A weird duel--The tragedy of the baby whale--My boat is destroyed--A ten
miles' swim--Gigantic prizes--Swimming in the whale's head--I make use of
the visitors--A fight with an alligator--The old craving--Bitter
disappointment--My mysterious "flying spears"--Dog-like fidelity--I
present my "card"--The desert of red sand.
The women of the tribe lived amicably enough together as a rule, but of
course they had their differences. They would quarrel about the merits
and demerits of their own families and countries; but the greatest source
of heartburning and trouble was the importation of a new wife--especially
if she chanced to be better looking than the others. In such cases, woe
to the comparatively pretty wife. The women certainly had a novel way of
settling their differences. The two combatants would retire to some
little distance, armed with _one stick between them_. They would then
stand face to face, and one would bend forward meekly, whilst the other
dealt her a truly terrific blow between the shoulders or on the head--not
with a cane or a light stick, be it remembered, but a really formidable
club. The blow (which would be enough to kill an ordinary white woman)
would be borne with wonderful fortitude, and then the aggressor would
hand the club to the woman she had just struck.
The latter would then take a turn; and so it would go on, turn and turn
about, until one of the unfortunate, stoical creatures fell bleeding and
half-senseless to the earth. The thing was magnificently simple. The
woman who kept her senses longest, and remained on her legs to the end,
was the victor. There was no kind of ill-feeling after these
extraordinary combats, and the women would even dress one another's
wounds.
I now come to an event of very great importance in my life. Elsewhere I
have spoken of my _penchant_ for dugong hunting. Well, one day this
sport effectually put an end to all my prospects of reaching civilisation
across the sea. I went forth one morning, accompanied by my
ever-faithful Yamba and the usual admiring crowd of blacks. In a few
minutes we two were speeding over the sunlit waters, my only weapon being
the steel harpoon I had brought with me from the island, and about forty
or fifty feet of manilla rope. When we were some miles from land I
noticed a dark-looking object on the surface of the water a little way
ahead. Feeling certain it was a dugong feeding on the well-known
"grass," I rose and hurled my harpoon at it with all the force I could
muster. Next moment, to my amazement, the head of a calf whale was
thrust agonisingly into the air, and not until then did I realise what
manner of creature it was I had struck. This baby whale was about
fifteen feet long, and it "sounded" immediately on receiving my harpoon.
As I had enough rope, or what I considered enough, I did not cut him
adrift. He came up again presently, lashing the water with his tail, and
creating a tremendous uproar, considering his size. He then darted off
madly, dashing through the water like an arrow, and dragging our boat at
such a tremendous pace as almost to swamp us in the foaming wash, the bow
wave forming a kind of wall on each side.
Up to this time I had no thought of danger, but just as the baby whale
halted I looked round, and saw to my horror that its colossal mother had
joined her offspring, and was swimming round and round it like lightning,
apparently greatly disturbed by its sufferings. Before I could even cut
the line or attempt to get out of the way, the enormous creature caught
sight of our little craft, and bore down upon us like a fair-sized island
rushing through the sea with the speed of an express train. I shouted to
Yamba, and we both threw ourselves over the side into the now raging
waters, and commenced to swim away with long strokes, in order to get as
far as possible from the boat before the catastrophe came which we knew
was at hand. We had not got many yards before I heard a terrific crash,
and, looking back, I saw the enormous tail of the great whale towering
high out of the water, and my precious boat descending in fragments upon
it from a height of from fifteen feet to twenty feet above the agitated
waters. Oddly enough, the fore-part of the boat remained fixed to the
rope of the harpoon in the calf. My first thought, even at so terrible a
moment, and in so serious a situation, was one of bitter regret for the
loss of what I considered the only means of reaching civilisation. Like
a flash it came back to me how many weary months of toil and hope and
expectancy I had spent over that darling craft; and I remembered, too,
the delirious joy of launching it, and the appalling dismay that struck
me when I realised that it was worse than useless to me in the inclosed
lagoon. These thoughts passed through my mind in a few seconds.
