RETURN TO THE PARTY.
April 10.
The morning's dawn found us in the vicinity of our comrades, and, just as
the thick grey mists began heavily to ascend from the low plains on which
I had left the party, we emerged from the bush upon the native path down
which we had travelled the preceding evening; here I turned northward,
and a few minutes more placed the party in our view. Some of them were
missing. I felt alarmed lest a new misfortune had happened and, hurrying
on, eagerly asked where they were. The answer given will describe more
truly their position than the most minute detail could do; it was: "They
are just gone into the bush to suck grass, Sir." This semblance of
extreme thirst must however, I suspect, have been in some measure a piece
of affectation upon their parts, for upon the morning of the day before
they had had a plentiful supply of water: whether however their extreme
sufferings were true or feigned mattered not, we fully supplied their
wants; and then I immediately ordered preparations to be made for our
further progress.
We moved on in the direction of the spring of water which lay about half
a mile to the eastward of our true line of route. Our movements were soon
again delayed by Woods, who began as usual to lie down and declare his
inability to proceed any further.
DELAYS CAUSED BY USELESS BAGGAGE. DESTRUCTION OF USELESS BAGGAGE.
I desired him to leave behind the heavy load he was carrying; but as upon
former occasions he again declared his determination to die rather than
part with this mysterious bundle, which appeared to possess an
extraordinary value in his estimation. It was easy to see from his
appearance that he was now really ill and unable to carry such a weight
as he was striving to do. At length he again laid himself down, declaring
that he was dying, and, as I determined no longer to see his life
endangered by his so obstinately insisting on carrying this bundle, I
took it up, and, informing him of my intention to pay him the full value
of any property of his that I might destroy, I proceeded to open it with
the intention of throwing all useless articles away.
Upon this announcement of mine he burst into tears, deplored alternately
his dying state and the loss of the bundle, and then poured forth a
torrent of invectives against me, in the midst of which I quietly went on
unfolding the treasured parcel and exposing to view the following
articles: Three yards of thick heavy canvas; some duck which he had
purloined; a large roll of sewing thread, ditto; a thick pea jacket which
I had abandoned at the boats, and had, at his request, given to him; and
various other old pieces of canvas and duck; also a great part of the
cordage of one of the boats, which he had taken without permission.
When these various articles were produced it was difficult to tell which
was the prevailing sentiment in the minds of some of the party--mirth at
thus seeing the contents of the mysterious bundle exposed, or indignation
that a man should have been so foolish as to endanger his own life and
delay our movements for the sake of such a collection of trash. A pair of
shoes and one or two useful articles were retained, the remainder were
thrown away, and in a few minutes we were again under weigh for the
spring of water.
HALT AT WATER PEAK.
Another hour's march brought us to the spring; and those who with me had
been marching through a great part of the night gladly laid down to rest;
but I soon roused myself again, being urged by the pangs of hunger.
Fortunately I had shot a crow in the morning, and now, gathering a few
wild greens that grew about the water, I cooked a breakfast for myself
and the native without being obliged to draw upon my little store of
flour. This frugal repast having been washed down by a few mouthfuls of
water, I resumed my meditations of the previous night.
CRITICAL SITUATION.
The following appeared to be our true position. We were about one hundred
and ninety miles from Perth, in a direct line measured through the air.
None of the party had more than six or seven pounds of flour left; whilst
I had myself but one pound and a half, and half a pound of arrowroot; the
native had nothing left and was wholly dependant on me for his
subsistence. Now we had been seven days on our route, and had made but
little more than seventy miles, and as the men were much weaker than when
they first started it appeared to me to be extremely problematical
whether we should ever reach Perth unless some plan different from what
we had hitherto pursued was adopted. And even granting that we did
eventually make this point, it was evident that we must previously be
subjected to wants and necessities of the most cruel and distressing
nature.
NEW PLAN OF PROCEEDING.
Yet it was quite manifest from recent events that the majority of the
party had not only made up their minds not to accelerate their movements,
but had fully resolved to compel me to pursue their system of short
marches and long halts. Being fully aware of the danger which threatened
them, it remained for me to act with that decision which circumstances
appeared to require, and to proceed by rapid and forced marches to Perth,
whence assistance could be sent out to the remainder. For this purpose it
was necessary that all those who accompanied me should be good walkers
and resolute men; for if any accident happened to the portion of the
party I took with me, arising either from want of energy, want of
discipline, or any other causes, that portion of the party which remained
behind would have been reduced to the last extremity.
