The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 Part 16

At the foot of the range Mitch.e.l.l established a second depot, and on the 10th September started with the black boy and two men for a month's trip to the westward. On this trip, he must receive the credit of initiating the now commonly used water-bag for carrying water. His, it must be confessed, was a very crude one, being only a thick flour bag, covered outside with melted mutton fat.

The second day they met some natives, and from one old woman learnt the names of some of the neighbouring streams, particularly the Warrego, which river they had crossed on their outward way. The first river he encountered was the Nive, and again he, as usual, flattered himself that he was at the head of Gulf waters, little thinking that he was on the most northern tributary of the Darling. A small tributary was called the Nivelle. A short day's ride convinced him that this river ran too much to the south-east, and he turned to the north through the scrub, and on the morning of the 15th September, was rewarded with the splendid outlook that has since greeted so many wayfarers on emerging from the Nive scrub.

In his journal he says:--

"I there beheld downs and plains extending westward beyond the reach of vision, bounded on the S.W. by woods and low ranges, and on the N.E. by higher ranges, the whole of these open downs declining to the N.W., in which direction a line of trees marked the course of a river traceable to the remotest verge of the horizon. There I found then, at last, the realization of my long-cherished hopes--an interior river falling to the N.W. in the heart of an open country, extending also in that direction.

... From the rock where I stood, the scene was so extensive, as to leave no room for doubt as to the course of the river, which thus and there revealed to me alone, seemed like a reward direct, from Heaven for perseverance, and as a compensation for the many sacrifices I had made in order to solve the question as to the interior rivers of tropical Australia."

Once more the victim of a too sanguine belief, he followed tip his discovery by at once commencing to trace down the river that ran through this new-found paradise. He had made a great contribution to Australian geography, as great as what he hoped for; but if he had been told the truth he would scarcely have been satisfied. He had found the upper tributaries of the second great river system of the interior, as Sturt -had found its lower outflow, and he had thrown open the wonderful western prairies, but he was as far from the Gulf as ever.

Light-hearted and satisfied, the party rode on for days through the beautiful undulating downs country. On the 22nd September, we find in his journal a notice of the new kind of gra.s.s, which was in future to be so highly prized and to bear his name:

"Two kinds of gra.s.s grew on these plains, one of them, a brome gra.s.s, possessing the remarkable property of shooting up green from the old stalk."

On the 23rd, they crossed and named the Alice, and on the 26th, being fully satisfied, and their provisions running short turned back.

Mitch.e.l.l for once, in honour of such a discovery, departed from his usual custom, which was the healthy plan of giving "good, sonorous native names" to the most noticeable features, and called the river the Victoria. On the 6th of October they reached the depot camp, and found all well.

The return to the main depot, left in charge of Kennedy, was soon accomplished, and on the 19th this was reached, and the occupants found safe and unmolested, although the absence of Mitch.e.l.l had now extended over the four months. As a proof of the capabilities of the country he had travelled over, Mitch.e.l.l brought back all his animals in first-rate condition, having lost only one horse, and that was through an accident.

The final return was made down the yet unexplored Maranoa, at the head of which the depot had been fixed so long; and on the 4th November they arrived at the Balonne, having pa.s.sed through splendidly-gra.s.sed and well-watered country the whole way. The party took up their old camp at St. George's Bridge, where they learnt from the natives that a party of whites had been in the neighbourhood during their absence. Kennedy was dispatched to inspect the Mooni ponds, or river, which they understood was to the eastward of them. He found them occupied by cattle stations to within a day's ride of the camp, so that the explorer's work may be considered as at an end.

This expedition, it may well be supposed, fully confirmed Mitch.e.l.l's reputation. Once more he had been the means of a.s.suring the colonists that away towards the setting sun the flocks and herds might advance unchecked, so far as he had been, and as he thought, across the great continent. Added to which, he felt convinced, and expected the public also to feel the same, that along the banks of the Victoria was the great high road to the north coast.

This was the last expedition of the Surveyor-General, and the year before concluded the active work of his old rival in the field, Charles Sturt.