At this time we had a swim of some _ten miles_ before us, but fortunately
our predicament was observed from the land, and a crowd of blacks put out
in their catamarans to help us. Some of the blacks, as I hinted before,
always accompanied me down to the shore on these trips. They never
tired, I think, of seeing me handle my giant "catamaran" and the (to
them) mysterious harpoon.
After the mother whale had wreaked its vengeance upon my unfortunate boat
it rejoined its little one, and still continued to swim round and round
it at prodigious speed, evidently in a perfect agony of concern.
Fortunately the tide was in our favour, and we were rapidly swept
inshore, even when we floated listlessly on the surface of the water. The
sea was quite calm, and we had no fear of sharks, being well aware that
we would keep them away by splashing in the water.
Before long, the catamarans came up with us, but although deeply grateful
for Yamba's and my own safety, I was still greatly distressed at the loss
of my boat. Never once did this thought leave my mind. I remembered,
too, with a pang, that I had now no tools with which to build another;
and to venture out into the open sea on a catamaran, probably for weeks,
simply meant courting certain destruction. I was a greater prisoner than
ever.
My harpoon had evidently inflicted a mortal wound on the calf whale,
because as we looked we saw it lying exhausted on the surface of the
water, and being gradually swept nearer and nearer the shore by the swift-
flowing tide. The mother refused to leave her little one however, and
still continued to wheel round it continuously, even when it had reached
dangerously shallow water.
The result was that when the tide turned, both the mother and her calf
were left stranded high and dry on the beach, to the unbounded delight
and amazement of the natives, who swarmed round the leviathans, and set
up such a terrific uproar, that I verily believe they frightened the
mother to death. In her dying struggle she lashed the water into a
perfect fury with her tail, and even made attempts to lift herself bodily
up. Furious smoke-signals were at once sent up to summon all the tribes
in the surrounding country--enemies as well as friends. Next day the
carcasses were washed farther still inshore--a thing for which the blacks
gave me additional credit.
I ought to mention here that the loss of my boat was in some measure
compensated for by the enormous amount of prestige which accrued to me
through this whale episode. To cut a long story short, the natives fully
believed that _I had killed single-handed and brought ashore both
whales_! And in the _corroborees_ that ensued, the poets almost went
delirious in trying to find suitable eulogiums to bestow upon the mighty
white hunter. The mother whale surpassed in size any I had ever seen or
read about. I measured her length by pacing, and I judged it to be
nearly 150 feet. My measurements may not have been absolutely accurate,
but still the whale was, I imagine, of record size. As she lay there on
the beach her head towered above me to a height of nearly fifteen feet.
Never can I forget the scene that followed, when the blacks from the
surrounding country responded to the smoke-signals announcing the capture
of the "great fish." From hundreds of miles south came the natives,
literally in their thousands--every man provided with his stone tomahawk
and a whole armoury of shell knives. They simply swarmed over the
carcasses like vermin, and I saw many of them staggering away under solid
lumps of flesh weighing between thirty and forty pounds. The children
also took part in the general feasting, and they too swarmed about the
whales like a plague of ants.
A particularly enterprising party of blacks cut an enormous hole in the
head of the big whale, and in the bath of oil that was inside they simply
wallowed for hours at a time, only to emerge in a condition that filled
me with disgust. There was no question of priority or disputing as to
whom the tit-bits of the whale should go. Even the visitors were quite
at liberty to take whatever portion they could secure. For about a
fortnight this cutting-up and gorging went on, but long before this the
stench from the decomposing carcasses was so horrible as to be painfully
noticeable at my camp, over a mile away. Some of the flesh was cooked,
but most of it was eaten absolutely raw. The spectacle witnessed on the
beach would have been intensely comical were it not so revolting. Many
of the savages, both men and women, had gorged themselves to such an
extent as to be absolutely unable to walk; and they rolled about on the
sand, tearing at the ground in agony, their stomachs distended in the
most extraordinary and disgusting manner. It may amuse you to know that
smoke-signals were at once sent up for all the "doctors" in the country,
and these ministering angels could presently be seen with their massage
shells, rubbing the distended stomachs of the sufferers as they lay on
the beach. I saw some men fairly howling with agony, but yet still
devouring enormous quantities of oil and blubber! Besides the massage
treatment (with the thumbs as well as shells), the "doctors" administered
a kind of pill, or pellet, of some green leaf, which they first chewed in
their own mouth and then placed in that of the patient. So magical was
this potent herb in its action, that I feel sure it would make the
fortune of an enterprising syndicate. Other patients, who had obtained
temporary relief through the kind offices of the medicine-men, returned
to the whales again, and had another enormous gorge. In fact, the blacks
behaved more like wild beasts of the lowest order than men, and in a very
short time--considering the enormous bulk of the whales--nothing remained
except the immense bones.
