Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia Volume I Part 14

When night came on we saw their fires behind the trees at a little distance from the river, and we also heard their voices; but to complete the effect of our coolness in the evening, which certainly must have puzzled them, considering our kindness in the morning, I sent up a rocket, after which their very fires disappeared, and we heard their voices no more.

February 10.

From this camp the first day's journey homeward along our old track was parallel to the river; the second left its banks and led in a south-east direction to Rodrigo Ponds, where we had encamped on the 17th of January.

On emerging from the wooded margin of the river this morning, I struck into a new direction, leaving the natives to believe that we still followed the beaten track towards our old camp on the Gwydir; where they would no doubt await us that evening, while we pursued the bearing of 64 degrees East of South, in hopes to pa.s.s a quiet night at Rodrigo Ponds, thus stealing a march upon them--a manoeuvre which we successfully accomplished.

After proceeding some miles in the new direction we found some very bad swampy ground before us. It was covered with holes brim full of water; and we at length arrived where long reeds grew in extensive patches. The inequalities of the surface owing to these holes required the nicest care in conducting the carts between them, but after frequent halts I was glad to back out of this swamp, and only regained the firm ground by considerable turnings and windings. We were not far probably from the Namoi in that reedy region, but it might have been very extensive. On regaining its eastern skirts I resumed the course pursued in the morning, and pa.s.sed through a tract where the gra.s.s and trees were to a considerable extent on fire. At length however we recognised the park-like scenery which we had formerly crossed; and with no small pleasure again we fell in with our former track, at a distance of about three miles short of our old camp at Rodrigo Ponds.

FUNERAL DIRGE BY A NATIVE FEMALE.

While I stood near this spot, awaiting the arrival of the party which was still at some distance, I overheard a female singing. The notes were pleasing and very different from the monotonous strains of the natives in general. Just then I had been admiring the calm repose of the surrounding landscape, gilded by the beams of a splendid setting sun, and antic.i.p.ating a quiet night for the party. The soft sounds, so expressive of tranquillity and peace, were in perfect unison with the scene around.

Nothing could have been more romantic, nevertheless I could most willingly have dispensed with the accompaniment at that time, so a.s.sociated were all our ideas of the natives, with murder and pillage.

When my men came up I directed them to give a hurra, in hopes that it would put the party, whoever they might be, to flight. Yet after a cheer about as rough as English throats could well utter, the sweet strain, to my surprise, continued,

And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail.

But this was not the song of hope, but of despair, at least so it sounded to me under the circ.u.mstances, and so it really proved to be, as I afterwards ascertained.

Men's voices were also heard, as we proceeded quietly to our old ground, and I could not help regretting that after having given the natives on the Gwydir the slip, and seen no others the whole day, we should again find the very spot on which we were to pa.s.s the night, pre-occupied by natives. Our party set up their tents, and the song ceased, but I proceeded with Mr. White towards the place whence the voices came. We there saw several persons amid smoke, and apparently regardless of our presence; indeed, their apathy, as compared with the active vigilance of the natives in general, was surprising. A young man continued to beat out a skin against a tree without caring to look at us, and as they made no advance we did not go up to them. Mr. White, on visiting their fires however at ten P.M. found that they had decamped.

All this seemed rather mysterious until the nature of the song I had heard was explained to me afterwards at Sydney by The Bushranger when I visited him in the hulk on my return. He then imitated the notes, and informed me that they were sung by females when mourning for the dead; and he added that on such occasions it was usual for the relatives of the deceased to seem inattentive or insensible to whatever people might be doing around them.*

(*Footnote. This custom is not peculiar to Australia, it prevailed also in the East:

"A melancholy choir attend around, With plaintive sighs, and music's solemn sound: Alternately they sing, alternate flow The obedient tears, melodious in their woe." Pope's Iliad, Book 24 verse 900.

The note here is: "This was a custom generally received, and which pa.s.sed from the Hebrews to the Greeks, Romans, and Asiatics. There were weepers by profession, of both s.e.xes, who sung doleful tunes round the dead."

Harmer Volume 3 page 31.

It is admitted by all that this last practice obtained, and the following pa.s.sages are proofs of it. Jeremiah 9:17, 18. "Call for the mourning women that they may come, and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters." Idem. pages 33 to 36.)

At the time however this behaviour of the natives only made us more on our guard, and impressed the men with a sense of the necessity for vigilance, especially during the night when a watch was set on the cattle, and two men guarded the camp, while all the rest slept with their arms at hand.

This day two of the dogs fell behind, and as the whole were miserably poor we at first supposed that these had died from exhaustion; but as the weaker of the two came up to us in the evening it appeared then more probable that the dogs had been detained by the natives, who might be following our track, and that this one had escaped from them.

DOG KILLED BY A SNAKE.

February 11.

On the march this morning we lost an excellent little watch-dog, named Captain, by the bite of a snake. While the other dogs with the party grew mere skeletons, Captain continued in good case, having fared very well on the rats, mice, bandicoots, etc. which he, under the direction of The Doctor, who shared the prey, had the sagacity to sc.r.a.pe out of the earth.

Captain was also a formidable enemy to lizards, et hoc genus omne; but this morning his owner found him engaged with that venomous reptile known in the colony by the name of deaf-adder, and although compelled instantly to let it go, it was too late, for poor Captain stretched out his legs and expired on the spot, having been already bitten by the poisonous reptile.

BIRDS NESTS.