DIVIDE THE PARTY, AND PROCEED WITH THE STRONGEST TO PERTH FOR ASSISTANCE.
ARRANGEMENTS AT STARTING.
Having formed this resolution, it became necessary to make a selection of
those who were to accompany me. In determining however upon this point I
had but little difficulty; for it was evident that those men who during
our late toils had shown themselves the most capable of enduring
hardships, privations, and the fatigue of long and rapid marches, were
those who were the best suited for the service I now destined them for.
The following was the division I made of the party: I named:
Corporal Auger,
Corporal Coles,
H. Woods,
W. Hackney,
Kaiber, the native,
as those who were to accompany me, and left the remainder under the
command of Mr. Walker.
EMBARRASSMENT REGARDING THE CHART.
In making my arrangements with Mr. Walker a very serious difficulty arose
upon his part, and one from which I immediately augured the worst of
consequences. On quitting the boats I brought away with me Captain King's
chart of the coast between North-west Cape and Cape Leeuwin, and had
hitherto carried it along with my papers and sketches. I wished Mr.
Walker to take this chart with him for the purpose of recognising his
position by means of the islands and headlands as he advanced along the
coast. No inducements upon my part could however persuade him to take
charge of it. It was in vain that I urged on him the well known fact that
nothing encourages men in a long journey so much as knowing the exact
distance they have travelled and what extent of country they have still
left to traverse. It was in vain that I assured him he would, from his
inexperience in calculating distances in the bush, soon get confused in
his reckoning; and that the men, finding out his error, would lose all
trust and confidence in him, whence would spring want of discipline and
disorders of various kinds; he knew that I much valued this chart and had
apparently taken it into his head that I wished to disencumber myself of
it and to entail the duty of carrying it on him.
He at length proposed to me to allow him to cut the chart up, in which
case he said he would carry on the part he wanted and leave the rest. I
would not however part with so valuable a document, for it contained my
route up to that point, and the public utility of the expedition mainly
depended on the preservation of it. He next requested me to make a copy
of it for him; this I assured him under existing circumstances it was
utterly impossible for me to do with sufficient accuracy to answer the
intended purpose, and I therefore would not attempt it. He then applied
to Mr. Smith, who coincided in my opinion; but ever willing to oblige he
made as accurate a copy as he could, which I in vain represented to Mr.
Walker he would find utterly useless. His unreasonable reluctance however
I could not overcome.
POINT OF RENDEZVOUS FIXED.
The next matter to arrange was what place should be fixed on as the point
of rendezvous to which assistance was to be sent to those who were left
to follow with Mr. Walker. This was soon arranged. Mr. Smith had
previously been with me to a place called Goonmarrarup, on the Moore
River about fifty-five miles to the north of Perth; and it was agreed
that the party should proceed along the coast as they best could until
they made the Moore River, where I would have another party stationed
with provisions to meet them; and in order that they might not pass this
river it was settled that the party who went out to meet them should
separate into two, one of which would remain at this point on the Moore
River, about twelve miles from the sea, whilst the other was to proceed
down to it, leaving, besides their tracks, marks to show where they had
passed; and then, in the event of not finding those they were in search
of, this last detachment was to push still further northward to look for
them.
As soon as the arrangements were concluded I assembled the men and
publicly repeated these directions to them; and to such as Clotworthy I
addressed strong admonitions as to their future conduct. Many of them did
not appear to be in the least aware of the critical situation they were
placed in; I however entertained great fears for the safety of some of
them. Poor Smith was at this time in a very delicate state of health, and
his courage and gentleness had so endeared him to me that the sight of
his sickly face made me long to be on the march to send out help to him.
For Mr. Walker I had no fear; I have never known anyone endowed with a
greater degree of patient endurance; indeed had he not, from a mistaken
good nature, been too familiar with the men, no one could have been more
admirably adapted for the trying position in which he was placed; and
even as events turned out I doubt if anyone could have been found who
would have endured more, or would have gone through greater exertions to
save those under his command.
The party I left, and who were not required to proceed by forced marches,
consisted of:
Mr. Walker,
Mr. Smith,
Thomas Ruston,
C. Woods,
T. Stiles,
A. Clotworthy.
SEPARATION OF THE PARTY. ADVICE TO THOSE LEFT BEHIND.
