common who profess to cure snake-bites, but I doubt if they ever really
succeed. It is beyond all question that in the early days of
Australia, and whilst this beautiful continent was held by Great
Britain as nothing more than a useful place for the safe custody of her
criminal classes, a convict named Underwood discovered a remedy for
snake-bite, and in many cases treated it successfully. The story has
by no means died out in the colonies, of the good old laws of brutal
terrorism, under which, when a bitten man was brought to Underwood, the
latter proceeded to apply his remedy, stimulated by the pleasing threat
of a severe flogging, should his treatment be of no avail. He appears
to have been a man of great firmness of purpose, for he never could be
betrayed into divulging his secret, though many unworthy means were
resorted to for that end. The utmost that he would acknowledge was
that the antidote was common, and that Australians trampled it
under-foot every day of their lives. The way he became acquainted with
the remedy was by accidentally witnessing a fight between a snake and
an iguana. The latter was frequently bitten, and in every case ran to
a certain plant and ate it before renewing the contest, in which it was
ultimately victorious, leaving the serpent dead upon the plain.
Underwood demanded his pardon and liberty as the price of his precious
knowledge, and I believe a mixed commission of military men and
civilians deliberated on the case at Sydney, and decided not to grant
the convict's request. In due time he died, and with him perished his
invaluable secret. It is to be presumed the commission knew what they
were about, but undoubtedly their adverse decision has been a real
misfortune to all those whose lives are passed in a country inhabited
by venomous reptiles. We are much indebted to Doctor Fagren for the
exhaustive researches he has made into the action of snake-poison and
its remedy--the result of which the reader can find in his elaborately
got-up volume, entitled "The Thanatophidia of India"--and on looking
over the concise directions given by him for immediate use in the event
of such an accident, I do not see that we could possibly have done more
than we did, considering the limited material we had at our command.
Perhaps, had it been a white man, with a strong constitution, he would
have pulled through; for the settled conviction that he was doomed,
doubtless accelerated the death of the black boy; but the action of the
poison is so rapid, that most cases terminate fatally. Two instances I
know of, in which the patient recovered. The first was an Irish
labourer, who whilst reaping took up a snake, which bit him in the
finger. He walked at once to the fence, put his hand on a post, and
severed the wounded member with his sickle. Irishman-like, he forgot
to move the sound fingers out of the way, and two of them shared the
fate of their injured companion. Paddy walked into the nearest
township, had his wounds dressed, and felt no inconvenience from the
venom. Under the soubriquet of "Three-fingered Tim," this individual
may frequently be met with at Sydney, and, for a glass of grog, will be
delighted to recount the whole affair, with the richest of Milesian
brogues. The second case was that of a woman. She was going from the
hut to the fireplace, when she trod on a snake, which bit her just
below the joint of the little toe; for, like Coleridge's Christabel--
"Her blue-veined feet unsandall'd were."
She was in a terrible position; her husband, and the other man for whom
she acted as hut-keeper, had both gone out with their flocks some hours
previously, and there was nobody about but a poor half-witted lad, who
hung about the place doing odd jobs. She was a resolute woman, and
made up her mind how to act, in far less time than it takes me to set
it down on paper. Coo-ehing for the lad, she went into the hut, and
came out again with a sharp tomahawk and an axe.
"Take this," she said, handing the latter to the boy, "and strike hard
on the back of it when I tell you."
Thus speaking, she placed her foot on a log of wood, adjusted the keen
edge of the tomahawk so that when struck it would sever the toe and the
portion of the foot containing the bite, and, holding the handle of the
tomahawk steady as a rock, with firm determination gave the words--
"Now, Jim, strike!"
It needed three blows from the back of the axe to complete the
operation, for the poor lad grew frightened at the sight of the blood;
but the undaunted woman encouraged him, nerved him to a fresh trial,
and guided the tomahawk as coolly as if she were cutting up a piece of
beef, until the shocking task was completed. With Jim's assistance,
she then bound up the foot to arrest the bleeding, and, accompanied by
him, rode ten miles into the township, and, need I say, in due course
recovered.
In these instances the reader will see that the measures taken were
both prompt, and such as would require more nerve than is possessed by
the ordinary run of mortals. In the above cases, also, the bitten part
was capable of being removed; but for a bite on the wrist, had such an
extreme measure as immediate dismemberment been performed, the cure
would have been as fatal as the disease.
