Route proposed.
Equipment.
List of the Men.
Agreement with a native guide.
Livestock.
Corrobory-dance of the natives.
Visit to the Limestone caves.
Osseous breccia.
Mount Granard, first point to be attained.
Halt on a dry creek.
Break a wheel.
Attempt to ascend Marga.
Snakes.
View from Marga.
Reach the Lachlan.
Find its channel dry.
ROUTE PROPOSED.
Towards the end of the year 1835 I was apprised that the governor of New
South Wales was desirous of having the survey of the Darling completed
with the least possible delay. His excellency proposed that I should
return for this purpose to the extreme point on the Darling where my last
journey terminated and that, after having traced the Darling into the
Murray, I should embark on the latter river and, passing the carts and
oxen to the left bank at the first convenient opportunity, proceed
upwards by water as far as practicable and regain the colony somewhere
about Yass Plains.
EQUIPMENT.
The preparations for this journey were made, as on the former occasion,
chiefly in the lumber-yard at Parramatta, and under the superintendence
of the same officer, Mr. Simpson. Much of the equipment used for the last
expedition was available for this occasion. The boats and boat-carriage
were as serviceable as ever, with the advantage of being better seasoned;
and we could now, having had so much experience, prepare with less
difficulty for such an undertaking.
In consequence of a long-continued drought serviceable horses and
bullocks were at that time scarce, and could only be obtained at high
prices; but no expense was spared by the government in providing the
animals required.
The party having preceded me by some weeks on the road, I at length
overtook it on the 15th of March in a valley near the Canobolas which I
had fixed as the place of rendezvous, and where, from the great
elevation, I hoped still to find some grass. How we were to proceed
however without water was the question I was frequently asked; and I was
informed at Bathurst that even the Lachlan was dried up.
On the following day I organised the party, and armed the men. I
distributed to each a suit of new clothing; consisting of grey trousers
and a red woollen shirt, the latter article, when crossed by white
braces, giving the men somewhat of a military appearance.
Their names and designation were as follows:
LIST OF THE MEN.
LIST OF THE PARTY PROCEEDING TO THE DARLING IN MARCH 1836.*
(*Footnote. The men whose names are printed in uppercase had obtained
their freedom as a reward for past services in the interior. The
asterisks distinguish the names of men who had been with me on one or
both the former expeditions. Those to whose names the letter T is also
prefixed having previously obtained a ticket of leave releasing them from
a state of servitude. Each man was also furnished with a small case
containing six cartridges which he was ordered always to wear about his
waist.)
COLUMN 1: NAMES.
COLUMN 2: OCCUPATION IN THE EXPLORING PARTY.
COLUMN 3: OCCASIONAL EMPLOYMENT.
COLUMN 4: ARMS AND ACCOUTREMENTS.
Major T.L. Mitchell: Chief of the party : - : Rifle and pistols.
G.C. Stapylton, Esquire : Second in command : - : Carabine and pistol.
**ALEXANDER BURNETT : Overseer : Storekeeper : Carabine and pistol.
**ROBERT MUIRHEAD : Bullock-driver : Soldier and lance-corporal : Musket,
bayonet and pistol.
T*Charles Hammond : Bullock-driver : - : Musket, bayonet and pistol.
T*William Thomas : Bullock-driver : Butcher : Musket, bayonet and pistol.
Richard Lane : Bullock-driver : - : Carabine and pistol.
James McLellan : Bullock-driver : - : Musket, bayonet and pistol.
Charles Webb : Bullock-driver : - : Musket, bayonet and pistol.
T*John Johnston : Blacksmith : - : Carabine.
T Walter Blanchard : Blacksmith : Measurer : Carabine and pistol.
**WILLIAM WOODS : Horse carter : Sailor : Carabine and pistol.
*Charles King : Horse carter : Measurer : Musket, bayonet and pistol.
*John Gayton : Horse carter : Cook : Carabine.
John Drysdale : Medical attendant : Barometer-carrier : Carabine.
John Roach : Collector of birds : - : Pistol (fowling-piece).
John Richardson : Collector of plants : Shepherd : Two pistols.
**JOHN PALMER : Sailor : Sailmaker : Carabine and pistol.
John Douglas : Sailor : - : Carabine.
T**Joseph Jones : Shepherd : - : Carabine.
James Taylor : Groom : Trumpeter : Carabine and pistol.
Edward Pickering : Carpenter : Barometer-carrier : Carabine.
Archibald McKean : Carpenter : Barometer-carrier : Carabine.
James Field : Shoemaker : - : Carabine.
