Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia Volume II Part 13

May 22.

This morning the bullock-drivers gave so favourable an account of the pasture that I determined to leave a depot there and to set out next morning with the rest of the party for the Darling. The day was therefore pa.s.sed in making the necessary arrangements. I proposed leaving Mr.

Stapylton with eight trusty men; and to take with me the rest, consisting of fifteen, including Burnett and Piper. I calculated on being absent four weeks at most; and rations for the supply of the party for that time were immediately weighed out and packed, along with our tents, in two light carts which were to be drawn by five bullocks each. Thus I expected to be able to travel fifteen miles a day; and to have the men in better order for dealing with the fire-eaters of the Darling than when they were all occupied as bullock-drivers, carters, etc. etc.

MY HORSE KILLED BY THE KICK OF A MARE.

May 23.

Before I got up this morning I was informed that the same unlucky mare which had already caused the death of one of the horses had just broken the thigh of my own horse; and thus I was forced to have it shot when it was in better condition than usual, having been spared from working much for some time that it might be fresh for this excursion. Such an inauspicious event on the morning of my intended departure for the Darling was by no means encouraging. I left The Widow at the depot camp, having given directions that she should have rations and that every care should be taken of the child whose broken limb had been set and bound to a board in such a manner that the little patient could not, by moving, disturb the bone in healing. Mr. Stapylton was aware of the necessity for preventing The Widow from going back just then, lest she might have fallen into the hands of any pilfering tribe likely to follow us. The accident which had befallen Ballandella (of whom she was very fond) was however likely to be a tie on her, at least until our return; for it would have been very injurious to have moved the child in less than several weeks. A stockyard was to be erected for the cattle that they might be brought up there every night during our absence; and the men appointed to remain at the depot were told off in watches for the cattle and camp.

PROCEED TO THE DARLING WITH A PORTION OF THE PARTY.

Mr. Stapylton and I then separated with a mutual and most sincere wish that we should meet again as soon as possible. The position of the camp was excellent, being on the elevated edge of a plain overlooking an extensive reach of water, and surrounded with gra.s.s in greater abundance and variety than we had seen in any part for some time.

During our progress this day we were for some miles in danger of being shut in by the creek extending from the lake, as it increased prodigiously and at length resembled a still reach of the Murrumbidgee itself. After crossing it several times I was fortunate enough to be able to keep the right bank, by which we got clear, pa.s.sing along the edge of a slight fall which looked like the berg of the main stream.

REACH THE MURRAY.

At 7 1/2 miles we crossed ground of a more open character than any we had seen for some days; and it appeared to belong to the river margin, as it was marked by some yarra trees. On approaching this river I judged, from the breadth of its channel, that we were already on the banks of the Murray. Thus without making any detour, and much sooner than I had reason to expect from the engraved map, we had reached the Murray, and our depot thus proved to be in the best situation for subsequently crossing that river at its junction with the Murrumbidgee, as originally intended.

Leaving a little plain on our right, we entered the goborro or box-forest with the intention of keeping near the river; but from this we had to recede on meeting with a small but deep branch of the stream with some water in it. Proceeding next directly towards some high trees at the western extremity of the plains, we reached a favourable bend of the Murray and there encamped.

ITS BREADTH AT OUR CAMP. DESCRIPTION OF ITS BANKS.

This magnificent stream was 165 yards broad, its waters were whitish, as if tinged with some flood; the height of the red bank, not subject to inundation, was 25 feet and by comparing these measurements with the Murrumbidgee, which at Weyeba was 50 yards wide, with banks 11 feet high (and that seemed a fine river) some idea may be formed of the Murray.* At the place where we encamped the river had no bergs, for its bank consisted of the common red earth covered with the acacia bushes and scrub of the interior plains. The land at the point opposite was lower and sandy, and a slight rapid was occasioned in the stream by a ridge of ironstone.

(*Footnote. See comparative sections of these and other rivers to one scale on the General Map in Volume 1.)

May 24.

It was quite impossible to say on what part of the Murray, as laid down by Captain Sturt, we had arrived; and we were therefore obliged to feel our way just as cautiously as if we had been upon a river unexplored. The ground was indeed a tolerable guide, especially after we found that this river also had bergs which marked the line of separation between the desert plain or scrub and the good gra.s.sy forest-land of which the river-margin consisted. As we proceeded I found it best to keep along the bergs as much as possible in order to avoid ana-branches* of the river.

Where the bergs receded forest land with the goborro or dwarf-box intervened. In travelling over ground of this description we crossed, at two miles from the camp, a dry creek or branch, and another at a mile and a quarter further.

(*Footnote. Having experienced on this journey the inconvenient want of terms relative to rivers I determined to use such of those recommended by Colonel Jackson in his able paper on the subject, in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society for 1833, as I might find necessary. They are these: Tributary: Any stream adding to the main trunk.

