The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 Part 13

The toil that had to be gone through may be conceived by the following short extract from Eyre's diary on March 11th, just after accomplis.h.i.+ng their first terrible stage after leaving the depot:--

"At night the whole party were, by G.o.d's blessing, once more together and in safety, after having pa.s.sed over one hundred and thirty-five miles of desert country, without a drop of water in its whole extent, and at a season of the year the most unfavourable for such an undertaking. In accomplis.h.i.+ng this distance, the sheep had been six and the horses five days without water, and both had been almost wholly without food for the greater part of the time. The little gra.s.s we found was so dry and withered that the parched and thirsty animals could not eat it after the second day."

From this camp Eyre started in the hope of shortly coming to a second supply of water that the natives had told him of, and lured on by this idea, he got forty miles from his camp without having made the provision that he should have done before entering on a very long stage. Coming to the conclusion that he must have pa.s.sed the water, he decided to send the horses back to the last camp for a fresh supply before venturing further on. At midnight the overseer and the natives started back, leaving Eyre to mind the baggage with the scanty allowance of six pints of water to last him for six days until their return. On the 26th of March they again started, and at night reduced their baggage still more in the hope of getting the tired horses through; and the next day everything was abandoned, for still there was no prospect of water ahead.

On the night of the 29th the last drop of water that they had with them was consumed, and the next morning water was obtained by digging in the sand drift--their seventh day out, after travelling, by Eyre's computation, one hundred and sixty miles. It was not until the 27th of April that they left the camp, to enter on the last fearful push that was to decide their fate--and did too well decide the fate of three.

Once more the line of cliffs that had for a time been broken by the sandhills faced the ocean, and from experience Eyre knew well that he might expect no relief when travelling along their summits.

On the evening of the 29th, the third night from their last camp, Eyre took the first watch to look after the horses, as this was necessary every night to prevent them rambling too far.

The night was cold, the wind blowing hard, and across the face of the moon the scud kept rapidly driving. The horses wandered a good deal, and kept separating in the scrub, giving the lonely man much trouble to keep them together, and when his watch was nearly up he headed them for the camp, intending to call the overseer to relieve him, Suddenly the stillness of the desert was broken by the report of a gun.

Eyre was not at first alarmed, thinking it a signal of Baxter's to show him the position of the camp; he called out in reply, but no answer was returned; and, hastening in the direction, was met by one of the boys running towards him crying, "Oh ma.s.sa, oh ma.s.sa, come here!" but beyond that could not speak for terror.

Eyre was soon at the camp, and a glance told him that he was now indeed alone. Baxter, wounded to death, was lying on the ground in his last agony, and as Eyre raised his faithful companion, then in the convulsion of death, the frightful and appalling truth burst upon him in its full horror.

"At the dead hour of night, in the wildest and most inhospitable waste of Australia, with the fierce wind raging in unison with the scene of violence before me, I was left with a single native, whose fidelity I could not rely upon, and who, for aught I knew, might be in league with the other two, who, perhaps were, even now, lurking about to take my life, as they had done that of the overseer. Three days had pa.s.sed away since we left the last water, and it was very doubtful when we might find any more. Six hundred miles of country had to be traversed before I could hope to obtain the slightest aid or a.s.sistance of any kind, whilst I knew not that a single drop of water, or an ounce of flour, had been left by these murderers, from a stock that had previously, been so small."

On examining the camp, Eyre found that the two boys had carried off both double-barrelled guns, all the baked bread, and other stores, and a keg of water. All he had left was a rifle with a ball jammed in the barrel, four gallons of water, forty pounds of flour, and a little tea and sugar.

When he had time to collect his thoughts, Eyre judged from the position of the body, that Baxter must have been disturbed by the boys plundering the camp, and getting up to stop them, had been immediately shot. His next care was to put his rifle in serviceable condition, and then as morning broke they hastened away from the fatal camp. It was impossible even to bury the body of his murdered companion; one vast unbroken surface of sheet rock extended for miles in every direction. Well might Eyre exclaim:--

"Though years have now pa.s.sed away since the enactment of this tragedy, the dreadful horrors of that time and scene are recalled before me with frightful vividness, and make me shudder even now when I think of them. A lifetime was crowded into those few short hours, and death alone may blot out the impressions they produced."

