Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume I Part 32

ROUTE ALONG MR. ELLIOTT'S TRACKS. TRACKING MR. ELLIOTT.

On the morning of the 16th Mr. Walker went to the Upper Williams, where the soldiers were quartered, for a further supply of provisions, whilst the native and myself tried to make off Mr. Elliott's tracks, in doing which we were not however successful. The next morning, previously to Mr.

Walker's return, I renewed my search with Kaiber for the tracks with a little more success, as amidst the numerous traces of cattle and horses along the bed of the river the native was able by his acute eye to discover the footsteps of a colt. When Mr. Walker returned the little boy belonging to the establishment came back with him. He had seen Mr.

Elliott start and a.s.sured me that he had heard him express his determination of keeping the bed of the river for eighteen miles. With this piece of information we moved on down the river on the tracks which we were able to distinguish for about two miles and a half, when they quitted it in a south-south-west direction; and from the hard nature of the ground the tracking from thence became excessively difficult. If the colt had traversed this route, its little foot had made no impression on the soil; and when we got on the ironstone hills, we altogether lost the traces of the horse. Both the native and myself imagined, from our seeing no tracks of the colt, from the indistinctness of those of the horse, and from the circ.u.mstance of the boy's telling us that Mr. Elliott intended to proceed eighteen miles down the river, that we had followed the wrong marks; just therefore as night began to fall I moved back to the river.

January 18.

We started at dawn, following down the river, but could see nothing of Mr. Elliott's tracks: and our evening journey was equally unsuccessful. I now became very anxious and indeed rather alarmed for the safety of the missing party, but resolved, as the best plan I could pursue, to strike across the mountains to Leschenault, making a due west course my true line of route, but constantly diverging two or three miles to the south of this, and again returning to it by another route. I should thus have every chance of falling in with the track I wished to find; and in the event of my not succeeding I should be certain, if on my arrival at Leschenault no tidings had been received of Mr. Elliott, that his party must be somewhere to the southward and eastward of the course I had taken, and that I might still, by the a.s.sistance of the Leschenault natives to whom this country was known, succeed in finding him before such a period had elapsed as would render a.s.sistance useless.

KILLING A KANGAROO.

On the 19th, in pursuance of this determination, we made a rapid push of nearly twenty miles in a westerly direction without reckoning our divergencies to the southward. Nothing however but toil and disappointment rewarded our exertions. We killed a large Boomer, or old male kangaroo, the largest indeed I had ever seen; the dogs were unable to master him he fought so desperately, and it was not until after he had wounded two of them that I succeeded in dispatching it by a sort of personal encounter in which a club was the weapon I used. The native who was carrying my gun had dropped it the instant the kangaroo was started, and I was thus unable to shoot it. We cut off as much of the flesh as the dogs and ourselves required for two days and left the rest in the forest.

We halted for the night on a small stream, the only one I had seen since we quitted the Williams.

COUNTRY UPON THE HARVEY RIVER.

Our departure was delayed on the morning of the 20th for about an hour from being unable to find one of the horses which had strayed away in the night, but, the fugitive being at length discovered and brought back, we started and made nine miles before breakfast. We then travelled nine and a half miles more, when we came upon the river Harvey near its source.

The character of the country we had travelled over since entering the mountains was monotonous in the extreme. It consisted of an elevated tableland composed of ironstone and granite occasionally traversed by veins of whinstone. On this tableland there was little or no herbage; the lower vegetation consisting princ.i.p.ally of a short p.r.i.c.kly scrub, in some places completely destroyed by the native fires; but the whole country was thickly clothed with mahogany trees, so that in many parts it might be called a dense forest. These mahogany trees ascended, without a bend or without throwing off a branch, to the height of from forty to fifty feet, occasionally much more, and the ground was so enc.u.mbered by the fallen trunks of these forest trees that it was sometimes difficult to pick a pa.s.sage between them. Even at midday the forest wore a sombre aspect, and a stillness and solitude reigned throughout it that was very striking. Occasionally a timid kangaroo might be seen stealing off in the distance, or a kangaroo-rat might dart out from a tuft beneath your feet; but these were rare circ.u.mstances. The most usual disturber of these wooded solitudes were the black c.o.c.katoos; but I have never in any part of the world seen so great a want of animal life as in these mountains.

Upon our gaining the Harvey however the scene somewhat changed; the river here bore the appearance of a mountain trout-stream, sometimes gurgling along with a rapid current, and sometimes forming large pools. The tableland could no longer be distinguished as it here changed to a broken chain of hills traversed by deep valleys; the scrub was higher and entwined by a variety of climbing plants, which rendered it very difficult to traverse; the mahogany trees became less frequent, and various others were mingled with them, whilst on the banks of the river good forage abounded. We made about five miles more through a country of this description and then halted for the night.