Before parting with Mr. Walker and Mr. Smith I again urged them to push
steadily onwards and never to idle for an instant; but I do not think
that either of them were fully aware of the dangers they had to contend
with. Poor Smith, as he squeezed my hand, begged me to send out a horse
for him, if one could be procured, and also some tobacco; he said the
only thing he dreaded was want of water.
Mr. Walker smiled and told me to look out for myself that he was not in
Perth before me, and several others seemed to participate in his feeling
and to regard my plan of proceeding as the height of folly.
I left with Mr. Walker's party everything that was really useful, such as
the cooking saucepan and the only hatchet we had. These were very
valuable to them, for had they come into a grass-tree country they might
have subsisted for a long time upon the tops of these trees, as Mr.
Elliott did upon a former occasion; for he together with two men lived
upon them for fourteen days. This very useful implement they however
threw away the second day after we parted. We also left them all the
fishing-hooks.
Mr. Walker's party instantly commenced on the system of halting, and
instead of moving on in the afternoon remained where they were that day
for the purpose of resting themselves.
The country we travelled over for the first two miles was pretty good,
being a series of grassy plains. At this point we came to a belt of thick
wood which we found exceedingly difficult to traverse. We then continued
our south by east course for four miles further over undulating sandy
downs, and halted for the night in a small clump of Banksia trees which
afforded plenty of wood for our fires.
April 11.
About an hour before daylight I roused the party, and as soon as it was
light enough to distinguish the surrounding objects we started. Our route
lay along a series of undulating sandy hills which sloped down to a
fertile plain, four or five miles in width, on the western side of which
rose a low range of dunes, and beyond these was the sea. We found the
walking along these hills very difficult on account of the prickly scrub
with which they were covered, and the general appearance of the country
to the eastward was barren and unpromising.
COURSE IMPEDED BY A THICK WOOD.
The course I pursued was about south by east, but we soon found ourselves
embarrassed in thick woods through which it was almost impossible to
force a way: the trees were not large but so matted together that it
required my utmost exertions to prevail upon the men to persist in
pushing through them, indeed it will afterwards be found that these woods
had a most disastrous effect upon the spirits of that portion of the
party which followed me. It was however absolutely necessary to make our
way through one of these which formed a belt of nearly a mile in width,
running almost east and west as far as the eye could see in each
direction.
I therefore gave a bold plunge into the bushes, followed by the native
and slowly by the other men, who kept alternately groaning from fatigue
and pain and uttering imprecations against the country they were in.
Having cleared this wood I turned rather more inland, and we pursued our
route over barren scrubby plains, and, after having travelled about
fifteen miles over this uninteresting description of country, we suddenly
found ourselves on the top of a low range which overlooked a most
luxuriant valley of about three miles in width, its general direction
appearing to be from the east-south-east.
THE ARROWSMITH RIVER.
I immediately knew from the appearance of the country that we were near
some large river; and whilst descending into the valley I indulged in
speculations as to the size of that we were about to discover, and as to
whether Providence would grant me once again to drink a draught of cool
river water.
I soon however began to fear that my expectations were to be
disappointed. We had already proceeded more than two miles of the
distance across the valley; and although the soil was rich and good we
had yet seen nothing but dry watercourses, inconsiderable in themselves
yet apparently when united forming a large river. I still however
entertained hopes of finding water, for I saw numerous tracks of natives
about, and the whole of this valley was an extensive warran ground in
which they had that very morning been digging for their favourite root.
At length, just as my patience began to wear out, we ascended, out of a
dry watercourse, a rise rather more elevated than the others we had met
with in crossing the valley; and from the summit of this a curious sight
met our view: beneath us lay the dry bed of a large river, its depth at
this point being between forty and fifty feet, and its breadth upwards of
three hundred yards; it was at times subject to terrific inundations; for
along its banks lay the trunks of immense trees, giants of the forest
which had been washed down from the interior in the season of the floods;
yet nothing now met our craving eyes but a vast sandy channel which
scorched our eyeballs as the rays of the sun were reflected back from its
white glistening bed.
WATER FOUND IN IT BY DIGGING.
I picked out the most shady spot I could for the men to halt at, then
descended into the bed of the river to search, with the native, for
water; and immediately on scraping a hole a few inches deep in the bed of
the river the water came streaming into it, for the sand composing the
bottom of the watercourse was completely saturated, and I afterwards
found that there were large pools of it immediately above and below where
we were.