That evening the two murderers re-appeared in the scrub, following the white man and boy. Eyre attempted to get close to them, but they would not come near, remaining at a distance, calling out to the remaining boy (Wylie), who, however, refused to go to them. Finding himself unable to get to close quarters with them, Eyre proceeded on his journey, and the two boys were never seen again, and, without doubt, they soon perished miserably of hunger and thirst.

At last, after being again seven days without water for the horses, they reached the end of the long line of cliffs, and amongst the sand dunes came again to a native well, and got their poor tortured horses a drink.

Moving on now in easier stages, and getting water by digging at the foot of the different sand hills he encountered, Eyre proceeded on with better hopes for the future; he felt confident that he was past the great belt of and country, and that with every day the travelling would improve.

On the 8th of May, another horse was killed, and a supply of meat dried to carry with them.

From this point water was more frequently met with, a decided change for the better took place in the face of the country, and the wretched horses they still had left began to pick up a little. At last, when their rations were quite exhausted, they sighted a s.h.i.+p at anchor in Thistle Cove. She turned out to be the MISSISSIPPI, whaler, Captain Rossitur, and once more Eyre had to thank fortune for relief at a critical moment.

For ten days he forgot his sufferings, and regained some of his lost strength, under the hospitable care of Captain Rossitur, who, it will be remembered, was the first foreigner to anchor in Port Lincoln.

Provided with fresh clothes and provisions, with his horses newly shod, Eyre recommenced his pilgrimage, and arrived in King George's Sound on July 8th. Having successfully crossed from Port Lincoln to King George's Sound, with incredible suffering, not alone to himself, but also to his men and horses, so far as they accompanied him; added to which, his obstinate persistence, led to the death of Baxter, who, against his own convictions, went on with him, rather than leave him in his need.

It is generally said with regard to this journey of Eyre's, that it any rate established the fact that no considerable creek flowed from the interior to the south coast. But this had been pretty well-known before by the maritime surveys, for it must be borne in mind that this portion of the Australian sh.o.r.e in no way resembles the general coast line of Australia. Granted that numbers of the largest rivers in the continent were overlooked by the navigators, we must also remember that the conditions here were essentially different. No fringe of low mangrove covered flats, studded with inlets and salt-water creeks, masking the entrance of a river, was here to be found. A bold outline of barren cliffs, or a clean-swept sandy sh.o.r.e, alone fronted the ocean, and Flinders, constantly on the alert as he always was for anything approaching an outlet or river mouth, would scarcely have missed one here. As for any knowledge of the interior that was gained, of course there was none, even the conjectures of a worn out, starving man, picking his way painfully around the sea sh.o.r.e, would have scarcely been of much value. Eyre has, however secured for himself a name for courage and perseverance, under the most terrible circ.u.mstances that could well beset a man, and this qualification leads us to overlook his errors of judgment. The picture of the lonely man--not separated from his fellow creatures by the sea, as has often been the case, but by countless miles of weary, untrodden waste, in his plundered camp, beside his murdered companion--is one that for peculiar horror, can never be surpa.s.sed.

Eyre was warmly welcomed on his return to Adelaide, and he was subsequently appointed police magistrate on the Murray, where his experience and knowledge of the natives was of great service. When Sturt started on his memorable trip to the central desert, he accompanied him for a long distance; but his active nature found vent in other fields than those of exploration in future.

Eyre was a man who was thoroughly distinguished by his love for the aborigines. In after life he was appointed their protector on the Murray, at the time when the continual skirmishes between the natives and the overlanders used to be a matter of almost daily occurrence.

The courage that he had exemplified, and his wonderful march round the Great Bight, was brought into force again and again, in efforts to keep peace between the rival races. The blacks of the Murray Bend were always notable for their warlike character, and Eyre was the most fitting man that could have been selected for the post.

CHAPTER VI.

