The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 Part 21

On the next start they came in fourteen miles to a large gum creek, with very fair-sized sheets of water in it, and as they followed it down they pa.s.sed the encampment of some natives, but did not take any notice of them, keeping steadily on their course. Finding no water lower down the creek, they had to return. When close to the place where they crossed the creek in the morning, and the evening rapidly closing in, they were suddenly surrounded by a number of well-armed natives, who started out of a scrub they were pa.s.sing through. All signs of friendship, masonic or otherwise, were thrown away on them, and at last, after receiving two or three showers of boomerangs and waddies they had to turn and fire on them. So bold and determined were they in their attack upon the three men, that Stuart had to return to his camp of the night before still followed by them. Here he had to make up his mind to abandon his further progress for the present. He had too small a party to stand a pitched battle with the aboriginal proprietors; the water behind them was failing, and they had suffered considerable loss in their horses. Most wisely Stuart determined to return.

On the 27th June he commenced his retreat. On reaching the Bonney he halted for a few days, during which time the cloudy aspect of the sky made him entertain the idea of another effort to reach the Victoria River; but no rain fell, and he had to keep on his way. On the 26th of August the party arrived at Mr. Brodie's camp at Hamilton Springs, all of them very weak and reduced.

After the result of Stuart's expedition had been reported in Adelaide, and it was seen how inadequate means alone had led to the retreat of the explorer, the Government voted 2,500 to equip a larger and better-organized party, of which he was to take command. Meanwhile, such a report of the results of the journey as the Government thought might prove useful to the leaders of the Victorian expedition, then on the march, was forwarded, but, as will be seen, shared the same chapter of accidents that beset that unfortunate expedition, and never reached them.

This time Stuart's party numbered at the final start, ten men and forty-seven horses; and by the end of January, 1861, they were fairly on their way outside the settled districts, and here we must leave them to turn to that other expedition, the issue of which attracted so much attention throughout the world.

Public opinion is notably fickle, and never more so than when dealing with the memories of distinguished men. No guide, no standard is followed in the matter; the recognition of their services is made solely a matter of sentiment.

Poor Kennedy, who, confronted with almost insurmountable difficulties, hara.s.sed by hostile natives, and ill-provisioned at the start, lost his life, and the majority of his party, in a gallant effort to fulfil his task, is almost forgotten, save by the few who take an interest in the history of our country. Whilst Burke--who left the settlements, equipped with everything that a generous people could provide, and that the experience of others could suggest, to make the journey safe and ensure its success--travelled through a country that is now a vast sheep and cattle walk; and frittered away his magnificent resources, wantonly sacrificing his own life and those of his men, is elevated into a hero.

It may truly be said that for the fate of the two leaders, the mistakes of others must be greatly held accountable; but at the same time it must be also kept strongly in view that, for the want of judgment that placed Burke in such a position that the mistake of a subordinate could entail such fatal results, he alone was responsible.

The action of Victoria in sending out the expedition of discovery under Burke and Wills, was, without doubt, exceptional in the annals of exploration; it was an instance of a public body emulating the generous act of a private individual. The colony itself had no territory left to explore. Her rich and compact little province was known from end to end, and it was not with her, as with others, a case of necessity to send her sons into the wilderness, to open fresh fields for emigration.

Whatever then was the upshot of the expedition, and whatever the guilty mismanagement attaching to its progress, the colony must ever look back with pride upon the n.o.ble and unselfish motives that prompted its inauguration.

Without counting the cost of the relief parties, seven lives were laid down, and over 12,000 expended, and it was all cheerfully rendered; and Victoria, in her one expedition, had the satisfaction of knowing that her representatives carried off the coveted prize, and were the first to cross the continent from south to north.

The money for the expenses was subscribed as follows:-- 6,000 voted by Government, 1,000 subscribed by Mr. Ambrose Kyte, and the balance of the 12,000 made up by public subscription.

The outfit was on a most lavish scale; camels were imported from Peshawar, with native drivers; provisions and stores for twelve months provided, and no expense spared to render the whole appointments the most complete ever provided for an exploring expedition. When the party was organised, it consisted of the leader, R. O'Hara Burke; second in command, G. J. Landells, who had brought the camels from India; third, W.