Ana-branches: Such as after separation unite.

Berg, bergs: Heights now at some distance, once the immediate banks of a river or lake.

Bank: That part washed by the existing stream.

Border: The vegetation at the water's edge, forest trees, or quays of granite, etc.

Brink: The water's edge.

Margin: The s.p.a.ce between the brinks and the bergs.)

MEET WITH A TRIBE.

Soon after we entered a small plain bounded on the west by another dry channel, and beyond this we were prevented from continuing in the direction in which I wished to travel by a creek full of water, obliging us to turn northward and eastward of north until I at length found a crossing-place, and just as we perceived smoke at some distance beyond the other bank. To this smoke Piper had hastened, and when I reached a plain beyond the creek I saw him carrying on a flying conversation with an old man and several gins who were retiring in a north-west direction to a wood about a mile distant.

LAKE BENANEE.

This wood we also at length reached, and we found that it encircled a beautiful lake full sixteen miles in circ.u.mference and swarming with natives both on the beach and in canoes.

The alarm of our arrival was then resounding among the natives whom I saw in great numbers along its western sh.o.r.es. This lake, like all those we had previously seen, was surrounded by a ridge of red earth, rather higher than the adjacent plains, and it was evidently fed, during high floods, by the creek we had crossed. I travelled due west from the berg of this lake along the plain which extended in that direction a mile and three-quarters. We then came to another woody hollow or channel in which I could at first see only a field of polygonum, although we soon found in it a broad deep reach of still water. In tracing it to the left or from the lake towards the river, we found it increased so much in width and depth, after tracing it three-quarters of a mile, that a pa.s.sage in that direction seemed quite out of the question. Many of the natives who had followed us in a body from the lake overtook us here. They a.s.sured Piper that we were near the junction of this piece of water with the Millewa (Murray) and that in the opposite direction, or towards the lake, they could show us a ford. We accordingly turned and we came to a narrow place where the natives had a fish-net set across. On seeing us preparing to pa.s.s through the ford, they told Piper that, at a point still higher up, we might cross where the channel was dry. Thither therefore we went, the natives accompanying us in considerable numbers, but each carrying a green bough. Among them were several old men who took the most active part and who were very remarkable from the bushy fulness and whiteness of their beards and hair; the latter growing thickly on the back and shoulders gave them a very singular appearance, and accorded well with that patriarchal authority which the old men seem to maintain to an astonishing degree among these native tribes. The aged chiefs from time to time beckoned to us, repeating very often and fast at the same time "goway, goway, goway," which, strange to say, means "come, come, come."

Their gesture and action being also precisely such as we should use in calling out "go away!" We crossed the channel at length where the bed was quite dry, and pitched our tents on the opposite side.

DISCOVER THE NATIVES TO BE THOSE LAST SEEN ON THE DARLING.

It will however be readily understood with what caution we followed these natives when we discovered, almost as soon as we fell in with them, that they were actually our old enemies from the Darling! I had certainly heard, when still far up on the Lachlan, that these people were coming down to fight us; but I little expected they were to be the first natives we should meet with on the Murray, at a distance of nearly two hundred miles from the scene of our former encounter. There was something so false in a forced loud laugh, without any cause, which the more plausible among them would frequently set up, that I was quite at a loss to conceive what they meant by all this uncommon civility. In the course of the afternoon they a.s.sembled their women and children in groups before our camp, exactly as they had formerly done on the Darling; and one or two small parties came in, whose arrival they seemed to watch with particular attention, hailing them while still at a distance as if to prevent mistakes. We now ascertained through Piper that the tribe had fled precipitately from the Darling last year to the country westward, and did not return until last summer, when they found the two bullocks we left there; which, having become fat, they had killed and eaten. We also ascertained that some of the natives then in the camp wore the teeth of the slaughtered animals, and that they had much trouble in killing one of them, as it was remarkably fierce. This we knew so well to the character of one of the animals that we had always supposed it would baffle every attempt of these savages to take it.

In the group before me were pointed out two daughters of the gin which had been killed, also a little boy, a son. The girls exactly resembled each other and reminded me of the mother. The youngest was the handsomest female I had ever seen amongst the natives. She was so far from black that the red colour was very apparent in her cheeks. She sat before me in a corner of the group, nearly in the att.i.tude of Mr. Bailey's fine statue of Eve at the fountain; and apparently equally unconscious that she was naked. As I looked upon her for a moment, while deeply regretting the fate of her mother, the chief who stood by, and whose hand had more than once been laid upon my cap, as if to feel whether it were proof against the blow of a waddy, begged me to accept her in exchange for a tomahawk!

HARa.s.sING NIGHT IN THEIR PRESENCE.