The wants of the men having been thus supplied I determined, as it was
intensely hot, to halt for an hour or two; we each of us therefore ate a
little doughboy, or piece of damper, and the men then lay down to rest.
As I sat musing alone the first thought that struck me was how
providentially it happened that we had not fallen in with this river in
the season of the floods, as our crossing it then would have been utterly
impossible.
APPROACH OF NATIVES TO THE RIVER.
But my reveries were soon disturbed by hearing the call of a native from
the opposite bank, and I roused up poor Kaiber from his sleep that he
might ascertain what was going on upon the other side. His quick eyes
soon detected natives moving about amongst the bushes; but on farther
examination he ascertained that there was only one man, who walked as if
he had been wounded, the rest of the party being made up of women and
children, who were digging for roots. They were quite unconscious of our
presence, and we lay snugly behind a bush, watching all their movements.
As soon as they had dug a sufficient quantity of roots for their purpose
they descended to the bed of the river and walked up to a pool about one
hundred yards above our position, where they all drank and then sat down
to cook their roots. I ordered the men to keep themselves as quiet as
possible so that we in no way disturbed these poor creatures; and when at
length the party moved off we passed them in a diagonal direction so as
to give them an opportunity of seeing us without frightening them. When
first we emerged into view they began to run away; but when they saw that
we still moved steadily on without noticing them they were no longer
alarmed, but stood still, gazing at us with the greatest wonder and
amazement; the youngest children standing behind their mothers, peeping
cautiously out at us; and many a strange thought must have passed through
the breasts of these natives as they saw us wind in regular order up the
opposite hill. This tribe was the most northern one that I had seen wear
the kangaroo-skin cloak.
Another mile and a half in a south by east direction brought us to a low
range to the south of this river, which I named the Arrowsmith River
after Mr. John Arrowsmith, the distinguished geographer. From this range
we had a fine view of the rich valleys drained by this important stream.
MOUNT HORNER.
These valleys ran nearly north and south between the interior range and
the sandy limestone range parallel to the coast on which we now were; but
the river must also, of course, from its magnitude, penetrate the
interior range, which was only distant about sixteen miles from us. A
very remarkable peak in the latter, which bore east-north-east from this
point, I named Mount Horner, after my friend Leonard Horner, Esquire.
It appears from the report of the party who came along the coast that
this river loses itself in a large lake, between which and the sea a
great bar of dry sand intervenes in the dry season; there is however a
very fair proportion of good country in the neighbourhood of the
Arrowsmith.
In the course of the evening we travelled six and a half miles further in
a south-south-east direction, over barren, sandy, scrubby plains, which
extended on all sides as far as the eye could see, and even the interior
range appeared to be perfectly bare. Towards nightfall we were all quite
worn out from the difficulty we had experienced in walking through the
prickly scrub, yet I could see no place that afforded sufficient wood to
enable us to make a fire and, as most of us had no covering with us, and
the nights were intensely cold, we had every prospect of passing a most
wretched one; but at length I spied two clumps of Banksia trees, the
nearest of which we just reached as it became quite dark. The other clump
was about a quarter of a mile to the eastward of us, at which I soon
distinguished native fires; as the men were however much exhausted I
thought it better not to mention this circumstance to them, and Kaiber
and myself, who always slept at a little fire alone, kept a good look out
during the night.
This evening we found the Bohn or Boh-rne, a native esculent root, and it
is the most northern point at which I have met with it.*
(*Footnote. A small red root somewhat resembling in flavour a mild
onion.)
April 12.
Before dawn this morning our native neighbours, who doubtless were not
pleased at our sleeping so near them, began to cooee to each other, which
is their usual signal for collecting their forces; and, as our safety
depended upon none of the party being incapacitated by a wound or other
cause from proceeding with the utmost rapidity, I at once roused the men
and we resumed our way.
CONTINUE OUR ROUTE.
In the course of the day we made a march of twenty-five miles in a
south-south-east direction, the whole of this distance being across
elevated undulating sandy plains, covered with a thick prickly scrub,
about two and a half feet high; these plains were however occasionally
studded with a few Banksia trees, but anything more dark, cheerless, and
barren than their general appearance can scarcely be conceived.