On the other hand, the orgie had its uses from my point of view, because
I took advantage of the arrival of so many strange tribes to make myself
acquainted with their chiefs, their languages, and their manners and
customs, in the hope that these people might be useful to me some day
when I commenced my journey overland to civilisation. For, of course,
all hope of escape by sea had now to be abandoned, since my boat was
destroyed. Several days elapsed, however, before I was able to remain in
their presence without a feeling of utter disgust. To be precise, I
could not talk to them before they ate, because they were so anxious to
get at the food; and after the feast they were too gorged with fat to be
able to talk rationally. In all my wanderings amongst the blacks I never
came across anything that interested them so much as a whale.
Soon after the loss of the boat, Yamba made me a small bark canoe about
fifteen feet long, but not more than fourteen inches wide, and in this we
undertook various little excursions together to the various islands that
studded the bay. The construction of this little canoe was very
interesting. Yamba, first of all, heated the bark, and then turned the
rough part underneath in order that the interior might be perfectly
smooth. She then _sewed_ up the ends, finally giving the little craft a
coat of resin, obtained by making incisions in the gum-trees. Of course,
I missed my own substantial boat, and it was some little time before I
grew accustomed to the frail canoe, which necessitated the greatest
possible care in handling, and also on the part of the passengers
generally.
One day I decided to go and explore one of the islands that studded
Cambridge Gulf, in search of a kind of shell mud-fish which I was very
partial to. I also wanted to make the acquaintance of the bats or flying
foxes I had seen rising in clouds every evening at sunset. I required
the skins of these curious creatures for sandals. This would perhaps be
a year after my advent amongst the blacks. As usual, Yamba was my only
companion, and we soon reached a likely island. As I could find no
suitable place for landing, I turned the canoe up a small creek. From
this course, however, my companion strongly dissuaded me. Into the
creek, nevertheless, we went, and when I saw it was a hopeless _impasse_,
I scrambled ashore and waded through five inches or six inches of mud.
The little island was densely covered with luxuriant tropical vegetation,
the mangroves coming right down to the water's edge; so that I had
actually to force my way through them to gain the top of the bank. I
then entered a very narrow track through the forest, the bush on both
sides being so dense as to resemble an impenetrable wall or dense hedge.
It is necessary to bear this in mind to realise what followed. I had not
gone many yards along this track, when I was horrified to see, right in
front of me, an enormous alligator! This great reptile was shuffling
along down the path towards me, evidently making for the water, and it
not only blocked my advance, but also necessitated my immediate retreat.
The moment the brute caught sight of me he stopped, and began snapping
his jaws viciously. I confess I was quite nonplussed for the moment as
to how best to commence the attack upon this unexpected visitor. It was
impossible for me to get round him in any way, on account of the dense
bush on either side of the narrow forest track. I decided, however, to
make a bold dash for victory, having always in mind the prestige that was
so necessary to my existence among the blacks. I therefore walked
straight up to the evil-looking monster; then, taking a short run, I
leaped high into the air, shot over his head, and landed on his scaly
back, at the same time giving a tremendous yell in order to attract
Yamba, whom I had left in charge of the boat.
