Lost in the desert--Gibson's dying advice--Giles meets Gibson--A fountain
in the desert--A terrible fix--Giles regains his camp--Gibson's
effects--Mysterious tracks--A treasured possession--A perfect
paradise--Grape vines a failure--A trained cockatoo--An extraordinary
festival--My theory of the "ghosts."
After the funeral his wife followed out the usual native conventions. She
covered herself with pipeclay for about one month. She also mourned and
howled for the prescribed three days, and gashed her head with stone
knives, until the blood poured down her face. Gibson's body was not
buried in the earth, but embalmed with clay and leaves, and laid on a
rock-shelf in a cave.
The general belief was that Gibson had merely gone back to the Spirit
Land from whence he had come, and that, as he was a great and good man,
he would return to earth in the form of a bird--perhaps an ibis, which
was very high indeed. I must say I never attached very much importance
to what he said, even in his sane moments, because he was obviously a man
of low intelligence and no culture. If I remember rightly, he told me
that the expedition to which he was attached left Adelaide with the
object of going overland to Fremantle. It was thoroughly well equipped,
and for a long time everything went well with the party. One day, whilst
some of them were off exploring on their own account, he lost himself.
He rather thought that the sun must have affected his brain even then,
because he didn't try to find his companions that night, but went to
sleep quite contentedly under a tree. He realised the horror of his
position keenly enough the next morning, however, and rode mile after
mile without halting for food or water, in the hope of quickly regaining
his friends at the chief camp. But night stole down upon him once more,
and he was still a lonely wanderer, half delirious with thirst; the
supply he had carried with him had long since given out.
Next morning, when he roused himself, he found that his horse had
wandered away and got lost. After this he had only a vague recollection
of what happened. Prompted by some strange, unaccountable impulse, he
set out on a hopeless search for water, and went walking on and on until
all recollection faded away, and he remembered no more. How long he had
been lost when I found him he could not say, because he knew absolutely
nothing whatever about his rescue. So far as I remember, he was a
typical specimen of the Australian pioneer--a man of fine physique, with
a full beard and a frank, but unintelligent, countenance. He was perhaps
five feet nine inches in height, and about thirty years of age. When I
told him the story of my adventures he was full of earnest sympathy for
me, and told me that if ever I intended leaving those regions for
civilisation again, my best plan would be to steer more south-east, as it
was in that direction that Adelaide lay.
He also informed me that the great trans-Continental telegraph wire was
being constructed from north to south. This he advised me to strike and
follow to civilisation.
I may be permitted a little digression here to give a few extracts from
Giles's book, "Australia Twice Traversed" (Sampson Low & Company), for
this contains the version of the leader of the expedition himself as to
the circumstances under which Gibson was lost. In all, it seems, Giles
made five exploring expeditions into and through Central South Australia
and Western Australia from 1872 to 1876. Speaking of his second
expedition, Mr. Giles says: "I had informed my friend, Baron Von Mueller,
by wire from the Charlotte Waters Telegraph station, of the failure and
break-up of my first expedition, and he set to work and obtained new
funds for me to continue my labours. I reached Adelaide late in January
1873, and got my party together. We left early in March of 1873, and
journeyed leisurely up-country to Beltana, then past the Finnis Springs
to the Gregory. We then journeyed up to the Peake, where we were
welcomed by Messrs. Bagot at the Cattle Station, and Mr. Blood of the
Telegraph Department. Here we fixed up all our packs, sold Bagot the
waggon, and bought horses and other things. We now had twenty
pack-horses and four riding-horses."
We next come to the introduction of Gibson. "Here a short young man
accosted me, and asked me if I didn't remember him. He said he was
'Alf.' I thought I knew his face, but I thought it was at the Peake that
I had seen him; but he said, 'Oh, no! Don't you remember Alf, with
Bagot's sheep at the north-west bend of the Murray? My name's Alf
Gibson, and I want to go out with you.' I said, 'Well, can you shoe? Can
you ride? Can you starve? Can you go without water? And how would you
like to be speared by the blacks?' He said he could do everything I had
mentioned, and he wasn't afraid of the blacks. He was not a man I would
have picked out of a mob, but men were scarce, and he seemed so anxious
to come, so I agreed to take him.