LOSE THE TRACKS. NATIVE GRAVE.

January 21.

We did not make more than seven miles before breakfast this morning, being embarra.s.sed both by high and tangled underwood and rocky hills. We then halted on the banks of the Harvey, where there was some beautiful gra.s.s. We had still been able to find nothing of Mr. Elliott's tracks, and had in vain looked for natives: but this evening, soon after starting again, for the first time signs of them appeared, for we found a newly-made grave, carefully constructed, with a hut built over it to protect the now senseless slumberer beneath from the rains of winter. All that friends.h.i.+p could do to render his future state happy had been done.

His throwing stick was stuck in the ground at his head; his broken spears rested against the entrance of the hut, the grave was thickly strewed with wilgey or red earth; and three trees in front of the hut, chopped with a variety of notches and uncouth figures and then daubed over with wilgey, bore testimony that his death had been bloodily avenged.

KAIBER'S FEARS.

The native Kaiber gazed with a degree of concern and uneasiness on this scene. "A man has been slain here," he said. "And what, Kaiber," I asked him, "is the reason that these spears are broken, that the trees are notched, and that wilgey is strewed on the grave?" His answer was, "Neither you nor I know: our people have always done so, and we do so now." I then said to him, "Kaiber, I intend to stop here for the night, and sleep." "You are deceiving me," he said: "I cannot rest here, for there are many spirits in this place." I laughed at his fears, and we again moved on.

WANT OF WATER.

We now soon got clear of the hills and came out upon a plain of good land, thickly covered with gra.s.s-trees. This plain was about three miles in width and, having traversed it, we found ourselves in a sandy country abounding with Banksia trees. We crossed several swamps, now completely dried up, and having made ten miles halted for the night without water.

Mr. Walker sc.r.a.ped a hole in one of these swamps and obtained a little putrid and muddy water which, not being very thirsty, I did not drink, more especially as we had now, or indeed for several days, had no tea or anything else to mix with it.

January 22.

We started again at dawn this morning and travelled rapidly, for we were anxious to obtain water. In six miles we came out upon the sea. If my reckoning was right we ought now to have been about ten miles to the north of Leschenault; I therefore turned due south. Kaiber however now came up and remonstrated against this, a.s.suring me that I was wrong and that we were, at this moment, two or three miles to the south of Leschenault, and that if I persisted in going on in this direction we should all die for want of water. As I put great faith in his knowledge of the country I halted and ascended a hill to try and get a view along the coast; I could not however succeed on account of the haze; and believing then that I must be in error I turned north. We trudged on, hour after hour; the sun got higher and more intensely hot, whilst, having been four-and-twenty hours without water, the greater part of which time had been spent in violent exercise under a burning sun, the pangs of thirst became very annoying. A short period more convinced me that I was right, and that Kaiber was in error; and, as we soon after fell in with two native wells now dried up, we dug another in a promising-looking spot near them, and obtained a little water, very muddy and stinking; but I never enjoyed a draught more in my life. We here halted for breakfast and by degrees obtained water enough for the horses as well as ourselves.

ESTUARY OF THE LESCHENAULT.

The evening was consumed in retracing our steps of the morning, and at night we halted near the head of the Leschenault estuary, being again without water.

January 23.

Our route this morning was along the estuary of the Leschenault. About five miles from this place we fell in with a party of natives, who informed us that a few days before Mr. Elliott and those with him had arrived there in perfect safety, and my anxiety on this point was therefore set at rest. We pa.s.sed the mouth of the river Collie at the bar, which was almost dry, and halted for breakfast on the banks of the Preston, about one mile from the house where I expected to find Mr.

Elliott.

MEET WITH MR. ELLIOTT. MR. ELLIOTT'S ADVENTURES.

No sooner was breakfast despatched than I set off to see Mr. Elliott in order to hear the history of his adventures, which were not a little surprising. He had, as I before related, started on the 17th of December from the Williams, with only three days' provisions and, owing to some mistake, had taken a south-south-west course and gone off in the direction where we first saw his tracks, and had pursued this route for three days, when, seeing nothing of the coast, he suspected he must be wrong, and endeavoured to make a due west course; but from the impa.s.sable nature of the mountain range at this point was unable to do so. About this period also, owing to his powder-horn having been placed too near the fire, it was accidentally blown away, and he was thus left totally without protection in the event of any attack being made on them by the natives. His own courage and resolution however never failed, and he still made the best of his way to the southward, seizing every opportunity of making westing. For twelve days he pursued this course, subsisting on native roots and boiled tops of gra.s.s trees. About the sixth day he fell in with some natives; but they ran away, being frightened at the appearance of white men, and he thus could obtain no a.s.sistance from them. At this period the filly strayed away from the mare and was lost. His men behaved admirably; and on the fourteenth day the party succeeded in reaching Augusta, having previously made the coast at the remarkable white-sand patch about fifty miles to the eastward of it.

