(COPY.)
Albert River, Gulf of Carpentaria, October 15 1861.
To Captain Norman of H.M.C.S. Victoria, and Commander-in-chief of the
Northern Expedition Parties.
Sir,
I have the honour to inform you that the senior lieutenant of H.M.C.S.
Victoria, having been commissioned by you to take the Firefly hulk to the
head of the navigation of the Albert River to form a depot there, shortly
after midnight of the 14th October, at the flood of the tide, which
occurs here only once in twenty-four hours, we stood in for the mouth of
the river and, as the channel is of a winding character, and the ship
almost unmanageable, we had to take her right over the bar. From thence
we proceeded some time after daylight with a fair wind, several miles up
the river to where we took grass on board, which some of my party, having
preceded us, had in readiness. On the 16th, from the time of the tide,
the wind being unfavourable, we had reached no further than Norman's
Group of Islands, which are about ten miles in a straight line from the
mouth of the river. At that place, from the small quantity of water on
board it became necessary to decide on what bank the horses should be
landed; consequently three parties started in search of water--a boat and
two land parties. The former, under the command of Mr. Frost, found a
good pond of water near the lowest water we had found when we first
explored the Albert River. In the same neighbourhood Mr. Campbell's
party, who went up the west bank of the river, found another waterhole,
which was distant from the ship, by the road they went, about four miles,
and passable for the horses, although partly over mudflats which during
high tides are covered with water; and on that account I thought, having
observed the country to be very low from the masthead, it would be
impassable.
I accompanied Mr. Bourne, Mr. Hennie the botanist, and two native
police-troopers to the eastward in search of water. In that direction we
went about six miles, which was further than was necessary as we found
water within that distance. The first three miles we went was chiefly
over hard flats which at high tides are covered with water; the next was
over such good country that Mr. Bourne, although I had given him my
account of the Plains of Promise, said he did not expect to have seen
such fine country on the Albert River. The character of the country is
plains with the best grasses on them. Mr. Bourne and I agreed in thinking
that the lowest of them (with the exception of there being on them no
cotton and cabbage saltbush) resembled in appearance, and from their
having salty herbage in abundance, some parts of the Murrumbidgee plains.
The higher parts are more thickly grassed and are slightly wooded with
stunted timber, consisting of box, apple, white-gum, cotton, and other
trees. The cotton-trees I had never seen before; but Mr. Hennie told me
they had been found by Dr. Mueller when in Mr. Gregory's party in the
expedition to Northern Australia.
On this country we found abundance of waterholes, some of which were
divided from each other by sandstone dykes and contained fresh, and
others brackish, water. Near the waterholes, at the most conspicuous
points of timber on our route, we marked trees. The north-easterly
waterhole I called Mueller Lake. It is a fine long sheet of water which
is brackish but not to an extent to render it undrinkable.
Before we reached any water on our way from the ship, we observed, at
some distance from us, several blacks, of whom three gins and three
children we overtook in their camps. These we tried to persuade by signs
to lead us to the nearest water, but they were so extremely terrified
that they clung to each other and would not move, except to point in the
direction in which by our proceeding a short distance we found it
ourselves.
On the 17th October the ship was taken alongside of the western bank of
the river, and, a landing stage having been made, twenty-three of the
horses were walked on shore and driven up to Frost's Ponds; the remaining
two from their being too weak were kept on board. A few of the horses
after their voyage were in good order, and the most of the others, which
were in such low condition from their insufficient allowance of water
from Moreton Bay to Torres Strait, now showed, from their having plenty
of water since their reshipment at Hardy's Islands, that they were in a
thriving state.
On the 20th Messrs. Bourne, Moore, Frost, and two troopers started up the
river on a shooting and land excursion. I accompanied them to near
Frost's Ponds where the horses were running, and I was glad to find the
horses were doing well, as I expected they would do, from the herbage of
the plains in that neighbourhood being of the most fattening character.
Late in the evening our sportsmen returned and gave a most glowing
description of about eight miles of the plains they had crossed in going
to and returning from some waterholes they had found, one of which was
within half a mile of the river. As they made their excursion an
exploring rather than a sporting expedition they shot very little,
although they saw several wallabies on the plains, and crowds of duck and
other aquatic fowl at the waterholes they passed in the course of their
walk.