Both men had done wonders in the cause of exploration; but the genii of plentiful seasons and bountiful vegetation seems to have been the forerunner of Sir Thomas, whilst a demon of drought and aridity stalked in front of Sturt.

CHAPTER VII.

Kennedy traces the Victoria in its final course south--Re-named the Barcoo--First notice of the PITURI chewing natives--Leichhardt's second Expedition--Failure and Return--Leichhardt's last Expedition--His absolute disappearance--Conjectures as to his fate--Kennedy starts from Rockingham Bay to Cape York--Scrubs and swamps--Great exertions--Hostile natives--Insufficiency of supplies provided--Dying horses--Main party left in Weymouth Bay--Another separation at Shelburne Bay--Murder of Kennedy at the Escape River--Rescue of Jacky the black boy--His pathetic tale of suffering--Failure to find the camp at Shelburne Bay--Rescue of but two survivors at Weymouth Bay--The remainder starved to death--Von Mueller in the Australian Alps--Western Australia--Landor and Lefroy, in 1843--First expedition of the brothers Gregory, in 1846--Salt lakes and scrub--Lieutenant Helpman sent to examine the coal seam discovered--Roe, in 1848--His journey to the east and to the south--A. C. Gregory attempts to reach the Gascoyne--Foiled by the nature of the country--Discovers silver ore on the Murchison--Governor Fitzgerald visits the mine--Wounded by the natives--Rumour of Leichhardt having been murdered by the blacks--Hely's expedition in quest of him--Story unfounded--Austin's explorations in Western Australia--Terrible scrubs--Poison camp-- Determined efforts to the north--Heat and thirst--Forced to return.

The importance of deciding the final course of the Victoria was at once recognised, and Kennedy was chosen to lead a lightly equipped party.

However convinced Sir Thomas Mitch.e.l.l was of the affluent of the Victoria being in the Gulf of Carpentaria, others did not at once fall in with the notion. It was evident that the vast flooded plains, and many channels of Cooper's Creek absorbed immense quant.i.ties of water from the interior, and apparently this water came from the north-east. What more probable than that the Victoria was lost there.

Kennedy followed the old track to the river, found by Mitch.e.l.l, and reaching his lowest camp on the 13th of August, commenced to run the river down from there. On the first day's journey he met a native, from whom he learnt the aboriginal name of the Victoria, the BARCOO.

On the 15th Kennedy noticed with anxiety that the valley of the river certainly fell to the south, and that ever since it had turned from its northerly course, it was making for the point where Sturt turned back on Cooper's Creek. He consequently began to dread that he might follow the course of it, so far as not to be able to carry out the second part of his instructions, namely, to look for a road to the Gulf, not having enough means with him for both journeys. He decided to follow with two men along the Barcoo, far enough to the south to leave no doubt about its not being a north coast river. After two days' journey, the direction of the Barcoo turned west, and even north of west, and the bed contained fine reaches of water, one hundred, and one hundred and twenty yards wide. Kennedy turned back for the whole of his party, considering that his duty was to follow such a river, no matter in what direction it led him.

On the 30th August, they came upon a large tributary from the N.N.E., which was named the Thomson, and they found the country very different from the gra.s.sy plains of the upper reaches.

Finally, the river led them amongst plains gaping with fissures, gra.s.sless and waterless, where the only change in the flat character of the country was the sandhill formation, that exactly agreed with Sturt's description. In fact, it was now evident to Kennedy that the only result of his journey would be to connect with that explorer's most northerly and easterly point, and, however satisfactory or unsatisfactory this might be, it was scarcely worth risking the lives of his party, and the certain loss of his horses to attain. Gra.s.s, or feed of any sort, had now failed them for several days, and at last they could find no more water.

They were confronted with the desert described by Sturt with such terrible accuracy, and there was nothing to be gained by entering into a struggle with it. Kennedy turned back quite satisfied that the end of the Victoria was in Cooper's Creek.

As the nomenclature of these watercourses is rather conflicting, and they were the field of many subsequent explorations, it may be as well to mention that the Victoria (now the Barcoo) joins Kennedy's Thomson, which still retains its name, and below the junction the united stream is always now called Cooper's Creek. Thus, as the residents out there tell you, IT TAKES TWO RIVERS IN THAT PART OF AUSTRALIA TO MAKE A CREEK.