Explorations around Moreton Bay--Development of the Eastern Coast--The first pioneers of the Darling Downs--Stuart and Sydenham Russell--The Condamine River and Cecil Plains--Great interest taken in exploration at this period--Renewed explorations around Lake Torrens--Surveyor-General Frome--Death of Horrocks, the first explorer to introduce camels--Sturt's last expedition--Route by the Darling chosen--Poole fancies that he sees the inland sea--Discovery of Flood's Creek--The prison depot--Impossible to advance or retreat--Breaking up of the drought--Death of Poole--Fresh attempts to the north--The desert--Eyre's Creek discovered--Return and fresh attempt--Discoveries of Cooper and Strzelecki Creeks--Retreat to the Depot Glen--Final return to the Darling--Ludwig Leichhardt the lost explorer--His great trip north--Finding of the Burdekin, the Mackenzie, Isaacs and Suttor--Murder of the naturalist Gibert--Discovery of the Gulf Rivers--Arrival at Port Essington--His return and reception-- Surveyor-General Mitch.e.l.l's last expedition--Follows up the Balonne-- Crosses to the head of the Belyando--Disappointed in that river--Returns and crosses to the head of the Victoria (Barcoo)--The beautiful Downs country--First mention of the Mitch.e.l.l gra.s.s--False hopes entertained of the Victoria running into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Disappointing as all the attempts to penetrate to the north had been, the South Australians did not by any means abandon their efforts, either public or private, to ascertain the nature and value of the interior. The supposed horseshoe formation of Lake Torrens, presenting thus an impa.s.sable barrier, was discouraging, but hopes were entertained that breaks in it would be found that would afford a pa.s.sage across; and beyond, the country might prove of a less repellent character than the district immediately around the lake.

But the east coast and the country at the back of the new settlement of Moreton Bay, now commands our attention, Such an important discovery as that made by Cunningham of the Darling Downs, needless to say, attracted the attention of the graziers of the settled districts in search of fresh pastures. The country west of the Darling having received such an unfavourable name from the explorers who had made any efforts beyond it.

The westward march of the overlanders was checked in that direction, and their stock spread to the north, south, and south-cast.

In March 1840, Patrick Leslie, who has always been considered the father of settlement on the Darling Downs, left an outside station in New England, and after a short inspection of the scene of Cunningham's discovery, finally, in the middle of the year, settled down on the Condamine.

In 1841 the Condamine River was followed for a hundred miles by Messrs.

Stuart and Sydenham Russell, from below Jimbour, the northernmost station on a Darling Downs creek; and on the return journey some of the party made an attempt to cross the range to the Wide Bay district, but were prevented by the scrub. In the following month, November, the flow of the Condamine was again picked up in the s.p.a.ce below Turnmervil, the lowest station on a creek above Jimbour, and the channel of the river distinguished, where it was formerly supposed to have been for awhile lost. An extensive tract of rich grazing country was found open and well-watered by anabranches, with lagoons in their beds. This district has ever since borne the well-known name of Cecil Plains, then bestowed on it.

In 1842 Stuart Russell went from Moreton Bay to Wide Bay in a boat, and made an examination of some of the streams there emptying into the sea.

Amongst other adventures the party picked up with an escaped convict who had been fourteen years with the blacks. During the same year Stuart Russell explored the country from Wide Bay to the Boyne (not the river named by Oxley in Port Curtis), and subsequently followed and laid down this stream throughout, crossing from inland waters on to the head of it.

Russell's work in opening up so much available country, is a fair sample of the private explorations before referred to, which fill up such a large s.p.a.ce of the record of discovery, and yet have received so little recognition that the remembrance of most of them has been quite lost, or preserved in such a way as to be hardly looked upon as reliable history.

We are now approaching a period when the exploration of the continent was an object of absorbing interest to all the settlements fast growing into importance on the southern and eastern coasts. Three explorers, who may be cla.s.sed as the greatest, the most successful, and the one whose star that rose so bright at this time was doomed to set in misfortune, were in the field at the same time. Charles Sturt, fated once more to meet and be defeated (if such a gallant struggle can be called defeat) by the inexorable desert and the stern denial of its climate. Thomas Mitch.e.l.l, again the favoured of fortune, to wend his way by well-watered streams and gra.s.sy downs and plains. And Ludwig Leichhardt, to accomplish his one great journey through the country permeated by the rivers of the eastern and northern coast. But before starting in company with these deathless names, we must, for a while, return to Lake Torrens.