**Anthony Brown : Cook : - : Carabine and pistol.
This was the army with which I was to traverse unexplored regions
peopled, as far as we knew, by hostile tribes. But I could depend upon a
great portion of the men, and amongst them were some who had been with me
on the two former expeditions and who, although they had obtained their
emancipation as the well merited reward of their past services in the
interior, were nevertheless willing to accompany me once more. I accepted
their services on obtaining a promise from the governor that if the
expedition was successful their conditional pardons might be converted
into absolute pardons, a boon on which even some wealthy men in the
colony would probably have set a high value.
One of the most devoted of these followers was William Woods who, having
long toiled carrying my theodolite to the summits of the highest
mountains, was at length more comfortably situated than he had ever been
in his life before as overseer of a road party. This poor fellow
relinquished his place of authority over other men and in which he
received 1 shilling per diem, again put on the grey jacket, and set a
valuable example as the most willing of my followers, wherever drudgery
or difficulty were most discouraging.
LIVESTOCK.
Our cattle were lean but I took a greater number in consequence. The
pasturage was still meagre and scarcely any water remained on the face of
the earth. It was unusually low in the holes last year, but this season
very few indeed contained any. The equinox however was at hand, and I
could not suppose that it was never to rain again, however hopeless the
aspect of the country appeared at that time.
AGREEMENT WITH A NATIVE GUIDE.
In this camp of preparation I was visited by our old friends the natives;
and one who called himself John Piper and spoke English tolerably well
agreed to accompany me as far as I should go, provided he was allowed a
horse and was clothed, fed, etc.; all which I immediately agreed to. I
had not however forgotten Mr. Brown, and I reminded Burnett of that
native's desertion; but Burnett, who seemed to be on excellent terms with
Piper, assured me that after he should be some weeks' journey in the
interior dread of the savage natives would prevent him from leaving our
party, and so it turned out.
But in breaking on our stock of provisions, we commenced with due regard
to their importance on an interior journey by so reducing the weight of
our steel-yard that a five months' stock should last nearly seven months.
This arrangement was however a secret known only to Burnett and myself.
The plan of encampment was to be the same as on the former journey, only
that a greater number of carts stood in the line parallel to the
boat-carriage.
March 17.
I put the party in movement towards Buree and rode across the country on
our right with Piper. We found the earth parched and bare but, as we
bounded over hill and dale a fine cool breeze whispered through the open
forest, and felt most refreshing after the hot winds of Sydney. Dr.
Johnson's Obidah was not more free from care on the morning of his
journey than I was on this, the first morning of mine. It was also St.
Patrick's day, and in riding through the bush I had leisure to recall
past scenes and times connected with the anniversary. I remembered that
exactly on that morning, twenty-four years before, I marched down the
glacis of Elvas to the tune of St. Patrick's Day in the Morning as the
sun rose over the beleaguered towers of Badajoz. Now, without any of the
pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war, I was proceeding on a
service not very likely to be peaceful, for the natives here assured me
that the Myalls were coming up murry coola, i.e. very angry, to meet us.
At Buree I rejoined my friend Rankin who had accompanied me from Bathurst
to the camp, and Captain Raine who occupied this place with his cattle. A
hundred sheep and five fat oxen were to be furnished by this gentlemen to
complete my commissariat supplies.
CORROBORY-DANCE OF THE NATIVES.
In the evening the blacks, having assembled in some numbers, entertained
us with a corrobory, their universal and highly original dance. (See
Plate.) Like all the rest of the habits and customs of this singular race
of wild men, the corrobory is peculiar and, from its uniformity on every
shore, a very striking feature in their character. The dance always takes
place at night, by the light of blazing boughs, and to time beaten on
stretched skins, accompanied by a song.* The dancers paint themselves
white, and in such remarkably varied ways that no two individuals are at
all alike. Darkness seems essential to the effect of the whole; and the
painted figures coming forward in mystic order from the obscurity of the
background, while the singers and beaters of time are invisible, have a
highly theatrical effect. Each dance seems most tastefully progressive;
the movement being at first slow, and introduced by two persons
displaying graceful motions both of arms and legs, others one by one join
in, each imperceptibly warming into the truly savage attitude of the
corrobory jump; the legs then stride to the utmost, the head is turned
over one shoulder, the eyes glare and are fixed with savage energy all in
one direction, the arms also are raised and inclined towards the head,
the hands usually grasping waddies, boomerangs, or other warlike weapons.