We repa.s.sed this day the place where only I had seen that bush of the interior, the Stenochilus maculatus. It grew to the height of about four or five feet, and we found the fruit and flower on the same twig.

Numerous small birds with red bills flew about these bushes, and we found, slightly attached to the tender top-twigs, their tiny nests in great numbers, some containing eggs. No instinctive sagacity, such as we perceive in birds elsewhere, to conceal their nests, was here apparent, nor was it required; but such nests must have fallen an easy prize even to very little boys, had there been any; so that the security these birds enjoyed seemed truly characteristic of the desert and absence of birds of prey.

The party arrived at the old camp by Pelican Ponds early in the day.

Here, as the men were growing weak, I found it necessary to restore to them the full allowance of rations, especially as they could no longer derive any support from the hope of making great discoveries, for no travellers could have felt more zealous in the cause than these poor fellows had done throughout the journey.

February 12.

Our way to the next encampment was long, and great part of the ground full of holes, and unfavourable for travelling. Indeed, I considered it the worst portion of country intervening between us and the Liverpool range. This was precisely where the effect of rainy weather on the soil was to be most dreaded, and, after having been so long exposed to be cut off in these low levels from any higher ground by floods; the lowering character of the sky, now that we were about to emerge, only rendered me more impatient to see the hills again. We accordingly set off at a very early hour, and after travelling seven miles we halted for ten minutes to water the cattle at some ponds, where, as the weather was uncommonly warm, the men were also refreshed with some limejuice mixed with the water. The cattle came on very steadily afterwards, notwithstanding the heat.

NUNDEWAR RANGE.

The blue summit of Mount Riddell at length arose above the horizon, and was as welcome as the sight of land after a long voyage.

NUMEROUS TRIBES FOLLOW.

When we had proceeded about halfway to the next camp we discovered that we were followed closely by a numerous tribe of natives. One of our men having dropped behind fell in with them, and was nearly detained by a fellow who flourished a large iron tomahawk over his head. Another of our party who came in contact with a native, and who requested him by signs to come to me, understood him to express by similar means his intention to go northward. The main body however amounting to one hundred or upwards, continued to move parallel to our route, and in lines of twos and threes. Fortunately we were approaching the open plains where I knew we should be comparatively secure from any treacherous a.s.saults, and it was therefore probable that they would not follow us so far. We were advancing however towards those who were feasting on my supplies, not far from the base of the mountain cone, which was then our landmark. The natives there were not unlikely to be formidable enemies, encouraged by their late success; and, with such prospects before us it was by no means agreeable to be thus followed in rear by others. I was accordingly much inclined to question the intentions of these if they continued to accompany our party beyond the woods. As we approached the plains we perceived fire and smoke before us, on the banks of the large lagoon, where we were to encamp, and on an angle of ground where our pa.s.sage was confined between the lagoon and a narrow muddy channel from the east we saw seven new but deserted huts, which had been erected on our track, as if to watch our approach. On reaching them we found one large hut in the centre, and the others arranged in a semicircle round it, the whole being of a very substantial construction, and neatly thatched with dry gra.s.s and reeds.

THE PARTY REGAINS THE PLAINS.

We arrived at our old ground after a journey of nine hours, which was the time exactly in which we had before traversed the same distance.

Our tents now commanded a view of the open plains between us and the woods from which we had at length emerged. The bold outline of the Nundewar range in the opposite direction was a comfortable prospect for us; although we were still to investigate the particulars of the tragedy which had been acted at their base. A very hot wind blew strongly in the afternoon, and I was prepared to advance towards the natives had they followed us into the plain. Mr. White in the meantime kept a sharp lookout; but the natives prudently remained within their woods.

At the lagoon we again found the beautiful crested pigeon which seemed peculiar to these parts, as on both occasions we had seen it here, and only in this vicinity. The remarkable tree on which the fruit had been before abundant bore now, with the exception of a young crop, one solitary specimen; the rest having been pulled and eaten by the natives, as appeared from the stones which lay about. That single specimen could only be preserved in a drawing; and this I made as well as a very high hot-wind and our critical situation with respect to the natives permitted.

CHAPTER 1.6.

Proposed movements.

Hot wind.

Heavy rains set in.

Country impa.s.sable for several days.

Excursion to the plundered camp of Mr. Finch.

Recover the cart and trunks.

Bury the bodies.

Columns of smoke.

Signals of the natives.

Courage and humanity of one of the men.

Homeward journey continued.

Difficult travelling.

Civility of the tribe first met.

Mosquitoes troublesome.

Regain the Namoi.

Ascend Mount Warroga.

Re-cross the Peel.

Conclusion.

PROPOSED MOVEMENTS.

We had arrived at the point where I considered it necessary to quit our former route, and cross the open country towards the range that we might thus fall into our old track within a few days' journey of our last camp on the Namoi. This direction would cut off ten days' journey of the route outward, and extended across open plains where the party would be much more secure than in the woods, at a time when the natives had given us so much cause to be vigilant. But these plains, however favourable, afforded only an accidental advantage, for had the situations of wood and plain been reversed, we must still have endeavoured to penetrate by the route which was the most direct.

February 13.

Keeping the lagoon on our right we travelled as its winding sh.o.r.es permitted, towards the hills, and we thus made a good journey of ten miles in the direction of Mount Frazer. In our way we crossed a chain of ponds which entered the lagoon from the east, and was doubtless a branch from some of the channels crossed by us in our outward journey; but it was difficult to say which, from the winding course and number, of those which thus intersect the country.