Poor Dunmore was terribly cut up at the premature death of his
follower; Lizzie, having smothered her head with fluffy feathers from
some cockatoos that had been roasted for supper, employed herself in
chanting a most weird kind of dirge over the body, to which she beat a
species of accompaniment on the bottom of a pint pot; while Ferdinand,
by Dunmore's directions, had set to work to strip a sheet of bark off a
tea-tree, to act as a rude coffin. A great difficulty now presented
itself, for we had no tools whatever, and how could we dig a grave? In
such hard ground, knives would make no impression, and the body must be
buried deeply, or it would be rooted up by the dingoes, whose howl we
could plainly hear around us, as they bayed at the moon. We spread
ourselves out in different directions, in the hope of finding some rift
or recess that would answer the purpose, but in the imperfect light, we
failed to discover anything, so were compelled to wait for dawn. I do
not think any of us slept much. One of our little party suddenly
snatched away in so unforeseen a manner, gave us all food for
reflection--for which of us knew that the same fate would not befall
him to-morrow? When I dropped off into a slumber, it was so light and
broken, that I seemed to be conscious of Lizzie, continuing her
melancholy drone, and battering monotonously on the tin pannikin, nor
was I surprised when in the morning I ascertained that such had really
been her occupation all night; for the purpose of keeping the body from
harm, she avowed, but, I am inclined to think, much more from fear of
sleeping in the neighbourhood of a dead body, for the blacks are
dreadfully superstitious, and frightened to death of ghosts.
At daylight we were lucky enough to find a tree that had been blown
down in the late hurricane, leaving a hollow where its roots had been
torn out of the ground. In this natural grave we laid the poor
trooper, wrapped in his bark shell, and, having raised a pile of stones
upon the spot, of such dimensions as to preclude the probability of the
body being disturbed by dingoes, we went on our way, silent and
melancholy.
AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY--IV.
BY CHARLES H. EDEN.
OUR next day was a repetition of the last; camps in abundance, but no
blacks, and we had as yet seen no signs of the Townsville party. At
night we camped by the side of a large creek, and, after supper, were
lying down, with the intention of making up for the broken slumbers of
the previous night, when Ferdinand, who had moved higher up the stream
to get a private eel for himself and his lady, came back and shook
Dunmore, saying--
"Many big fellow fire sit down up creek."
We were on our feet in a moment, and, stealing quietly through the
bush, soon saw the glare, and on our nearer approach, could make out
many recumbent figures round the fire, and one man passing to and fro,
on guard.
"By Jove! it's the Cleveland Bay mob," said Dunmore; "we must take
care they don't fire into us. Lie down, or get behind trees, all you
fellows, and I'll hail them."
"Holloa there!" he cried, when we had all "planted" (in Australian
parlance signifying "concealed") ourselves. "Don't fire, we're
Cardwellites!"
In a moment the sentry's rifle was at his shoulder, pointed in the
direction whence the voice came; but it was my old friend Abiram Hills,
ex-mayor of Bowen, a thorough bushman, and possessed of great nerve,
whose turn it then happened to be to keep watch over his slumbering
companions. As quickly as it had been raised, his rifle fell into the
hollow of his arm, and shouting out, "Get up, you fellows, here are the
Rockingham Bayers!" he rushed forward, and in a moment was shaking
hands with Dunmore, while the sleepers, uncertain whether it was an
alarm, stood rubbing their eyes, and handling their carbines so
ominously as they peered into the darkness, that we deemed it the best
policy to remain under cover until their faculties had grasped the fact
that we were not enemies, and as such to be slain incontinently.
It is a startling thing to be hailed suddenly in the silence of the
bush, and had a less experienced sentry than Abiram been on guard, he
would most likely have fired. We had also before our eyes the case of
a party who not long before had gone out to chastise the blacks, and
having split into two divisions, opened a brisk fire upon each other
when they drew near again, luckily without effect. Some of these
warriors we knew to be amongst ourselves, so it behoved us to exercise
caution.
Our greeting was most cordial, and we were soon all assembled round the
fire--now blazing up with fresh fuel--smoking the pipe of peace, which
we moistened with a modicum of grog from the well-filled flasks of the
Cleveland Bayers, and comparing notes, previous to making our plans for
the morrow. Like ourselves, they had found plenty of camps, but not a
living creature in them; and they were as perplexed as we were as to
what had become of their occupants. On their way up from Townsville,
they had seen smoke-signals thrown up from the mangroves at the mouth
of the Herbert River, and these were answered both from the range
behind Cardwell, and from Hinchinbrook, so it was evident there were
blacks on the island, though most likely concealed in some of the
hidden valleys, which, from the volcanic nature of the country, were so
plentiful, and so difficult to find.