J. Wills, astronomical and meteorological observer., Dr. Hermann Beckler, medical officer and botanist; Dr. Ludwig Becker, artist, naturalist, and geologist; ten white men, and three camel drivers.

It was a gala day when they left Melbourne, and their progress through the settled districts was a triumphant march; it almost seemed that Fate was playing with them in very mockery, smiling at the thought of the return.

The choice of the leader has always been a puzzle to most men, and it can only be accounted for in two ways. First, that the committee of management did not wish (as was only natural) to go outside of the colony for a man, and the tried and experienced explorers were all residents in other colonies; secondly, that the committee was, with two notable exceptions, composed of men quite unable to judge of the qualities essential in a leader; for the man of their choice, the unfortunate Burke, was most singularly unfitted for the position.

Burke was an Irishman, from the county of Galway. He had been in the Austrian service, and also in the Irish mounted constabulary. At the time when he applied for the post, which unhappily was awarded to him, he was an inspector of mounted police at Castlemaine. His appointment as leader was strongly supported by the chairman of the committee, Sir William Stawell, and it appears to have been backed up by those kind of general testimonials as to ability which recommend a man almost equally for any grade or position. Of special apt.i.tude or scientific training he possessed no pretension, and his selection was a fatal blunder. In saying this, there is no reflection on the private character of the mistaken leader; he paid for the wrong estimation he held of his own fitness with his life, and the fault rests with those who placed him in a position where he also was responsible for the lives of others. After pa.s.sing in review the different expeditions that have added so much l.u.s.tre to our history, and striving to judge dispa.s.sionately of the characters of the men who, with good and evil fortune, have commanded them, one cannot help being struck by the exaggerated and misplaced stress laid upon the reputation Burke possessed for personal bravery. The calm and simple courage of Sturt, the cool judgment and forethought of Mitch.e.l.l, the devotion of Austin, seem all to have been lost sight of by writers, who extol Burke in a way that would lead men to believe that every other Australian leader must have been an abject craven. This mistaken laudation has done more to glaringly parade Burke's many failings than more modest and judicious praise would have done.

Of his second, W. J. Wills (who shared the fate of his leader), he appears to have been a man eminently possessed of most of the qualities that would fit him for the position he held, but apparently tempered with an amiability of disposition that led him to give way completely to the rash judgment of his superior, without striving to temper that rashness.

Before the expedition travelled outside of the settled country, trouble appeared. First, Landells resigned in consequence of a quarrel with the leader. On returning to Melbourne, he expressed publicly an opinion that, under Burke's management, the expedition would be attended by most disastrous results.

Wright was then appointed third in charge, and he apparently had not the most remote idea of any of the functions entailed on him by his position, and has since been blamed as having caused the final catastrophe. He joined the party at Menindie, which, for the purpose of explanation, may be said to occupy the same position on the Darling as Laidley's Ponds, whence Sturt started for the interior.

The foregoing estimate of the men holding the princ.i.p.al commands is essential to enable the reader to understand how the astonishing blunders were so constantly perpetrated, that brought the whole campaign to such utter grief.

From Menindie to Cooper's Creek was the next stage, but the country now being fairly well known, they did not follow the route of Sturt the explorer. The main body of the party was left behind. Burke took with him Wills, six men, five horses, and sixteen camels, leaving the others to follow afterwards under the guidance of Wright, who went two hundred miles with them to point out the best route. They left Menindie on the 19th of October, 1860. On the 11th of November they arrived at Cooper's Creek, and here they camped, waiting for the arrival of Wright with the main body, and making short excursions to the northward. Gra.s.s and water were both plentiful, and up to their arrival at Cooper's Creek the journey had not been so arduous as an ordinary overlanding trip with cattle.