The jump now keeps time with each beat, the dancers at every movement
taking six inches to one side, all being in a connected line, led by the
first. The line however is sometimes doubled or tripled according to
space and numbers; and this gives great effect, for when the front line
jumps to the LEFT, the second jumps to the RIGHT, the third to the LEFT
again, and so on; until the action acquires due intensity, when all
simultaneously and suddenly stop. The excitement which this dance
produces in the savage is very remarkable. However listless the
individual may be, laying perhaps, as usual, half asleep; set him to this
dance, and he is fired with sudden energy, and every nerve is strung to
such a degree that he is no longer to be recognised as the same person
until he ceases to dance, and comes to you again. There can be little
doubt that the corrobory is the medium through which the delights of
poetry are enjoyed, in a limited degree, even by these primitive savages
of New Holland.
(*Footnote. To this end they stretch a skin very tight over the knees,
and thus may be said to use the tympanum in its rudest form, this being
the only instance of a musical instrument that I have seen among them.
Burder says: "By the timbrels which Miriam and the other women played
upon when dancing, we are to understand the tympanum of the ancient
Greeks and Romans, which instrument still bears in the East the name that
it is in Hebrew, namely, doff or diff, whence is derived the Spanish
adufe, the name of the Biscayan tabor. Niebuhr describes this instrument
in his Travels Part 1 page 181. It is a broad hoop, with a skin stretched
over it; on the edge there are generally thin round plates of metal,
which also make some noise when this instrument is held up in one hand
and struck with the fingers of the other hand. Probably no musical
instrument is so common in Turkey as this; for when the women dance in
the harem the time is always beat on this instrument. We find the same
instrument on all the monuments in the hands of the Bacchante. It is also
common among the negroes of the Gold Coast and Slave Coast." Oriental
Customs Volume 1.)
VISIT TO THE LIMESTONE CAVES.
March 18.
As it was necessary to grind some wheat with hand-mills to make up our
supply of flour, I was obliged to remain a day at Buree; and I therefore
determined on a visit to the limestone caves, by no means the least
remarkable feature in that country. The whole district consists of trap
and limestone, the former appearing in ridges, which belong to the lofty
mass of Canobolas. The limestone occurs chiefly in the sides of valleys
in different places, and contains probably many unexplored caves. The
orifices are small fissures in the rock, and they have escaped the
attention of the white people who have hitherto wandered there. I had
long been anxious to extend my researches for fossil bones among these
caves, having discovered during a cursory visit to them some years before
that many interesting remains of the early races of animals in Australia
were to be found in the deep crevices and caverns of the limestone rock.
How they got there was a question which had often puzzled me; but having
at length arrived at some conclusions on the subject, I was now desirous
to ascertain, by a more extensive examination of the limestone country,
whether the caves containing the osseous breccia presented here similar
characteristics to those I had observed in Wellington Valley.
OSSEOUS BRECCIA.
The first limestone we examined had no crevices sufficiently large to
admit our bodies; but on riding five miles southward to Oakey creek we
found a low ridge extending some miles on its left bank which promised
many openings. We soon found one which I considered to be of the right
sort, namely a perpendicular crevice with red tuff about the sides. Being
provided with candles and ropes we descended perpendicularly first, about
six fathoms to one stage, then obliquely, about half as far to a sort of
floor of red earth; Mr. Rankin, although a large man, always leading the
way into the smallest openings. By these means and by crawling through
narrow crevices we penetrated to several recesses, until Mr. Rankin found
some masses of osseous breccia beneath the limestone rock but so wedged
in that they could be extracted only by digging. Unlike the same red
substance at Wellington Valley where it was nearly as hard as the
limestone, the red calcareous tuff found here was so loose that the mass
of bones was easily detached from it; but none of them were perfect,
except one or two vertebrae of a very large species of kangaroo. Pursuing
this lode of osseous earth we traced it to several other recesses and in
the lower side of an indurated mass (the upper part having been the floor
of our first landing place) we found two imperfect skulls of Dasyuri, the
teeth being however very well preserved. This was, doubtless, an
unvisited cave; for the natives have an instinctive or superstitious
dread of all such places, and it is not therefore probable that man had
ever before visited that cavern. With all our ropes it cost some of us
trouble to get out of it, after passing two hours in candle-light. It may
thus be imagined what a vast field for such interesting researches
remains still unexplored in that district where limestone occurs in such
abundance.
The objects of my journey did not admit of further indulgence in the
pursuit at that time; and I was content with drawing the attention of one
of the party, a young gentleman residing in the neighbourhood, to it, in
hopes he might discover some bones of importance.*
(*Footnote. See a further account of these caves and some others in