Lizzie was now brought forward, and subjected to a most rigid
cross-examination, with which I will not trouble the reader. She said
that they must have crossed over to the main-land, for every place had
now been searched. We were in despair, when Abiram Hills said--
"Baal bora ground been sit down along of Hinchinbrook, Lizzie?"
A "bora ground" is a particular place to which the blacks are in the
habit of resorting at certain seasons of the year, to hold
"corroborries" or dances, and also to perform divers mysterious rites
on the young people of both sexes attaining the marriageable age. What
these solemnities really are, is but little known, and they seem to
differ widely in each tribe. In some, the young girls have a couple of
front teeth knocked out; in others they lose a joint of the little
finger; and at that time the hideous lumps with which the men embellish
their bodies must be raised. These curious ornaments are formed by
cutting gashes in the flesh three-quarters of an inch long, and
stuffing the wound with mud, which prevents the edges from adhering,
and when the skin grows over, leaves a lump like an almond. The
number, proximity, and pattern of these adornments are according to the
peculiar tastes of the family, and vary considerably, but the breast,
back, shoulders, and arms are usually pretty thickly sown, giving the
appearance of a number of fresh graves, placed close together in a
black soil field.
[ILLUSTRATION--"NATIVE AUSTRALIAN."]
Abiram's question was one of those lucky inspirations that sometimes
strike one, changing, as by magic, obscurity into distinctness, and
pouring in a flood of light where no ray could be seen before.
"My word!"--cried Lizzie, her whole face lighting up with eagerness and
joy--"my word, close up mine been forget. Mine know one fellow bora
ground, plenty black fellow sit down there, mine believe. My word,
plenty d--d fooly me!"
We could see from the girl's face that we were now on the right scent,
and having ascertained that she could take us to the "bora ground" by
the following evening, we finished our pipes, and lay down to sleep,
thankful for what promised a possible solution of the mystery.
The Cleveland Bay party consisted of seven white men and two black
boys, so we now mustered a strong force. Lizzie would hardly allow us
time to swallow our breakfast, so impatient was she to be under weigh;
and one wretched man, lingering for a moment later than the rest of us,
over a slice of beef and damper, found himself the object of general
attention, when our little guide stamped her foot, and, trembling with
indignation, said--
"Plenty big bingey (belly) that fellow. Baal he been fill 'em like 'it
sundown!"
The travelling was worse than ever now; up and down steep ravines in
which the tangled scrub grew so thickly that progress was almost
impossible, and we were compelled to wade along the bed of the creek;
now tripping over a sharp ledge of rock, now floundering up to the
waistbelt in a treacherous hole; past the base of a beautiful
waterfall, where the action of the torrent had worn a hollow basin in
the rock, in which it sparkled, cool, transparent, and prismatic, in
the rays of the burning sun, and where the view, so unlike the
generality of Australian scenery, was perfectly bewitching; on, through
more scrub, through swamps, and over stiff mountains, wet, draggled,
moody, and cross, crawling along after the little black figure in
front, that held steadily on its way, as though hunger and fatigue were
to it things unknown.
At length, about three o'clock in the afternoon, we found ourselves in
a sort of natural funnel in the rock, the end of which grew narrower
and narrower as it wound about in curious curves.
"Close up now," said Lizzie, "water sit down along of other side; baal
black fellow get away."
We halted for a few minutes to get breath, and to steady ourselves, and
then, keeping close together, stepped out of the gloomy passage into
the broad daylight. It was a beautiful sight. The "bora ground" had
been selected in a miniature bay, of about three acres in extent,
closed in by perpendicular rocks, and attainable only by boat, or by
the passage through which we had just arrived. In this secluded spot a
quantity of coca-nut palms were growing, waifs, carried there by the
ocean from the distant South Sea Islands, fructifying and multiplying
on the hospitable shore, and shielded from the tomahawk of the native,
on account of the shelter they afforded his mysterious retreat. Under
the palms stood several conical huts, or lodges, of considerable
dimensions, used, I presume, on state occasions for the deliberations
of the elder warriors. But the thing most pleasing to our eyes, was
the sight of some two hundred natives, of both sexes, and all ages, who
now started to their feet, with wild cries of alarm, and motions
expressive of the utmost terror, at this sudden invasion of their
retreat by the dreaded white man.