The moment I landed on his back I struck the alligator with all my force
with my tomahawk, on what I considered the most vulnerable part of his
head. So powerful was my stroke, that I found to my dismay that I could
not get the weapon out of his head again. While I was in this
extraordinary situation--standing on the back of an enormous alligator,
and tugging at my tomahawk, embedded in its head--Yamba came rushing up
the path, carrying one of the paddles, which, without a moment's
hesitation, she thrust down the alligator's throat as he turned to snap
at her. She immediately let go her hold and retreated. The alligator
tried to follow her, but the shaft of the paddle caught among some tree
trunks and stuck. In this way the monster was prevented from moving his
head, either backwards or forwards, and then, drawing my stiletto, I
blinded him in both eyes, afterwards finishing him leisurely with my
tomahawk, when at length I managed to release it. Yamba was immensely
proud of me after this achievement, and when we returned to the mainland
she gave her tribesmen a graphic account of my gallantry and bravery. But
she always did this. She was my advance agent and bill-poster, so to
say. I found in going into a new country that my fame had preceded me;
and I must say this was most convenient and useful in obtaining
hospitality, concessions, and assistance generally. The part I had
played in connection with the death of the two whales had already earned
for me the admiration of the blacks--not only in my own tribe, but all
over the adjacent country. And after this encounter with the alligator
they looked upon me as a very great and powerful personage indeed. We
did not bring the dead monster back with us, but next day a number of the
blacks went over with their catamarans, and towed the reptile back to the
mainland, where it was viewed with open-mouthed amazement by crowds of
admiring natives. So great was the estimation in which my prowess was
held, that little scraps of the dead alligator were distributed (as
relics, presumably) among the tribes throughout the whole of the
surrounding country. Singularly enough this last achievement of mine was
considered much more commendable than the killing of the whale, for the
simple reason that it sometimes happened they caught a whale themselves
stranded on the beach; whereas the killing of an alligator with their
primitive weapons was a feat never attempted. They chanted praises in my
honour at night, and wherever I moved, my performances with the whales
and alligator were always the first things to be sung. Nor did I attempt
to depreciate my achievements; on the contrary, I exaggerated the facts
as much as I possibly could. I described to them how I had fought and
killed the whale with my stiletto in spite of the fact that the monster
had smashed my boat. I told them that I was not afraid of facing
anything single-handed, and I even went so far as to allege that I was
good enough to go out against a nation! My whole object was to impress
these people with my imaginary greatness, and I constantly made them
marvel at my prowess with the bow and arrow. The fact of my being able
to bring down a bird on the wing was nothing more nor less than a miracle
to them. I was given the name of "Winnimah" by these people, because my
arrows sped like lightning. Six of the alligator's teeth I took for
myself, and made them into a circlet which I wore round my head.
Some little time after this incident I decided to remove my
dwelling-place to the top of a headland on the other side of the bay,
some twenty miles away, where I thought I could more readily discern any
sail passing by out at sea. The blacks themselves, who were well aware
of my hopes of getting back to my own people, had themselves suggested
that I might find this a more likely place for the purpose than the low-
lying coast on which their tribe was then encamped. They also pointed
out to me, however, that I should find it cold living in so exposed a
position. But the hope of seeing passing sails decided me, and one
morning I took my departure, the whole nation of blacks coming out in
full force to bid us adieu. I think the last thing they impressed upon
me, in their peculiar native way, was that they would always be delighted
and honoured to welcome me back among them. Yamba, of course,
accompanied me, as also did my dog, and we were escorted across the bay
by a host of my native friends in their catamarans. I pitched upon a
fine bold spot for our dwelling-place, but the blacks assured me that we
would find it uncomfortably cold and windy, to say nothing about the
loneliness, which I could not but feel after so much intercourse with the
friendly natives. I persisted, however, and we at length pitched our
encampment, on the bleak headland, which I now know to be Cape
Londonderry, the highest northern point of Western Australia.
Occasionally some of our black friends would pay us a visit, but we could
never induce them to locate their village near us.