Notwithstanding the hards.h.i.+ps and sufferings they had undergone this party were but very little reduced in strength and, after recruiting for a few days at Augusta, returned along the coast to Leschenault, where I had the pleasure of seeing them all in good health and spirits.

THE Va.s.sE DISTRICT.

January 21.

Whilst the party reposed themselves this day at Leschenault I hired a horse and rode along the sh.o.r.es of Geographe Bay for the purpose of seeing the Va.s.se district. The country between Leschenault and the Va.s.se differs from those other parts of Western Australia that I have yet seen in the circ.u.mstance that in several parts, between the sea and the recent limestone formation, basaltic rocks are developed. A long chain of marshy lakes lie between the usual coast sandhills and the ordinary sand formations, about which there is some good land and good feed. About the river Capel also there is a great deal of good land. The mouths of two estuaries that occur between the inlet of Leschenault and the bottom of Geographe Bay are both fordable. The district near the bottom of Geographe Bay contains much good land, consisting of level plains thickly covered with wattle trees; there are also at this season of the year extensive plains of dry sand, which bear exactly the appearance of a desert.

I pa.s.sed the night at the house of Mr. Bussel, a settler who has the best and most comfortable establishment I have seen in the colony, and returned the next day to Leschenault with the intention of starting the following one for Perth.

RETURN TO PERTH. RIVER ABSORBED IN SANDY PLAINS.

January 26.

Mr. Elliott this day joined us on our route to Perth, which was attended with no circ.u.mstance worthy of notice until our arrival at Pinjarra. We travelled over extensive plains which in the rainy season of the year must be completely flooded, but in vain looked for the Harvey River and the other stream which flowed from the hills to the sea. I could find no watercourse in which they might probably flow, yet we had left them both running strongly at not more than ten miles from the point where we then stood. The truth was that they were absorbed in these marshy plains before they came within several miles of the sea; and what threw a still further light upon the subject was that, although these marshes were perfectly dried up and had a hard-baked appearance at the surface, yet if a hole about two or three feet deep was sc.r.a.ped in them water directly came pouring into it.

On the morning of the 29th we reached Pinjarra; on the 30th Mr. Elliott and myself rode as far as the Canning; and early on the 31st we had the pleasure of entering Perth together.

CHAPTER 14. FROM SWAN RIVER TO THE Sh.o.r.eS OF SHARK BAY.

PLAN OF EXPEDITION.

At length, in the middle of February, after a mortifying delay of nearly five months, an opportunity occurred which held out every prospect of enabling me to complete the examination of the most interesting portion of the north coast, together with the country lying behind it.

Three whale-boats having been procured, an engagement was made with Captain Long of the American whaler Russel, of New Bedford, to convey my party and the boats to some point to the northward of Shark Bay, and there land us, together with a supply of provisions sufficient for five months. My intention was to form a provision depot in some island, and from that point to commence operations by the examination of the undiscovered portions of the bay; and, should circ.u.mstances occasionally render it desirable, I proposed to explore more minutely parts of the country as we coasted along, or to make excursions to such a distance inland as we might be able to penetrate.

Having completed the examination of the bay as far as we could with the provisions we carried from the depot, I intended to return to it and, after recruiting our stock, to make my way along the coast in the direction of North-West Cape; making excursions inland as before at such points as might seem to merit attention, and thus to continue to go northward until our provisions were so far exhausted as to compel us to return again to the depot; whence I finally proposed to continue my examination to the portion of the coast left unvisited to the southward of the depot, as far as Gantheaume Bay.

Several of the individuals who were to compose my party being now much experienced in the difficulties that attend explorations both on the coast and in the interior of the country, I felt that our enterprise was not so hazardous as at first it might appear to be, especially as Mr.

Hutt had arranged with me as to a spot, to which, in the event of our not returning to Swan River within a certain period the Colonial schooner would be sent to look for us; and moreover the captain of another American whaler had promised to visit North-West Cape at the end of July, as it was his intention to remain in Exmouth Gulf during the season of the bay fis.h.i.+ng. We had thus two chances of being discovered in case of any accident preventing us from effecting our previous return to the Swan River.

The unfortunate occurrence which frustrated my expectations of completing this design, and which threatened the eventual destruction of the whole party, will be narrated in its place.

FROM SWAN RIVER FOR SHARK BAY.

I had taken three whale-boats in order to have a spare one should any accident reduce the number; and everything being arranged I sailed in the Russel from Fremantle on Sunday February the 17th 1839 at 3 P.M. with the following party:

Mr. Walker, the Surgeon of the former expedition.

Mr. Frederick Smith, the young gentleman who had accompanied me on a former tour.

Corporal Auger and Corporal Coles, Sappers and Miners.

Thomas Ruston, Sailor.