Eyre, it will be remembered, reached, after much labour, a hill to the north east at the termination of the range, which he named Mount Hopeless. From the view he obtained from the summit, he concluded that Lake Torrens completely enclosed the northern portion of the province of South Australia; and in fact that the province had once been an island, as the low-lying plains probably joined the flat country west of the Darling.

In 1843, the then Surveyor-General of the colony, Captain Frome, started to the north to ascertain as much of this mysterious lake as he could. He reached Mount Serle, and found the dry bed of the great lake to the eastward, as described by Eyre, but discovered an error of thirty miles in its position, Eyre having placed it too far to the eastward. Further north than this, Frome did not proceed; on his way back lie made two excursions to the eastward, but found nothing but sterile and unpromising country. He confirmed then, the existence of a lake to the eastward of the southern point of Lake Torrens, but his explorations did not go far to determine the ident.i.ty of the two, nor their uninterrupted continuity.

Prior to this, a series of explorations, followed by settlement, had taken place east and west of Eyre's track, between Adelaide and the head of Spencer's Gulf. One promising expedition was nipped in the bud by the accidental death of the leader, a rising young explorer, who had already won his spurs in opening up fresh country in the province. This was Mr.

J. Horrocks, who formed a plan for travelling up the western side of Lake Torrens, and then, if possible, making westward and trying to reach the Swan River. This expedition is especially noteworthy as being the first one in which a camel was made use of, and to Horrocks, is due the credit of first introducing these animals as baggage carriers. When at the head of the Gulf, and about to grapple with the unknown land to the west, his gun accidentally went off, and he received the charge in his face. He lived to return to the station, but died a few days afterwards.

Amongst the other pioneers who contributed more or less to spread settlement in the province, and succeeded, may be mentioned Messrs.

Hawker, Hughes, Campbell, Robinson, and Heywood.

Perhaps, of all the journeys into the interior, none have excited more sustained interest than Sturt's. It must be admitted that his account, however truthful it may have appeared to him at the time, is misleading, and overdrawn. But whilst saying this let us look at the circ.u.mstances under which he received the impressions he has put on record.

He was a thoroughly broken and disappointed man; for six months he had been shut up in his weary depot prison, debarred from making any attempt to complete his work, watching his friend and companion die slowly before his eyes. When the kindly rains released him, he was turned back and constantly back by a strip of desert country, that seemed to dog him whichever way he turned. No wonder he fairly hated the place, and looked at all things through the heated, treacherous haze of the desert plains.

When, therefore, he speaks of the awful temperature that rendered life unbearable, and the inland slopes of Australia unfitted for human habitation, it must be recalled that the party were weak and suffering, liable to feel oppressive heat or extreme cold, more keenly than strong and healthy men. In the ranges where Sturt spent his summer months of detention, there is now one of the wonderful mining towns.h.i.+ps of Australia, where men toil as laboriously as in a temperate zone, and the fires of the battery and the smelting furnace burn steadily day and night, in sight of the spot where Poole lies buried. And at the lower levels of the shafts trickle the waters of subterranean streams that Sturt never dreamt of. But though baffled, and unable to gain the goal he strove for, never did man better deserve success. His instructions were to reach the centre of the continent, to discover whether range or sea existed there; and if the former, to note the flow of the northern waters, but on no account to follow them down to the northern sea. As usual, the Home Office, in their official wisdom, knew more than did the colonists, and instructed him to proceed by way of Mount Arden; the route already tried and abandoned by Eyre.

Sturt chose to proceed by the Darling. His plan was to follow that river up as far as the Williorara or Laidley's Ponds, a small western tributary of the Darling, opposite the point were Mitch.e.l.l turned back, in 1835, after his conflict with the natives. Thence he intended to strike north-west, hoping thus to avoid the gloomy environs of Lake Torrens, and its treacherous bed.