"Thus, the expedition consisted of four persons--myself (Ernest Giles),
Mr. William Henry Tietkins, Alf Gibson, and James Andrews; with twenty-
four horses and two little dogs. On Monday, 4th August, we finally left
the encampment."
Now here is the passage in which Mr. Giles describes his dramatic parting
with Gibson. It will be found in the chapter marked "20th April to 21st
May 1874": "Gibson and I departed for the West. I rode the 'Fair Maid of
Perth.' I gave Gibson the big ambling horse, 'Badger,' and we packed the
big cob with a pair of water-bags that contained twenty gallons. As we
rode away, I was telling Gibson about various exploring expeditions and
their fate, and he said, 'How is it that, in all these exploring
expeditions, a lot of people go and die?' He said, 'I shouldn't like to
die in this part of the country, anyhow.'
"We presently had a meal of smoked horse. It was late when we encamped,
and the horses were much in want of water,--especially the big cob, who
kept coming up to the camp all night and trying to get at our water-bags.
We had one small water-bag hung in a tree.
"I didn't think of that until my mare came straight up to it and took it
in her teeth, forcing out the cork, and sending the water up, which we
were both dying to drink, in a beautiful jet. Gibson was now very sorry
he had exchanged 'Badger' for the cob, as he found the latter very dull
and heavy to get along. There had been a hot wind from the north all
day, and the following morning (the 23rd of April), there was a most
strange dampness in the air, and I had a vague feeling, such as must have
been felt by augurs and seers of old, who trembled as they told events to
come; _for this was the last day on which I ever saw Gibson_.
"As Gibson came along after me, he called out that his horse was going to
die. The hills to the west were twenty-five to thirty miles away, and I
had to give up trying to reach them. How I longed for a camel! Gibson's
horse was now so bad as to place both of us in a great dilemma. We
turned back in our tracks, when the cob refused to carry his rider any
farther, and tried to lie down. We drove him another mile on foot, and
down he fell to die. My mare, the 'Fair Maid of Perth,' was only too
willing to return, but she had now to carry Gibson's saddle and things,
and away we went, walking and riding in turns of one half-hour each.
"When we got back to about thirty miles from a place which I had named
'The Kegs,' I shouted to Gibson, who was riding, to stop until I walked
up to him. By this time we had hardly a pint of water left between us.
"We here finished the supply, and I then said, as I could not speak
before, 'Look here, Gibson, you see we are in a most terrible fix, with
only one horse. Only one can ride, and one must remain behind. I shall
remain; and now listen to me. If the mare does not get water soon, she
will die; therefore, ride right on; get to the Kegs, if possible,
to-night, and give her water. Now that the cob is dead, there'll be all
the more water for her. Early to-morrow you will sight the Rawlinson, at
twenty-five miles from the Kegs. Stick to the tracks and never leave
them. Leave as much water in one keg for me as you can afford, after
watering the mare and filling up your own bags; and, remember, I depend
upon you to bring me relief.'
"Gibson said if he had a compass he thought he could go better by night.
I knew he didn't understand anything about compasses, as I had often
tried to explain them to him. The one I had was a Gregory's Patent, of a
totally different construction from ordinary instruments of the kind, and
I was loth to part with it, as it was the only one I had. However, as he
was so anxious for it, I gave it to him, and away he went. I sent one
final shout after him to stick to the tracks, and he said, 'All right'
and the mare carried him out of sight almost instantly.
"Gibson had left me with a little over two gallons of water, which I
could have drunk in half-an-hour. All the food I had was eleven sticks
of dirty, sandy, smoked horse, averaging about an ounce and a half each.
"On the first of May, as I afterwards found out, at one o'clock in the
morning, I staggered into the camp, and awoke Mr. Tietkins at daylight.