A noticeable incident here occurs in Kennedy's journal. Writing on the 11th September, he says:--

"A curious fact I observed here is, that the men chew tobacco; it is, of course, in a green state, but it is strong and hot."

This was almost, certainly, the PITURI plant, which the natives of the interior chew, and then bury in the sand, where the heat of the sun causes it to ferment; it is then chewed as an intoxicant, the natives carrying a plug behind their car in their hair. It is offered to a stranger as an especial compliment, and great is the affront if this toothsome morsel is declined. It only grows in certain localities, far west of where Kennedy saw the natives using it, and the blacks of the locality where it is found barter it away with other tribes, by which means it is found at a considerable distance from where it grows. Amongst the natives there are PITURI and NON-PITURI chewers.

On his downward journey Kennedy, to ease his horses as much as possible, had buried a great quant.i.ty of flour and sugar. On his return he found that the natives had discovered it, and wantonly emptied it out of the bags into the hole, reducing it to a mixture of earth and flour that was completely useless. This loss prevented Kennedy from making his intended excursion to the Gulf. The party started back, and on his way Kennedy picked up his carts, which he had also buried. He was just in time; a native, probably one of the burglars already mentioned, had been examining and sounding the ground but a short time before the party arrived.

On reaching the head of the Warrego, Kennedy determined to follow it down, and ascertain whether it was a southerly or westerly flowing river.

They followed the Warrego south, through fine grazing country, the river being full of splendid reaches of water, but at last it failed them, running out in flat country in waterless channels. From here they struck across easterly to the Culgoa, which river they reached after a ride of seventy miles without water, over a barren country, timbered with pine and brigalow. Here they were delayed getting the carts across this dry track, and lost six horses from heat and thirst. Thus vanished the high hopes entertained of the Victoria River.

Meantime, Leichhardt, encouraged by his first success, had received liberal support from the public to enable him to start on a new expedition, which at once was to settle the question of the nature of the interior, the ambitious project being nothing less than to traverse the continent from the eastern to the western sh.o.r.e, on much the same parallel of lat.i.tude if possible.

The party travelled overland from the Hunter River to the Darling Downs, bringing with them their outfit of mules, cattle, and goats. On December 10th, 1846, the expedition left Mr. Stephens' station on the Condamine, the members then consisting of seven whites and two blacks. Of stock, they had two hundred and seventy goats, one hundred and eighty sheep, forty bullocks, fifteen horses, and thirteen mules. This stock, with their flour, tea, sugar, etc., was to last them on a two years' journey.

It is almost needless to go into particulars concerning this unfortunate trip. They never succeeded in getting away from the old Port Essington track. The rains came down on them in the sickly brigalow scrubs of the Dawson and Mackenzie. Fever was the result, and they had no medicines with them--a strange omission. Their only coverings during the wet were two miserable calico tents. Their life, as told by members of the party, consisted of semi-starvation, varied by gorging and feasting on killing days, in which the Doctor apparently set the example; in fact, his character throughout comes out in anything but an amiable light, and one is led to wonder how anyone so dest.i.tute of tact and readiness of resource ever achieved the journey to Port Essington, favoured even as he was on that occasion by circ.u.mstances and seasons. Suffice it to say, to end the miserable story, that, having first lost their sheep and goats, then their cattle and most of their horses and mules, they turned up on the 6th of July at Chauvel's station on the Condamine, having done nothing but wander about on the old track and eat their supplies.

On reaching the station, Dr. Leichhardt was put in possession of the finding of the Victoria, the Maranoa, &c., and being anxious to examine the country between Sir Thomas Mitch.e.l.l's track and his own, he, in company with Mr. Isaacs and three of his late companions, left Stuart Russell's station on a short excursion, during which he crossed to the Balonne and back, making some subordinate discoveries.

