the straits to which he reduced his party by his occasional want of forethought and precaution, show plainly that enthusiasm, courage, and a generous spirit of self-sacrifice are not the only requisites in an explorer, more important even, being the long training and teaching of experience.

Grey had given a very glowing description of the fertile appearance of a portion of the country he pa.s.sed through, and some of the colonists were eager to make use of such a promising district. The schooner CHAMPION was therefore directed to examine the coast and see if any of the rivers had navigable entrances. Mr. Moore, after whom the Moore River was named, was on board of the vessel, but no entrance was effected, although the party rather confirmed Grey's report. Captain Stokes, of the BEAGLE, however, soon after made a thorough examination of this part of the coast, and his report was so unfavourable that its immediate settlement was postponed.

It follows now, that the unexplored country west of the Darling being so much sooner reached from Adelaide than from Sydney, the former town became the point of departure from which, in future, the expeditions for the interior started.

But the rush for country, and the constant influx of stock from the mother colony, led to a series of petty explorations being continually carried on throughout the rapidly-rising district south and east of the Murray. Some of these were undertaken in quest of new runs, others in order to find the best and shortest stock routes; and the record of most of them is only preserved in the memoirs Of personal friends of the pioneers.

Edward John Eyre, who afterwards made the celebrated journey to Western Australia round the head of the Great Bight, began his bush experiences in this way. Messrs. Hawdon, Gardiner and Bonney, also about the same time, made various trips from New South Wales to Port Phillip, and from thence to Adelaide, and many minor discoveries were the result of those journeys. The he outflow and courses of rivers being determined, and the speculations of their first discoveries corrected or confirmed; as instance of this, may be mentioned the discovery of Lake Hindmarsh, which receives the Wimmera, River, the course of which had puzzled Mitch.e.l.l when he discovered it in July, 1836.

Eyre left Port Phillip for Adelaide early in 1838. The usual course had been to strike to the Murray, and then to follow that river down. He intended to try a straighter route, and for a time did well; but, at last, finding himself in a tract of dry country, across which he could not take the cattle with safety, he determined to follow the Wimmera north, thinking it would take him on to the banks of the Murray, and would probably turn out to be the Lindsay junction of Sturt. From Mitch.e.l.l's furthest point he traced it some considerable distance to the north-west, and at last found its termination in a large swampy lake, which he named Lake Hindmarsh, after the first Governor of South Australia. From this lake he found no outlet; so, leaving his cattle, and taking with him two men, he made an effort to reach the Murray. But the country was covered with an almost impenetrable scrub, and as there was neither gra.s.s nor water for the horses, he was forced to turn back, reaching his camp only after a weary tramp on foot, the horses having died. According to Eyre's chart, they were within five and twenty miles of the Murray when they turned back. Eyre was thus forced to retrace his steps and make for the nearest available route to the Murray, and follow that river down.

Bonney's trip from Portland Bay to Adelaide was about a year subsequently. He pursued a more southerly and westerly course, and managed to get through in safety, but experienced great hardships on the way. One of a series of lakes or marshes was found, and named Lake Hawdon.

At the end of November, 1839, Colonel Gawler, then Governor of South Australia, made an excursion to the Murray, for the purpose of examining the country around Lake Victoria, and to the westward of the great bend.

He was accompanied by Captain Sturt, then Surveyor-General of the province. In the S.A. REGISTER of that date, the following paragraph shows that by this time ladies had also taken up the task of exploration:

"His Excellency the Governor, accompanied by Miss Gawler and Captain and Mrs. Sturt, left town on Friday last week on an excursion to the Murray and the interior to the north of that river. The party is expected to be absent several weeks."

It is to be presumed that Miss Gawler and Mrs. Sturt accompanied the party but a short distance; the Murray at that date affording anything but a safe camping ground. This trip, of course, did not extend sufficiently for any important geographical discoveries to be made, but it was unfortunately marked by one of the fatalities that are bound to be a feature of exploration. Leaving the river they penetrated into waterless country, and the horses knocked up. Colonel Gawler and Mr.

Bryan pushed back on the freshest animals, intending to bring back water for the others, but on the way Bryan gave in, and the Governor had to go on alone. On coming back with relief Bryan was nowhere to be found, a note was pinned to his coat, which was lying on the spot where he had been left, stating that he had gone to the south-east, much exhausted; but although all search was made he was never found.

Meantime, we have lost sight entirely of the north coast, and the attempts at settlement in that quarter. The little BEAGLE had been working industriously up there; but the account of her voyage belongs to the history of maritime discovery, where it will be found; however, on this occasion she visited a newly-formed, or rather twice-formed, settlement, Port Essington. This station, after the visit by Captain Bremer, was, it will be remembered, abandoned. In 1838, its former founder, now Sir Gordon Bremer, resettled it, and the nucleus of a township was formed. This time it seemed, at first, more likely to thrive; but very little was done in the way of exploration, and its existence added nothing to our knowledge of the northern interior. From a letter of one of the officers of the Beagle we learn that:--

"A good substantial mole, overlooked by a small battery, with some respectable-sized houses in the rear, gives the settlement rather an imposing appearance from the water, which I imagine is the object at present aimed at--to make an impression on the visiting Malays, the success of the colony depending so much on them."