On the 22nd, having made circulars to the effect that the Firefly hulk
and the horses (broad arrow before L) were on their way up the river, the
latter on the west bank, some of our party landed on the east bank and
stuck them up in places where Mr. Walker's party would probably find them
in the event of their passing us and following down that side of the
river. In doing so we went over a fine grassed plain, and in that
distance found two waterholes. On the 24th the blacks paid us a visit and
we gave them presents; but afterwards, as they stole some clothes that
were out to dry, we determined to give them no further encouragement
unless they returned the stolen things. This Mr. Woods, on the following
day, tried to explain to a few of them who swam across the river to the
bank that we were alongside of.
When I see naked blacks I am very much tempted to give them clothes and
tomahawks; but this should not be indulged for I have found from having
done so that the more they have got the more they have wanted; and on the
other hand I have found that when they got nothing from us they gave us
very little of their company and thus rarely gave us any occasion for
quarrelling with them.
On the 27th of October Mr. Campbell and the troopers went on shore and
collected the horses and took them up as far as Moore's Ponds.
From twenty-two observations, chiefly taken during the day, the
temperature has ranged from 69 to 89 degrees and averaged a fraction over
80 degrees. On the 29th we had a few drops of rain which reminded us that
we had hardly had any since we started from Brisbane, upwards of a couple
of months ago.
My party went in search of the horses yesterday and returned with them
today to the place where the ship was aground, a point about fifteen
miles in a straight line from the mouth of the river. The horses were so
fresh that to hobble them two of the quietest had to be caught to round
with them the others up. In the ten days that they had been ashore they
had improved more in condition than any horses I have seen do in other
parts of Australia in a similar period. To collect the horses they had to
go as far as ten miles in a north-west direction, to a saltwater creek
which, from Mr. Campbell's report, I believe is the River Nicholson. On
the following day I accompanied Mr. Campbell and the troopers to the
Nicholson River. The water in it we found not so brackish as that part of
the Albert River where we left the ship. I was surprised to find it was
not so broad as the river I have just mentioned. We encamped all night on
the bank of the river, and near our camp marked a tree (broad arrow
before L). On the 30th we returned to the ship after getting the troopers
to collect the horses and shoot a quantity of ducks. By counting my steps
I made the distance seven miles to a bend of the Albert River near which
Moore's Ponds are situated, and two miles and three-quarters further
brought us to the point near which the ship had reached. It is a grassy
plain between the two rivers, with a few stunted trees upon it; that
nearest the Nicholson River is the poorest soil, and the grass at present
upon it is very much parched up. A fine large enclosure for stock might
be formed by running a fence across from the Albert to the Nicholson
River.
On the 1st November we commenced making a yard for the horses and, having
got the assistance of two of the carpenters, we commenced to shoe the
horses. On the 4th I got a passage in the barge to H.M.C.S. Victoria,
which was stationed at the distance of seven miles from the mouth of this
river, to consult with yourself respecting the plan to be pursued in the
search for Mr. Burke and his companions, and to express my earnest desire
to have rations at the Albert River depot to make a second expedition by
the route which Mr. Gregory and I agreed to as the most likely way to
find traces to follow Mr. Burke and his companions--namely by skirting
the desert, and passing, as near as the country would admit of my doing,
to their starting-point, and also to go to a place on the Bowen Downs (a
well-watered country) to seek for a continuation of tracks seen by
Messrs. Cornish and Buchanan, which they thought were made by a South
Australian party, at a point rather less than 300 miles towards the Gulf
of Carpentaria from Burke's depot on Cooper's Creek.
On the 6th instant we left the Victoria together (as you are aware) for
the depot on the Albert River, and that evening after nine hours boating
reached our destination.
On the following morning, having proceeded up the river on the previous
day, reached the junction of the Barkly with the Albert River, near which
we found the tree marked by Mr. Gregory and Captain Chimmo, the former on
the left and the latter on the right bank; afterwards having marked lines
of trees, and marked on trees directions to lead the exploring parties to
the depot, we returned to it.
On the 15th, intending to start tomorrow on the inland expedition, I had
all the horses, in number twenty-three, brought up, the two weak ones
having died since our arrival at the Albert River, besides the five I
mentioned as having died on the voyage. We saddled and packed a few of
the wildest of the horses* to make them more tractable tomorrow, when I
hope, as I have mentioned, to start on our journey.