Still persisting in his idea of crossing the continent, and fearful that he might be forestalled, he made great efforts to get together a small party of some sort to make another attempt. He succeeded; but this time his party was neither so well provided nor so large. In fact, very little is known of the members const.i.tuting it. The Rev. W. B. Clarke, speaking of this final trip, says:--

"The parties who accompanied Leichhardt were, perhaps, little capable of s.h.i.+fting for themselves in case of any accident to their leader. The second in command, a brother-in-law of Leichhardt, came from Germany to join him just before starting, and he told me, when I asked him what his qualifications for the journey were, that he had been at sea, had suffered s.h.i.+pwrecks, and was, therefore, well able to endure hards.h.i.+p. I do not know what his other qualifications were."

For some inexplicable reason, this man, whose name was Cla.s.sen or Klausen, has always been selected as the hero of the many tales that have been brought in of a solitary survivor of the party living in captivity with the natives; probably, because his was the only name besides Leichhardt's generally known and remembered.

The lost expedition is supposed to have consisted of six whites and two blacks. The names known are those of the Doctor himself, Cla.s.sen, Hentig, Stuart, and Kelly. He had with him fifty bullocks, thirteen mules, twelve horses, and two hundred and seventy goats, beside the utterly inadequate allowance of eight hundred pounds of flour, one hundred and twenty pounds of tea, some sugar and salt, and two hundred and fifty pounds of shot and forty of powder.

His last letter [See Appendix.] is dated the 3rd of April, 1848, from McPherson's station on the Cogoon, but in it he speaks only of the.

country traversed, and says nothing of his intended route. Since the residents of this outlying station lost sight of him and his men, no clue to his fate has ever been found. The total evanishment not only of his men but of the animals (especially the goats) that accompanied him, is one of the strangest mysteries of our mysterious interior.

Leichhardt's expressed intention was to endeavour to skirt the edge of the desert--which was then supposed to exist in the centre--to the northward, seizing the first opportunity of penetrating it, and then making for Perth. From what we now know, it is quite impossible to guess how much or little of this programme was carried out, as the existence or non-existence of what he would consider a desert would entirely depend upon what the season had been like immediately before his arrival.

The perusal of his journal to Port Essington, impresses one with the opinion that, considering his scientific training, he was singularly deficient in observation. In one place he writes that horses and bullocks never showed that instinctive faculty of detecting water so often mentioned by travellers, and that they seem to be guided entirely by their sight when in search of it--an a.s.sertion which seems incredible on the part of a man with any bush training at all. If Leichhardt had ever had to steady a thirsty mob of cattle during a pitch dark night, with a strong wind blowing from water, or even across the damp bed of a lagoon or river, miles and miles away, he would soon have found out by what sense cattle are guided in their search for water.

Although one does not want to harshly criticise these obvious errors in the very rudiments of bush-craft, they serve to indicate how likely he would have been, if entrapped in dry country, to commit a mistake that would sacrifice his men. And one cannot but believe that he relied quite as much on the chapter of accidents to pull him through as upon his own helpfulness or experience. Of the causes that led to the destruction or dispersion of the whole of the party it is next to impossible to hazard a guess. The completeness of the disappearance is the most the puzzling part of the mystery. Had they been killed by the natives, relics of the explorers would long since have been recovered from them. In some shape the iron work of the implements they had with them would have survived.

Many have tried to explain it by imagining them swept away by a flood when camped on flat country, but this is scarcely likely, for even then, on the subsidence of the waters, the blacks would have found something of their belongings. Thirst was most likely the agent of their destruction, and fire completed the work.

Once across the waters that wend their sluggish way into the lake district of South Australia, Leichhardt and his followers would be in the great region of fragmentary watercourses; rivers and creeks, when met with, pursuing no definite courses--now lost in miles of level country, now reforming again for a brief existence, but always delusive and disappointing. Here they would one day find themselves in a position that left them no other chance but the slender one of still pus.h.i.+ng forward into the unknown. Probably it was during one of the cycles of rainless years that periodically visit the continent. Led on mile after mile, following the dry bed of one creek, to lose it in some barren flat, whereon the withered stalks of blue-bush alone told of a time of past vegetation; again picking up another creek, to lose it in like manner, knowing that to retrace their steps was impossible; making at last for a hazy, blue line in the distance that turned out to be spinifex and stunted forest; trusting still that this might indicate a change that would lead them to higher country and to water, they would struggle forward, weak and disorganised.