He glared at me as if I had been one risen from the dead. I asked him if
he had seen Gibson. It was nine days since I last saw him. The next
thing was to find Gibson's remains. It was the 6th of May when we got
back to where he had left the right line. As long as he had remained on
the other horses' tracks it was practicable enough to follow him, but the
wretched man had left them and gone away in a far more southerly
direction, having the most difficult sand-hills to cross at right angles.
We found he had burnt a patch of spinifex where he had left the other
horses' tracks.
"Whether he had made any mistake in steering by the compass or not it is
impossible to say; but instead of going east, as he should have done, he
actually went south, or very near it.
"I was sorry to think that the unfortunate man's last sensible moments
must have been embittered by the thought that, as he had lost himself in
the capacity of messenger for my relief, I, too, must necessarily fall a
victim to his mishap.
"I called this terrible region, lying between the Rawlinson Range and the
next permanent water that may eventually be found to the north, 'Gibson's
Desert,'--after this first white victim to its horrors.
"In looking over Gibson's few effects, Mr. Tietkins and I found an old
pocket-book, a drinking-song, and a certificate of his marriage. He had
never told us he was married."
And now to resume my own narrative. You will remember that I had settled
down for a considerable time on the shores of the lagoon, where I had
made everything around me as comfortable as possible. Yamba had no
difficulty whatever in keeping us well supplied with roots and
vegetables; and as kangaroos, opossums, snakes, and rats abounded, we had
an ample supply of meat, and the lagoon could always be relied upon to
provide us with excellent fish. The country itself was beautiful in the
extreme, with stately mountains, broad, fertile valleys, extensive
forests,--and, above all, plenty of water. The general mode of living
among the natives was much the same as that prevailing among the blacks
in my own home at Cambridge Gulf,--although these latter were a vastly
superior race in point of physique, war weapons, and general
intelligence. The people I now found myself among were of somewhat small
stature, with very low foreheads, protruding chins, high cheek-bones, and
large mouths. Their most noteworthy characteristic was their extreme
childishness, which was especially displayed on those occasions when I
gave an acrobatic performance. My skill with the bow and arrow was, as
usual, a never-ending source of astonishment. I was, in fact, credited
with such remarkable powers that all my ingenuity had sometimes to be
brought into play to accomplish, or to pretend to accomplish, the things
expected of me. I knew that I must never fail in anything I undertook.
In the interior the natives never seemed to grow very plump, but had a
more or less spare, not to say emaciated, appearance compared with the
tribes near the coast. For one thing, food is not so easily obtainable,
nor is it so nourishing. Moreover, the natives had to go very long
distances to procure it.
Besides the low, receding forehead and protruding chin I have already
hinted at as characteristic of the inland tribes, I also noticed that
these people had abnormally large feet. Also, the beards of the men were
not nearly so full or luxuriant as those of the blacks at Cambridge Gulf.
The average height of the lagoon tribe was little more than five feet.
For myself, I am about five feet seven and a half inches in height, and
therefore I stalked about among them like a giant.
Now that Gibson was dead I decided to move my home farther north, and
eventually settled down with my family (two children--a boy and a
girl--had been born to me during my residence on the shores of the
lagoon) in a beautiful mountainous and tropical region 200 or 300 miles
to the north. It was my intention only to have made a temporary stay
here, but other ties came, and my little ones were by no means strong
enough to undertake any such formidable journey as I had in
contemplation. I also made the fatal mistake of trying to bring my
offspring up differently from the other savage children. But I must
relate here an incident that happened on our journey north. Yamba came
to me one day positively quivering with excitement and terror, and said
she had found some strange tracks, apparently of some enormous beast--a
monster so fearful as to be quite beyond her knowledge.