Wright's non-arrival, and the delay caused thereby, seemed to have worked upon Burke's impatient temper, and the extraordinary notion came into his head to divide his party of eight, and with three men to start across the continent to the Gulf of Carpentaria, leaving the others in charge of Brahe, to await his return, and also Wright's long-delayed arrival. On the 16th December, 1860, Burke, having with him Wills, King, and Gray, six camels, two horses, and three months' provisions, started on this tramp, which for perverse absurdity stands unequalled. The first duty of a man entrusted with such a large party, was to have carried out its chief aim and mission of reporting on the geographical features and formation of the country he was sent to explore, and bringing back the fullest and most minute account of it, and its productions. Burke, during the most important part of his journey, left behind him his botanist, naturalist, and geologist, and started without even the means at his disposal of following up any discoveries he might make. His sole thought evidently was to cross to Carpentaria and back, and be able to say that he had done so--a most unworthy ambition on the part of the leader of such a party, containing within itself all the elements of geographical research, and one that could certainly not have been antic.i.p.ated by the promoters. After all the pains and cost expended in the organisation of this expedition, we have now the spectacle of the main body, including two of the scientific members, loitering on the outskirts of the settled districts; four men killing time on the banks of Cooper's Creek, and the leader and three others racing headlong across the country ahead, all four of them being utterly inexperienced men. As might be expected, the results of the journey are most barren. Burke scarcely troubled to keep any journal at all.

Wills' diary, too, is sadly uninteresting--it is but the baldest record of the day's doings, and dest.i.tute of the sympathetic style which is so essential in an explorer's log. From it we find that their first point was to make Eyre's Creek, but, before reaching it, they discovered a fine water-course coming from the north that took them a long distance on their way, there being abundance of both water and gra.s.s along its banks.

From where this creek turned to the eastward they kept steadily north, the rivers, fortunately for them, keeping mostly a north and south course. They crossed the dividing range at the head of the Cloncurry River, and by following that river down reached the Flinders, and, finally, the mangroves and salt water in February, 1861. At the end of his scanty notes, Burke says:--

"28th March. At the conclusion of report, it would be as well to say that we reached the sea, but we could not obtain a view of the open ocean, although we made every endeavour to do so."

Wills' description of their arrival is as follows:

"Finding the ground in such a state from the heavy falls of rain that the camels could scarcely be got along, it was decided to leave them at camp 119, and for Mr. Burke and I to proceed towards the sea on foot, After breakfast, we accordingly started, taking with us the horse and three days' provisions. Our first difficulty was in crossing Billy's Creek, which we had to do where it enters the river, a few hundred yards below the camp. In getting the horse in here he got bogged in a quicksand so deeply as to be unable to stir, and we only succeeded in extricating him by undermining him on the creek side, and then lunging him into the water. Having got all the things in safety, we continued down the river bank, which bent about from east to west, but kept a general north course. A great deal of the land was so soft and rotten that the horse, with only one saddle on and twenty-five pounds on his back, could scarcely walk over it. At a distance of about five miles we again had him bogged, in crossing a small creek, after which he seemed so weak that we had some doubts about getting him on. We, however, found some better ground close to the water's edge, where the sandstone rock runs out, and we stuck to it as far as possible. Finding that the river was bending about so much that we were making very little progress in a northerly direction, we struck off due north, and soon came on some tableland, where the soil is shallow and gravelly, and clothed with box and swamp gums. Patches of the land were very boggy, but the main portion was sound enough. Beyond this we came on an open plain, covered with water up to one's ankles. The soil here was a stiff clay, and the surface very uneven, so that between the tufts of gra.s.s one was frequently knee-deep in water. The bottom, however, was sound, and no fear of bogging. After floundering through this for several miles, we came to a path formed by the blacks, and there were distinct signs of a recent migration in a southerly direction. By making use of this path we got on much better, for the ground was well-trodden and hard. At rather more than a mile the path entered a forest, through which flowed a nice watercourse, and we had not gone far before we found places where the blacks had been camping. The forest was intersected by little pebbly rises, on which they made their fires, and in the sandy ground adjoining some of the former had been digging yams, [The DIOS-COREA of Carpentaria.] which seemed to be so numerous that they could afford to leave plenty of them behind, probably having selected only the very best. We were not so particular, but ate many of those that they had rejected, and found them very good.

About half a mile further we came close on a blackfellow who was coiling by a camp fire, whilst his gin and piccaninny were yabbering alongside.

We stopped for a short time to take out some of the pistols that were on the horse, and that they might see us before we were so near as to frighten them. Just after we stopped, the black got up to stretch his limbs, and after a few seconds looked in our direction. It was very amusing to see the way in which he stared, standing for some time as if he thought he must be dreaming, and then, having signalled to the others, they dropped on their haunches and shuffled off in the quietest manner possible."