Day after day, day after day, I gazed wistfully over the sea for hours at
a time, without ever seeing a sail, and at last I began to grow somewhat
despondent, and sighed for the companionship of my black friends once
more. Yamba was unremitting in her endeavours to make life pleasant for
me and keep me well supplied with the best of food; but I could see that
she, too, did not like living on this exposed and desolate spot. So,
after a few weeks' experience of life there, I decided to return to my
bay home, and later on make preparations for a journey overland to a
point on the Australian coast, where I learned ships quite frequently
passed. The point in question was Somerset Point, at the extreme north
of the Cape York peninsula; and I had learnt of its existence from Jensen
when we were pearl-fishing. The blacks were delighted to see me on my
return, and I remained with them several months before attempting my next
journey. They were keenly anxious that I should join them in their
fighting expeditions, but I always declined, on the ground that I was not
a fighting man. The fact of the matter was, that I could never hope to
throw a spear with anything like the dexterity they themselves possessed;
and as spears were the principal weapons used in warfare, I was afraid I
would not show up well at a critical moment. Moreover, the warriors
defended themselves so dexterously with shields as to be all but
invulnerable, whereas I had not the slightest idea of how to handle a
shield. And for the sake of my ever-indispensable prestige, I could not
afford to make myself ridiculous in their eyes. I always took good care
to let the blacks see me performing only those feats which I felt morally
certain I could accomplish, and accomplish to their amazement.
So far I had won laurels enough with my mysterious arrows or "flying
spears," as the natives considered them, and my prowess with the harpoon
and tomahawk was sung in many tribes. And not the least awkward thing
about my position was that I dared not even attempt a little quiet
practice in spear-throwing, for fear the blacks should come upon me
suddenly, when I would most certainly lose caste. I had several narrow
escapes from this serious calamity, but most of them cannot be published
here. I must tell you, though, that the blacks, when drinking at a river
or water-hole, invariably scoop up the water with their hands, and never
put their mouths right down close to the surface of the water. Well, one
day I was guilty of this solecism. I had been out on a hunting
expedition, and reached the water-hole with an intense burning thirst. My
mentor was not with me. I fell on my knees and fairly buried my face in
the life-giving fluid. Suddenly I heard murmurs behind me. I turned
presently and saw a party of my blacks regarding me with horror. They
said I drank like a kangaroo. But Yamba soon came to the rescue, and
explained away the dreadful breach of etiquette, by telling them that I
was not drinking, but simply cooling my face; when we were alone she
solemnly cautioned me never to do it again.
The months passed slowly away, and I was still living the same monotonous
life among my blacks--accompanying them upon their hunting expeditions,
joining in their sports, and making periodical trips inland with Yamba,
in preparation for the great journey I proposed to make overland to Cape
York. When I spoke to my devoted companion about my plans, she told me
she was ready to accompany me wherever I went--to leave her people and to
be for ever by my side. Right well I knew that she would unhesitatingly
do these things. Her dog-like fidelity to me never wavered, and I know
she would have laid down her life for me at any time.
Often I told her of my own home beyond the seas, and when I asked her
whether she would come with me, she would reply, "Your people are my
people, and your God (spirit) my God. I will go with you wherever you
take me."
At length everything was ready, and I paid a final farewell, as I
thought, to my black friends in Cambridge Gulf, after a little over
eighteen months' residence among them. They knew I was venturing on a
long journey overland to another part of the country many moons distant,
in the hope of being able to get into touch with my own people; and
though they realised they should never see me again, they thought my
departure a very natural thing. The night before we left, a great
_corroboree_ was held in my honour. We had a very affectionate leave-
taking, and a body of the natives escorted us for the first 100 miles or
so of our trip. At last, however, Yamba, myself, and the faithful dog
were left to continue our wanderings alone. The reliance I placed upon
this woman by the way was absolute and unquestioning. I knew that alone
I could not live a day in the awful wilderness through which we were to
pass; nor could any solitary white man. By this time, however, I had had
innumerable demonstrations of Yamba's almost miraculous powers in the way
of providing food and water when, to the ordinary eye, neither was
forthcoming. I should have mentioned that before leaving my black people
I had provided myself with what I may term a native passport--a kind of
Masonic mystic stick, inscribed with certain cabalistic characters. Every
chief carried one of these sticks. I carried mine in my long, luxuriant
hair, which I wore "bun" fashion, held in a net of opossum hair. This
passport stick proved invaluable as a means of putting us on good terms
with the different tribes we encountered. The chiefs of the blacks never
ventured out of their own country without one of these mysterious sticks,
neither did the native message-bearers. I am sure I should not have been
able to travel far without mine.