She took me to the spot and pointed out the mysterious tracks, which I
saw at once were those of camels. I do not know why I decided to follow
them, because they must have been some months old. Probably, I
reflected, I might be able to pick up something on the tracks which would
be of use to me. At any rate, we did follow the tracks for several
days--perhaps a fortnight--and found on the way many old meat-tins, which
afterwards came in useful as water vessels. One day, however, I pounced
upon an illustrated newspaper--a copy of the Sydney _Town and Country
Journal_, bearing some date, I think in 1875 or 1876. It was a complete
copy with the outer cover. I remember it contained some pictures of
horse-racing--I believe at Paramatta; but the "Long Lost Relative" column
interested me most, for the very moment I found the paper I sat down in
the bush and began to read this part with great eagerness. I could read
English fairly well by this time, and as Yamba was also tolerably
familiar with the language, I read the paper aloud to her. I cannot say
she altogether understood what she heard, but she saw that I was
intensely interested and delighted, and so she was quite content to stay
there and listen. You will observe that in all cases, the very fact that
_I_ was pleased was enough for Yamba, who never once wavered in her
fidelity and affection. Altogether we spent some weeks following up
these tracks, but, of course, never came up with the caravan of camels,
which must have been some months ahead of us. Yamba at length appeared
to be a good deal wearied at my persistency in following up the tracks in
this way; but after all, was it not merely killing time?--a mild sort of
sensation which served to break the eternal monotony that sometimes
threatened to crush me.
How I treasured that soiled copy of the _Town and Country_--as it is
familiarly called in Sydney! I read and re-read it, and then read it all
over again until I think I could have repeated every line of it by heart,
even to the advertisements. Among the latter, by the way, was one
inserted apparently by an anxious mother seeking information concerning a
long-lost son; and this pathetic paragraph set me wondering about my own
mother. "Well," I thought, "she at least has no need to advertise, and I
have the satisfaction of knowing that she must by this time be quite
reconciled to my loss, and have given me up as dead long ago." Strangely
enough, this thought quite reconciled me to my exile. In fact, I thanked
Providence that my disappearance had been so complete and so prolonged as
to leave not the slightest cause for doubt or hope on the part of any of
my relatives. Had I for a moment imagined that my mother was still
cherishing hopes of seeing me again some day, and that she was undergoing
agonies of mental suspense and worry on my behalf, I think I would have
risked everything to reach her. But I knew quite well that she must have
heard of the loss of the _Veielland_, and long ago resigned herself to
the certainty of my death. I can never hope to describe the curious
delight with which I perused my precious newspaper. I showed the
pictures in it to my children and the natives, and they were more than
delighted,--especially with the pictures of horses in the race at
Paramatta. In the course of time the sheets of paper began to get torn,
and then I made a pretty durable cover out of kangaroo hide. Thus the
whole of my library consisted of my Anglo-French Testament, and the copy
of the _Town and Country Journal_.
But I have purposely kept until the end the most important thing in
connection with this strangely-found periodical. The very first eager
and feverish reading gave me an extraordinary shock, which actually
threatened my reason! In a prominent place in the journal I came across
the following passage: "_The Deputies of Alsace and Lorraine have refused
to vote in the German Reichstag_."
Now, knowing nothing whatever of the sanguinary war of 1870, or of the
alterations in the map of Europe which it entailed, this passage filled
me with startled amazement. I read it over and over again, getting more
bewildered each time. "The Deputies of Alsace and Lorraine have refused
to vote in the German Reichstag!" "But--good heavens!" I almost screamed
to myself, "_what_ were the Alsace and Lorraine Deputies doing in the
German Parliament at all?" I turned the matter over and over in my mind,
and at last, finding that I was getting worked up into a state of
dangerous excitement, I threw the paper from me and walked away. I
thought over the matter again, and so utterly incomprehensible did it
appear to me that I thought I must be mistaken--that my eyes must have
deceived me. Accordingly I ran back and picked the paper up a second
time, and there, sure enough, was the same passage. In vain did I seek
for any sane explanation, and at last I somehow got it into my head that
the appearance of the printed characters must be due to a kind of mental
obliquity, and that I must be rapidly going mad! Even Yamba could not
sympathise with me, because the matter was one which I never could have
made her understand. I tried to put this strange puzzle out of my head,
but again and again the accursed and torturing passage would ring in my
ears until I nearly went crazy. But I presently put the thing firmly
from me, and resolved to think no more about it.