It will be, however, tedious to continue the quotation, suffice it to say that they reached a channel with tidal waters, and had to return without actually seeing the open sea. Then comes a blank in Wills' diary, and when he next writes they were on their way back.

Having accomplished their task, but with little profit, for they did not actually know their position on the Gulf, being strangely out in their reckoning; mistaking the river they were on for the Albert, over a hundred miles to the westward, the retreat commenced. Short rations and hardship now began to tell, and during the struggle back to the depot there seems to have been an absence of that kindly spirit of self sacrifice which is so distinguishing a feature in nearly all the other expeditions whose lines have fallen disastrously. Gray fell sick, and stole some flour to make some gruel with; for this Burke beat him severely. Wills writes on one occasion that they had to wait, and send back for Gray, who was "gammoning" that he could not walk. Nine days afterwards the unfortunate man dies--an act which at any rate is not often successfully gammoned. But to bring the story to an end, they at last, on the evening of the 21St of April, reached the camp on Cooper's Creek, where they had left their four companions, and instead of finding the whole party there to greet them, found it lifeless and deserted.

Searching at the foot of a tree marked "dig" they found a small quant.i.ty of provisions concealed, and a note from Brahe stating that they had left only that morning. They sat down and ate a welcome supper of porridge, and considered their position. They could scarcely walk, and their camels were the same; they had fifty pounds of flour, twenty pounds of rice, sixty pounds of oatmeal, sixty pounds of sugar, and fifteen pounds of dried meat; a very fair stock if they only had had the means of transit; if Brahe had left three or four horses hobbled at the depot they would have been able to follow, but as it was they could do nothing, and all the time Brahe was only separated from them by a very short distance, had they but known it,

Burke consulted his companions as to the feasibility of their being able to overtake Brahe, and they all agreed that in their tired and enfeebled condition it was hopeless to attempt it; then, according to King's narrative, Burke said that instead of returning up the creek, their old route to Menindie, they would go down to Mount Hopeless, in South Australia, following the line taken by A. C. Gregory. Wills objected and so did King, but ultimately both gave in, and this was the death warrant of two of them.

The following paper was placed in the depot by Burke before starting:--

"Depot No. 2, Cooper's Creek, Camp 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 started on the same day. We proceed on to-morrow slowly down the creek to 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 to travel faster than two or three 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 140 deg. of east longitude. There is some good country between this and the Stony Desert. From there to the tropics the country is dry and stony. Between the tropics 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 February 11th, 1861. Greatly disappointed at finding the party here gone.

"(Signed) ROBERT O'HARA BURKE.

"April 22, 1861.

"P.S.--The camels cannot travel, and we cannot walk or we should follow the other party. We shall move very slowly down the creek."

After resting four or five days, and finding great advantage from their change of diet, the three men started, but one of the camels got bogged, and had to be shot as he lay in the creek, the explorers cutting off what meat they could from the body, and staying a couple of days to dry it in the sun. When they again started, the one camel they had left carried most of what they had, and they each took with them a bundle of about twenty-five pounds; but they made no progress, all the creeks they followed to the southward ran out into earthy plains and their one solitary beast of burden being knocked up, they had to return.

Now commenced a terrible struggle for mere existence the camel being past recovery, was shot, and the meat dried, and then the men tried to live, after the fashion of the blacks, on fish and nardoo. The natives were especially kind to the unfortunate men. In Wills' diary we find frequent mention of the liberal hospitality they extended to them, but to a great extent the novelty soon died out, and the blacks began to find their white guests rather an enc.u.mbrance, and soon commenced shifting their camps to avoid the burden of their support.

On the 27th May, Wills started alone to the depot to deposit the journals, and a note stating their condition. He reached there on the 30th, and says in his diary:--

"No traces of anyone, except blacks, have been here since we left.

Deposited some journals and a notice of our present condition."

This was the notice:--

"May 30th, 1861.

"We have been unable to leave the creek. Both camels are dead. Mr. Burke and King are down on the lower part of the creek. I am about to return to them, when we shall probably all come up this way. We are trying to live the best way we can, like the blacks, but we find it hard work. Our clothes are going fast to pieces. Send provisions and clothes as soon as possible.

"(Signed) WILLIAM J. WILLS."

"The depot party having left, contrary to instructions, has put us in this fix. I have deposited some of my journals here for fear of accidents."