Some of the blacks flew to arms at once, and stood with poised spears
in a menacing attitude, whilst the gins and piccaninnies cowered
together on the beach. We had our carbines in hand, cocked, and
prepared to defend ourselves in the event of hostilities, which we
earnestly hoped to avoid. Lizzie, who had at last begun to understand
that slaughter was not our object, and who had been reconciled to our
tame proceedings by the promise of much finery, now advanced towards
the threatening natives and made a speech in their own language, to the
effect that we wished to do them no harm, beyond ascertaining whether
there were any whites among them, though, if we found murder had been
committed, we should discover the perpetrators, hold them answerable,
and punish them. Rewards were offered for any information that would
lead to a knowledge of the real fate of the shipwrecked crew, and an
exaggerated estimate of our strength, and the capability of our
firearms, was given by our interpreter, on her own account, and was
perfectly intelligible to us from the signs and gesticulations she
made, and the scorn with which she pointed to the rude weapons of her
country-men; for the intrepid little girl had marched fearlessly up to
the group of warriors.
After delivering her speech, Lizzie withdrew to us, and we waited,
rather anxiously, the turn that affairs would take; for a peaceful
solution would be far preferable to a fight, in which, though we must
ultimately be the victors, yet success would only be achieved at
considerable loss of life, probably on both sides.
Whilst matters rested thus, and the blacks were holding an animated
discussion, one of the troopers espied a solitary dingo on the rocks
overlooking the "bora ground," and distant from us about fifty yards.
Lizzie at once said--
"Suppose you shoot 'em that fellow dingo, plenty that frighten black
fellow."
"By Jove, Lizzie, what a good idea!" we said. "Who's the best shot;
for it will be fatal to miss?"
"Let your boy fire," said Abiram, "it will astonish them much more if
they see it done by a black; and let Lizzie warn them of what is going
to take place."
"You believe you shoot 'em that fellow dingo?" asked Dunmore of
Ferdinand.
"Your (yes), marmy, mine believe."
"Plenty big glass of rum, suppose you shoot 'em bony (dead)," added
Abiram.
The trooper's eyes glistened, and he licked his lips as if the spirit
were already won.
Meanwhile Lizzie had told her countrymen to watch the dog, and they
would see him killed, and the blacks stood straining their eyes at the
doomed dingo, who, with pricked ears and drooping tail, stood
motionless against the sky-line, intently surveying the unusual scene
beneath, and wondering probably how soon he should get the relics of
the roasted fish, whose fragrant odour had assailed his nostrils, and
drawn him into his present position.
It was a moment of intense suspense while the trooper raised his
carbine--slowly and deliberately; no hurry, not even the quiver of a
muscle, for his mind was on the rum, and he recked little of the moral
influence of a successful shot;--we drew a long breath of relief as the
weapon flashed forth, and the dog, making a convulsive bound forward,
fell stone dead at the foot of the rocks, where it was instantly
surrounded by the awestruck savages, who carefully examined the body,
and thrust their fingers into the bullet-hole, for the ball had passed
clean through the animal, just behind the shoulder-blade.
The trooper first loaded his empty barrel, and then twitching Abiram by
the sleeve, whispered, "You give 'em rum now. Plenty you make him
strong, mine believe." His task was accomplished, and that the reward
should immediately follow was with him a natural consequence.
Ferdinand's shot and Lizzie's eloquence had, however, rid us of all
further trouble. The blacks laid down their arms, and expressed
themselves quite willing to assist us in any way. They vehemently
denied having seen any white men, but acknowledged that some had been
heard of on the Macalister River, and thought they were detained by the
tribes inhabiting its banks. They were cognizant of our expedition up
the Herbert, and knew that we were searching Hinchinbrook, but never
thought we should have found them in their present position.
It was now evident that further search on Hinchinbrook was useless.
There was no reason to doubt the truth of what they told us, for Lizzie
would have gathered information had there been any outrage, or some
small piece of rag or blanket would have betrayed them. That the
unfortunate men might be on the Macalister was not improbable, and
thither we must bend our steps, as the last resource. If we were
unsuccessful then, we could only conclude that the vessel had foundered
at sea, and we should have the melancholy satisfaction of knowing that
we had done everything in our power to rescue the sufferers.