It is not an exaggeration to describe my mountain home in the centre of
the continent as a perfect paradise. The grasses and ferns there grew to
a prodigious height, and there were magnificent forests of white gum and
eucalyptus. Down in the valley I built a spacious house--the largest the
natives had ever seen. It was perhaps twenty feet long, sixteen feet to
eighteen feet wide, and about ten feet high. The interior was decorated
with ferns, war implements, the skins of various animals, and last--but
by no means least--the "sword" of the great sawfish I had killed in the
haunted lagoon. This house contained no fireplace, because all the
cooking was done in the open air. The walls were built of rough logs,
the crevices being filled in with earth taken from ant-hills. I have
just said that _I_ built the house. This is, perhaps, not strictly
correct. It was Yamba and the other women-folk who actually carried out
the work, under my supervision. Here it is necessary to explain that I
did not dare to do much manual labour, because it would have been
considered undignified on my part. I really did not want the house; but,
strangely enough, I felt much more comfortable when it was built and
furnished, because, after all, it was a source of infinite satisfaction
to me to feel that I had a _home_ I could call my own. I had grown very
weary of living like an animal in the bush, and lying down to sleep at
night on the bare ground. It was this same consideration of "home" that
induced me to build a little hut for poor Gibson.
The floor of my house was two or three feet above the ground in order to
escape the ravages of the rats. There was only one storey, of course,
and the whole was divided into two rooms--one as a kind of sitting-room
and the other as a bedroom. The former I fitted out with home-made
tables and chairs (I had become pretty expert from my experience with the
girls); and each day fresh eucalyptus leaves were strewed about, partly
for cleanliness, and partly because the odour kept away the mosquitoes. I
also built another house about two days' tramp up the mountains, and to
this we usually resorted in the very hot weather.
Now here I have a curious confession to make. As the months glided into
years, and I reviewed the whole of my strange life since the days when I
went pearling with Jensen, the thought began gradually to steal into my
mind, "Why not wait until civilisation COMES TO YOU--as it must do in
time? Why weary yourself any more with incessant struggles to get back
to the world--especially when you are so comfortable here?" Gradually,
then, I settled down and was made absolute chief over a tribe of perhaps
five hundred souls. Besides this, my fame spread abroad into the
surrounding country, and at every new moon I held a sort of informal
reception, which was attended by deputations of tribesmen for hundreds of
miles around. My own tribe already possessed a chieftain of their own
but my position was one of even greater influence than his. Moreover, I
was appointed to it without having to undergo the painful ceremonies that
initiation entails. My immunity in this respect was of course owing to
my supposed great powers, and the belief that I was a returned spirit. I
was always present at tribal and war councils, and also had some
authority over other tribes.
I adopted every device I could think of to make my dwelling home-like,
and I even journeyed many miles in a NNE. direction, to procure cuttings
of grape vines I had seen; but I must say that this at any rate was
labour in vain, because I never improved upon the quality of the wild
grapes, which had a sharp, acid flavour, that affected the throat
somewhat unpleasantly until one got used to them.
When I speak of my "mountain home," it must not be supposed that I
remained in one place. As a matter of fact, in accordance with my usual
practice, I took long excursions in different directions extending over
weeks and even months at a time. On these occasions I always took with
me a kind of nut, which, when eaten, endowed one with remarkable powers
of vitality and endurance. Since my return to civilisation I have heard
of the Kola nut, but cannot say whether the substance used by the
Australian aboriginal is the same or not. I remember we generally
roasted ours, and ate it as we tramped along. In the course of my
numerous journeys abroad I blazed or marked a great number of trees; my
usual mark being an oval, in or underneath which I generally carved the
letter "L." I seldom met with hostile natives in this region, but when I
did my mysterious bow and arrows generally sufficed to impress them. By
the way, I never introduced the bow as a weapon among the blacks, and
they, on their part, never tried to imitate me. They are a conservative
race, and are perfectly satisfied with their own time-honoured weapons.