The evening was one of much anxiety to the whole party. The fiendish expression of some of these men's eyes shone horribly, and especially when they endeavoured to disguise it by treacherous smiles. I did not see the tall man nor the mischievous old one of last year; but there were here many disposed to act like them. One miserable-looking dirty aged man was brought forward, and particularly pointed out to me by the tribe. I accordingly showed him the usual attention of sitting down and smoothing the ground for him.* But he soon requested me to strip, on which I arose, mindful of a former vow, and perceiving the blacksmith washing himself, I called him up and pointed out the muscles of his arm to the curious sage.

The successor and brother, as the natives stated, of king Peter, was also looking on, and I made Vulcan put himself into a sparring att.i.tude and tip him a touch or two, which made him fall back one or two paces, and look half angry. We distinctly recognised the man who last year threw the two spears at Muirhead; while on their part they evidently knew again Charles King who, on that occasion, fired at the native from whose spears Tom Jones so narrowly escaped.

(*Footnote. Instead of handing a chair the equivalent of politeness with Australian natives is to smooth down or remove with the foot any sharp spikes or rubbish on the ground where you wish your friend to be seated before you.)

Night had closed in and these groups hung still about us, having also lighted up five large fires which formed a cordon around our camp. Still I did not interfere with them, relying chiefly on the sagacity and vigilance of Piper whom I directed to be particularly on the alert. At length Burnett came to inform me that they had sent away all their gins, that there was no keeping them from the carts, and that they seemed bent on mischief.

PIPER ALARMED.

Piper also took alarm and came to me inquiring, apparently with a thoughtful sense of responsibility, what the Governor had said to me about shooting blackfellows. "These," he continued, "are only Myalls"

(wild natives). His gin had overheard them arranging that three should seize and strip him, while others attacked the tents. I told him the Governor had said positively that I was not to shoot blackfellows unless our own lives were in danger. I then went out--it was about eight o'clock--and I saw one fellow, who had always been very forward, posted behind our carts and speaking to Piper's wife.

ROCKETS FIRED TO SCARE THEM AWAY.

I ordered him away, then drew up the men in line and when, as preconcerted, I sent up a rocket and the men gave three cheers, all the blacks ran off, with the exception of one old man who lingered behind a tree. They hailed us afterwards from the wood at a little distance where they made fires, saying they were preparing to corrobory and inviting us to be present. Piper told them to go on, and we heard something like a beginning to the dance, but the hollow sounds they made resembled groans more than any sort of music, and we saw that they did not, in fact, proceed with the dance. It was necessary to establish a double watch that night and indeed none of the men would take their clothes off. The most favourable alternative that we could venture to hope for was that a collision might be avoided till daylight.

THEY AGAIN ADVANCE IN THE MORNING.

May 25.

The night pa.s.sed without further molestation on the part of the natives; but soon after daybreak they were seen advancing towards our camp. The foremost was a powerful fellow in a cloak, to whom I had been introduced by king Peter last year, and who was said to be his brother. Abreast of him, but much more to the right, two of the old men, who had reached a fallen tree near the tents, were busy setting fire to the withering branches. Those who were further back seemed equally alert in setting fire to the bush and, the wind coming from that quarter, we were likely soon to be enveloped in smoke. I was then willing that the barbarians should come again up, and anxious to act on the defensive as long as possible; but when I saw what the old men were about I went into my tent for my rifle and ordered all the men under arms. The old rascals, with the sagacity of foxes, instantly observed and understood this movement and retired.

MEN ADVANCE TOWARDS THEM HOLDING UP THEIR FIREARMS.

I then ordered eight men to advance towards the native camp, and to hold up their muskets as if to show them to the natives, but not to fire unless attacked, and to return at the sound of the bugle.

THEY RETIRE, AND WE CONTINUE OUR JOURNEY.

The savages took to their heels before these men who, following the fugitives, disappeared for a time in the woods but returned at the bugle call. This move, which I intended as a threat and as a warning that they should not follow us, had at least the effect of giving us time to breakfast, as Muirhead observed on coming back to the camp.

AGAIN FOLLOWED BY THE NATIVES. DANGER OF THE PARTY.

We afterwards moved forward on our journey as usual; but we had scarcely proceeded a mile before we heard the savages in our rear and, on my regaining the Murray, which we reached at about three miles, they were already on the bank of that river, a little way above where we had come upon it and consequently as we proceeded along its bank they were behind us. They kept at a considerable distance; but I perceived through my gla.s.s that the fellow with the cloak carried a heavy bundle of spears before him.

He comes, not in peace, O Cairbar: For I have seen his forward spear. Ossian.

LONG MARCH THROUGH A SCRUBBY COUNTRY.

We were then upon a sloping bank or berg,* which was covered backwards with thick scrub; below it lay a broad reach of still water in an old channel of the river and which I, for some time, took to be the river itself. It was most painfully alarming to discover that the knowledge these savages had acquired of the nature of our arms, by the loss of several lives last year, did not deter them from following us now with the most hostile intentions.