We camped for the night at one extremity of the little bay, while the
natives occupied the other, in which there was a well sunk, where we
supplied ourselves with fresh water. We soon became on friendly terms
with our wild neighbours, but took care never to linger amongst them
singly, and always had our weapons ready for immediate use.
In the evening Lizzie came over from the blacks' camp, where she had
been holding a great palaver, and asked us if we should like to see a
"corroborrie," or dance; and much pleased at getting a glimpse of the
native customs, and glad of anything to break the monotony of our
lives, we followed her to the group of palms, and there took up our
positions to watch the proceedings. A tremendous fire was soon flaming
on the beach, near it the gins and piccaninnies assembled, with bits of
stick, clubs, and calabashes, on which to beat time. Some thirty of
the men then stood up, armed with spears, tomahawks, nullah-nullahs
(war-clubs), and boomerangs, and commenced a series of ludicrous
antics, to a most melancholy dirge chanted by the women, a kind of rude
time being observed. Gradually, however, they grew excited, and worked
themselves up by going through a sort of mock fight; and when at the
last the women danced round them with torches, all howling and
shrieking at the top of their voices, and banging the calabashes with
kangaroo bones or anything that would add to the noise, the whole scene
reminded one of the infernal regions broken loose. This lasted an
hour, at the end of which time we withdrew, after expressing ourselves
highly gratified, and the whole camp was shortly buried in repose. We
kept double sentries, but we might all have gone to sleep, for there
was no symptom of treachery. At daylight we had breakfast; gave the
warriors and gins a few trifling things we could spare, such as knives,
two or three blankets--for we hoped to reach the township that
night--and, wonder of wonders to the savages, some matches (nearly all
of which they expended in verifying the fact that they would go off),
and then took our departure from the "bora ground," guided by a native,
who showed a very short way, unknown to Lizzie, by which we arrived at
the 'Daylight' early in the afternoon, to find that the latter had been
joined by the 'Black Prince', the steamer that had brought up the
Cleveland Bay party. We quitted in our little craft for Cardwell, and
the Townsville men went south in their steamer, intending to get some
shooting at the Palm Islands before going home for good. Eleven
o'clock that evening saw us at our township, fully determined to carry
out the work thoroughly by searching the Macalister River, an account
of which I hope to give in a future chapter.
AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY--V.
BY CHAS H. EDEN.
HOW WE EXPLORED THE MACALISTER RIVER.
The reader who has been good enough to follow me so far, will see that
hitherto our efforts had been unattended with the slightest success,
and that the fate of the missing schooner and her living freight still
remained buried in the deepest mystery. To say that we were not
disheartened by our numerous disappointments would be untrue, for we
well knew that each closing day rendered our chances of affording
relief to the survivors more and more difficult; so much so, in fact,
that at the council assembled to discuss the matter in the large
dining-room of the hotel, several voices urged the expediency of
abandoning any further attempts. Much valuable time, they remarked,
had been already expended by men to whom time represented money, nay
more--the means of living. Their own avocations imperiously demanded
their presence, and although they were the last men in the world to
desert their fellow-beings in extremity, still, in a country where
every man lived by the sweat of his own brow, self-interest could not
be entirely sacrificed.
[ILLUSTRATION--AUSTRALIANS IN CAMP.]
Even we, who were most anxious to organise another expedition, could
not but acknowledge that the searchers had much justice on their side;
but when we were discussing matters in rather a despondent tone, a new
ally came to the front in the person of Jack Clarke, the horse-breaker.
"Where do you propose going next?" he asked Dunmore.
"We must search the ranges at the back of the township first, and
another party must go up the Macalister River," was the reply.
"Need both parties start at the same time?"
"The chances of success would, of course, be greater if they did,"
replied the officer, "but still it is not absolutely necessary."
"Well," said Jack, "suppose you take the pilot boat, and go up the
river, which will take much longer to explore than the ranges; and, at
the end of a week, we shall have got our own affairs pretty straight,
and will beat all the country at the back, and join you on the
Macalister. What do you think of that, mates?" he added, turning to
the company. "Won't that suit us all?"
"Capitally!" was echoed from every side, and after sundry drinks the
party broke up; Dunmore and I hastening to make immediate preparations
for our new trip.