Wild geese and ducks were plentiful in those regions, and there was an
infinite variety of game. From this you will gather that our daily fare
was both ample and luxurious.
And we had pets; I remember I once caught a live cockatoo, and trained
him to help me in my hunting expeditions. I taught him a few English
phrases, such as "Good-morning," and "How are you?"; and he would perch
himself on a tree and attract great numbers of his kind around him by his
incessant chattering. I would then knock over as many as I wanted by
means of my bow and arrows. At this time, indeed, I had quite a
menagerie of animals, including a tame kangaroo. Naturally enough, I had
ample leisure to study the ethnology of my people. I soon made the
discovery that my blacks were intensely spiritualistic; and once a year
they held a festival which, when described, will, I am afraid, tax the
credulity of my readers. The festival I refer to was held "when the sun
was born again,"--_i.e._, soon after the shortest day of the year, which
would be sometime in June. On these occasions the adult warriors from
far and near assembled at a certain spot, and after a course of
festivities, sat down to an extraordinary _seance_ conducted by
women--very old, wizened witches--who apparently possessed occult powers,
and were held in great veneration. These witches are usually maintained
at the expense of the tribe. The office, however, does not necessarily
descend from mother to daughter, it being only women credited with
supernatural powers who can claim the position.
After the great _corroboree_ the people would squat on the ground, the
old men and warriors in front, the women behind, and the children behind
them. The whole congregation was arranged in the form of a crescent, in
the centre of which a large fire would be set burning. Some of the
warriors would then start chanting, and their monotonous sing-song would
presently be taken up by the rest of the gathering, to the accompaniment
of much swaying of heads and beating of hands and thighs. The young
warriors then went out into the open and commenced to dance.
I may as well describe in detail the first of these extraordinary
festivals which I witnessed. The men chanted and danced themselves into
a perfect frenzy, which was still further increased by the appearance of
three or four witches who suddenly rose up before the fire. They were
very old and haggard-looking creatures, with skins like shrivelled
parchment; they had scanty, dishevelled hair, and piercing, beady eyes.
They were not ornamented in any way, and seemed more like skeletons from
a tomb than human beings. After they had gyrated wildly round the fire
for a short time, the chant suddenly ceased, and the witches fell
prostrate upon the ground, calling out as they did so the names of some
departed chiefs. A deathly silence then fell on the assembled gathering,
and all eyes were turned towards the wreaths of smoke that were ascending
into the evening sky. The witches presently renewed their plaintive
cries and exhortations, and at length I was amazed to see strange shadowy
forms shaping themselves in the smoke. At first they were not very
distinct, but gradually they assumed the form of human beings, and then
the blacks readily recognised them as one or other of their long-departed
chiefs--estimable men always and great fighters. The baser sort never
put in an appearance.
Now the first two or three times I saw this weird and fantastic ceremony,
I thought the apparitions were the result of mere trickery.
But when I saw them year after year, I came to the conclusion that they
must be placed in the category of those things which are beyond the ken
of our philosophy. I might say that no one was allowed to approach
sufficiently close to touch the "ghosts,"--if such they can be termed;
and probably even if permission had been granted, the blacks would have
been in too great a state of terror to have availed themselves of it.
Each of these _seances_ lasted twenty minutes or half-an-hour, and were
mainly conducted in silence. While the apparitions were visible, the
witches remained prostrate, and the people looked on quite spellbound.
Gradually the phantoms would melt away again in the smoke, and vanish
from sight, after which the assembly would disperse in silence. By next
morning all the invited blacks would have gone off to their respective
homes. The witches, as I afterwards learnt, lived alone in caves; and
that they possessed wonderful powers of prophecy was evidenced in my own
case, because they told me when I came among them that I would still be
many years with their people, but I would eventually return to my own
kind. The warriors, too, invariably consulted these oracles before
departing on hunting or fighting expeditions, and religiously followed
their advice.