Whenever I encountered a strange tribe I always asked to be taken before
the chief, and when in his presence I presented my little stick, he would
at once manifest the greatest friendliness, and offer us food and drink.
Then, before I took my departure, he also would inscribe his sign upon
the message stick, handing it back to me and probably sending me on to
another tribe with an escort. It often happened, however, that I was
personally introduced to another tribe whose "frontier" joined that of my
late hosts, and in such cases my passport was unnecessary.
At first the country through which our wanderings led us was hilly and
well wooded, the trees being particularly fine, many of them towering up
to a height of 150 feet or 200 feet. Our principal food consisted of
roots, rats, snakes, opossum, and kangaroo. The physical conditions of
the country were constantly changing as we moved farther eastward, and
Yamba's ingenuity was often sorely taxed to detect the whereabouts of the
various roots necessary for food. It was obviously unfair to expect her
to be familiar with the flora and fauna of every part of the great
Australian Continent. Sometimes she was absolutely nonplused, and had to
stay a few days with a tribe until the women initiated her into the best
methods of cooking the roots of the country. And often we could not
understand the language. In such cases, though, when spoken words were
unlike those uttered in Yamba's country, we resorted to a wonderful sign-
language which appears to be general among the Australian blacks. All
that Yamba carried was a basket made of bark, slung over her shoulder,
and containing a variety of useful things, including some needles made
out of the bones of birds and fish; a couple of light grinding-stones for
crushing out of its shell a very sustaining kind of nut found on the palm
trees, &c. Day after day we walked steadily on in an easterly direction,
guiding ourselves in the daytime by the sun, and in the evening by
opossum scratches on trees and the positions of the ant-hills, which are
always built facing the east. We crossed many creeks and rivers,
sometimes wading and at others time swimming.
Gradually we left the hilly country behind, and after about five or six
weeks' tramping got into an extraordinary desert of red sand, which gave
off a dust from our very tracks that nearly suffocated us. Each water-
hole we came across now began to contain less and less of the precious
liquid, and our daily _menu_ grew more and more scanty, until at length
we were compelled to live on practically nothing but a few roots and
stray rats. Still we plodded on, finally striking a terrible spinifex
country, which was inconceivably worse than anything we had hitherto
encountered. In order to make our way through this spinifex (the
terrible "porcupine grass" of the Australian interior), we were bound to
follow the tracks made by kangaroos or natives, otherwise we should have
made no progress whatever. These tracks at times wandered about zigzag
fashion, and led us considerable distances out of our course, but, all
the same, we dare not leave them. Not only was water all but
unobtainable here, but our skin was torn with thorns at almost every
step. Yamba was terribly troubled when she found she could no longer
provide for my wants. Fortunately the dew fell heavily at night, and a
sufficient quantity would collect on the foliage to refresh me somewhat
in the morning. How eagerly would I lick the precious drops from the
leaves! Curiously enough, Yamba herself up to this time did not seem
distressed from lack of water; but nothing about this marvellous woman
surprised me. It took us about ten days to pass through the awful
spinifex desert, and for at least eight days of that period we were
virtually without water, tramping through never-ending tracts of scrub,
prickly grass, and undulating sand-hills of a reddish colour. Often and
often I blamed myself bitterly for ever going into that frightful country
at all. Had I known beforehand that it was totally uninhabited I
certainly should not have ventured into it. We were still going due
east, but in consequence of the lack of water-holes, my heroic guide
thought it advisable to strike a little more north.