About half an hour before sunset we came to the bed of a dry watercourse,
the direction of which was from south-east to north, so that it was
probably a tributary of the Arrowsmith. We were fortunate enough to find
a small pool of water in it, yet the large flights of birds of every
description that came here for the purpose of drinking showed the rarity
of water in these parts. We made several attempts to get a shot at them
but they were so wild, and we were so worn out and weak, that all our
exertions were unsuccessful. In the course of the evening one of the men
made up my last pound of flour into a damper for me, and I supped on a
spoonful of arrowroot.
SERIOUS ROBBBRY BY A RAT.
April 13.
On waking up this morning I found that in the night a rat had gnawed a
hole in the canvas bag in which my little damper was placed, and had
eaten more than half of it; this was a very serious misfortune as all my
provisions were now reduced to three table-spoonfuls of arrowroot and the
morsel of damper left me by the rat. As I had shared my provisions with
the native my situation was far worse than that of any of the others, and
he, poor fellow, had become so dispirited and weak that he was incapable
of searching for his food. Indeed the productions of the country through
which he had hitherto passed were so different from those of the one in
which he had lived that the various kinds of roots and vegetables were,
with one or two exceptions, quite unknown to him.
We made a very good march of it this morning, having travelled nineteen
miles in a nearly south direction before 12 o'clock. Soon after starting
we sighted Mount Perron, distant about two and twenty miles and, seen
over the waste and barren plains which surrounded us, it was a very
remarkable object.
We halted at noon for about two hours, during which time I made my
breakfast with Kaiber, sharing my remaining portion of damper between us.
It was almost a satisfaction to me when it was gone, for, tormented by
the pangs of hunger, as I had now been for many days, I found that nearly
the whole of my time was passed in struggling with myself as to whether I
should eat at once all the provisions I had left or refrain till a future
hour. Having completed this last morsel I occupied myself for a little
with my journal, then read a few chapters in the New Testament and,
having fulfilled these duties, I felt myself as contented and cheerful as
I had ever been in the most fortunate moments of my life.
GAIRDNER'S RANGE.
Soon after two P.M. we resumed our journey, travelling for about eight
miles in a due south direction over plains similar to those we had passed
yesterday and this morning, and then began to ascend a red sandstone
range of the same description as the Perth ironstone and thinly studded
with black bay trees. I named this range Gairdner's Range after my friend
Gordon Gairdner, Esquire, of the Colonial Office and, after continuing a
gradual ascent for about four miles, I found that we were in the
neighbourhood of a forest, at the outskirts of which I chose a spot for
our halting-place, which afforded plenty of firewood but was deficient in
water. As we had now however marched thirty-one miles without seeing
water, and were all perfectly worn out, I judged it more prudent to halt
where we were.
FIND SOME EDIBLE ZAMIA NUTS.
Kaiber here brought in some of the nuts of the Zamia tree; they were dry
and therefore in a fit state to eat. I accordingly shared them amongst
the party. Several of the men then straggled off to look for more, and
were imprudent enough, before I found out what they were doing, to eat
several of the nuts which were not sufficiently dried, the consequences
of which were that they were seized with violent fits of vomiting
accompanied by vertigo and other distressing symptoms; these however
gradually abated during the night, and in the morning, although rendered
more weak than they were before, the poor fellows were still able to
resume their march.
GENEROUS CONDUCT OF ONE OF THE MEN.
Soon after the fires had been lighted I was sitting alone by mine, as the
shadows of night were just falling over the wild hilly scenery with which
we were surrounded; I had no water to cook a portion of the three
spoonfuls of arrowroot yet left me, and I saw each of the others
preparing his scanty portion of food. The native had at this time gone
away to look for Zamia nuts, and it may be imagined that many almost
undefined feelings at such a time thronged rapidly through my mind.
Whilst thus thinking I heard Hackney propose to Woods to offer me a share
of their little store of food: "No," said Woods; "everyone for himself
under these circumstances; let Mr. Grey do as well as he can and I will
do the same." "Well then I shall give him some of mine at all events,"
said Hackney; and a few minutes afterwards he came up to my fire and
pressed me to accept a morsel of damper about the size of a walnut. I
hesitated at first whether to do so or not, but, being aware that when we
came into a country where game was to be found I could, by means of my
gun, provide enough amply to repay this lad, I took it, after several
refusals and having it as often warmly pressed upon me.
I was much affected by the kindness of Hackney, who was a young American;
and I regret to add that I felt more hurt than I ought to have done at
the remark of Woods.