Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia Part 1

Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia, Complete.

by Charles Sturt.

VOLUME I.

"For though most men are contented only to see a river as it runs by them, and talk of the changes in it as they happen; when it is troubled, or when clear; when it drowns the country in a flood, or forsakes it in a drought: yet he that would know the nature of the water, and the causes of those accidents (so as to guess at their continuance or return), must find out its source, and observe with what strength it rises, what length it runs, and how many small streams fall in, and feed it to such a height, as make it either delightful or terrible to the eye, and useful or dangerous to the country about it."...SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE'S NETHERLANDS.

TO THE RIGHT HON.

THE EARL OF RIPON, VISCOUNT G.o.dERICH, Lord Privy Seal &c. &c. &c.

MY LORD,

The completion of this Work affords me the opportunity I have long desired of thanking your Lordship thus publicly, for the kindness with which you acceded to my request to be permitted to dedicate it to you.

The encouragement your Lordship was pleased to give me has served to stimulate me in the prosecution of a task, which would, I fear, have been too great for me to have accomplished in my present condition, under any ordinary views of ambition. Indeed, labouring as I have been for many months past, under an almost total deprivation of sight, (the effect of exposure and anxiety of mind in the prosecution of geographical researches,) I owe it to the casual a.s.sistance of some of my friends, that I am at length enabled to lay these results before your Lordship and the public.

While I feel a painful conviction that many errors must necessarily pervade a work produced under such unfavourable circ.u.mstances, it affords me no small consolation to reflect that Your Lordship has been aware of my situation, and will be disposed to grant me every reasonable indulgence.

I have the honor to be, With the highest respect, My Lord, Your Lordship's Very obedient and humble servant,

CHARLES STURT London, June, 1833.

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

Purpose of this Chapter--Name of Australia--Impressions of its early Visitors--Character of the Australian rivers--Author's first view of Port Jackson--Extent of the Colony of New South Wales--its rapid advances in prosperity--Erroneous impressions--Commercial importance of Sydney--Growth of fine wool--Mr. M'Arthur's meritorious exertions--Whale-fishery--Other exports--Geographical features--Causes of the large proportion of bad soil--Connection between the geology and vegetation--Geological features-- Character of the soil connected with the geological formation--County of c.u.mberland--Country westward of the Blue Mountains--Disadvantages of the remote settlers--Character of the Eastern coast--Rich tracts in the interior--Periodical droughts--The seasons apparently affected by the interior marshes--Temperature--Fruits--Emigrants: Causes of their success or failure--Moral disadvantages--System of emigration recommended--Hints to emigrants--Progress of inland discovery--Expeditions across the Blue Mountains--Discoveries of Mr. Evans, Mr. Oxley, and others--Conjectures respecting the interior.

EXPEDITION DOWN THE MACQUARIE RIVER, AND INTO THE WESTERN INTERIOR IN 1828 AND 1829.

CHAPTER I.

State of the Colony in 1828-29--Objects of the Expedition--Departure from Sydney--Wellington Valley--Progress down the Macquarie--Arrival at Mount Harris--Stopped by the marshes--Encamp amidst reeds--Excursions down the river--Its termination--Appearance of the marshes--Opthalmic affection of the men--Mr. Hume's successful journey to the northward-- Journey across the plain--Second great marsh--Perplexities--Situation of the exploring party--Consequent resolutions.

CHAPTER II.

Prosecution of our course into the interior--Mosquito Brush--Aspect and productions of the country--Hunting party of natives--Courageous conduct of one of them--Mosquitoes--A man missing--Group of hills called New-Year's Range--Journey down New-Year's Creek--Tormenting attack of the kangaroo fly--Dreariness and desolation of the country--Oxley's Table Land--D'Urban's Group--Continue our journey down New-Year's Creek-- Extreme Disappointment on finding it salt--Fall in with a tribe of natives--Our course arrested by the want of fresh water--Extraordinary sound--Retreat towards the Macquarie.

CHAPTER III.

Intercourse with the natives--Their appearance and condition--Remarks on the Salt or Darling River--Appearance of the marshes on our return-- Alarm for safety of the provision party--Return to Mount Harris--Miserable condition of the natives--Circ.u.mstances attending the slaughter of two Irish runaways--Bend our course towards the Castlereagh--Wallis's Ponds-- Find the famished natives feeding on gum--Channel of the Castlereagh-- Character of the country in its vicinity--Another tribe of natives-- Amicable intercourse with them--Morrisset's chain of Ponds--Again reach the Darling River ninety miles higher up than where we first struck upon it.

CHAPTER IV.

Perplexity--Trait of honesty in the natives--Excursion on horseback across the Darling--Forced to return--Desolating effects of the drought--Retreat towards the colony--Connection between the Macquarie and the Darling-- Return up the banks of the Macquarie--Starving condition of the natives.

CHAPTER V.

General remarks--Result of the expedition--Previous antic.i.p.ations-- Mr. Oxley's remarks--Character of the Rivers flowing westerly-- Mr. Cunningham's remarks--Fall of the Macquarie--Mr. Oxley's erroneous conclusions respecting the character of the interior, naturally inferred from the state in which he found the country--The marsh of the Macquarie merely a marsh of the ordinary character--Captain King's observations-- Course of the Darling--Character of the low interior plain--The convict Barber's report of rivers traversing the interior--Surveyor-General Mitch.e.l.l's Report of his recent expedition.

CHAPTER VI.

Concluding Remarks--Obstacles that attend travelling into the interior of Australia--Difficulty of carrying supplies--Importance of steady intelligent subordinates--Danger from the natives--Number of men requisite,--and of cattle and carriages--Provisions--Other arrangements-- Treatment of the natives--Dimensions of the boat used in the second expedition.

APPENDIX.

No. I. Letter of Instructions No. II. List of Stores supplied for the Expedition No. III. Sheep-farming Returns No. IV. List of Geological Specimens No. V. Official Report to the Colonial Government, (Jan. 1829.) No. VI. Ditto (April 1829.)

ILl.u.s.tRATIONS TO THE FIRST VOLUME (Not included in this etext)

Native Burial Place near Budda Vice Admiral Arthur Phillip Cataract of the Macquarie A Selenite Chrystallized Sulphate of Lime

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER

Purpose of this Chapter--Name of Australia--Impressions of its early Visitors--Character of the Australian rivers--Author's first view of Port Jackson--Extent of the Colony of New South Wales--its rapid advances in prosperity--Erroneous impressions--Commercial importance of Sydney--Growth of fine wool--Mr. M'Arthur's meritorious exertions--Whale-fishery--Other exports--Geographical features--Causes of the large proportion of bad soil--Connection between the geology and vegetation--Geological features-- Character of the soil connected with the geological formation--County of c.u.mberland--Country westward of the Blue Mountains--Disadvantages of the remote settlers--Character of the Eastern coast--Rich tracts in the interior--Periodical droughts--The seasons apparently affected by the interior marshes--Temperature--Fruits--Emigrants: Causes of their success or failure--Moral disadvantages--System of emigration recommended--Hints to emigrants--Progress of inland discovery--Expeditions across the Blue Mountains--Discoveries of Mr. Evans, Mr. Oxley, and others--Conjectures respecting the interior.