The Murrumbidgee compared with other rivers.
Heaps of stones used in cooking.
High reeds on the riverbank.
Lake Weromba.
Native encampment.
Riverbanks of difficult access.
Best horse drowned.
Cross a country subject to inundations.
Traverse a barren region at some distance from the river.
Kangaroos there.
Another horse in the river.
Lagoons preferable to the river for watering cattle.
High wind, dangerous in a camp under trees.
Serious accident; a cartwheel passes over The Widow's child.
Graves of the natives.
Choose a position for the depot.
My horse killed by the kick of a mare.
Proceed to the Darling with a portion of the party.
Reach the Murray.
Its breadth at our camp.
Meet with a tribe.
Lake Benanee.
Discover the natives to be those last seen on the Darling.
Harassing night in their presence.
Piper alarmed.
Rockets fired to scare them away.
They again advance in the morning.
Men advance towards them holding up their firearms.
They retire, and we continue our journey.
Again followed by the natives.
Danger of the party.
Long march through a scrubby country.
Dismal prospect.
Night without water or grass.
Heavy rain.
Again make the Murray.
Strange natives visit the camp at dusk.
THE MURRUMBIDGEE COMPARED WITH OTHER RIVERS.
May 15.
The night had been stormy with rain so that I had not been able to
ascertain the latitude of the point at which we had reached this
important river. It was Sunday and, although the two men sent after
Burnett's party had come in early enough, we remained in the same camp. I
had already been struck with the remarkable dissimilarity between the
Murrumbidgee and all the interior rivers previously seen by me,
especially the Darling. The constant fulness of its stream, its
water-worn and lightly-timbered banks, and the firm and accessible nature
of its immediate margin, unbroken by gullies, were all characters quite
the reverse of those which I had seen elsewhere. Whatever reeds or
polygonum might be outside, a certain space along the river was almost
everywhere clear, probably from its constant occupation by the natives.
HEAPS OF STONES USED IN COOKING.
One artificial feature not observed by me in other places distinguishes
the localities principally frequented by the natives, and consists in the
lofty mounds of burnt clay or ashes used by them in cooking. The common
process of natives in dressing their provisions is to lay the food
between layers of heated stones; but here, where there are no stones, the
calcined clay seems to answer the same purpose, and becomes better or
harder the more it is used. Hence the accumulation of heaps resembling
small hills.* Some of them were so very ancient as to be surrounded by
circles of lofty trees; others, long abandoned, were half worn away by
the river which, in the course of ages, had so far changed its bed that
the burnt ashes reached out to mid-channel; others, now very remote from
the river, had large trees growing out of them.
(*Footnote. And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones: and they
took stones, and made a heap, and they did eat there upon the heap.
Genesis 31:46. "Thevenot describes the way of roasting a sheep, practised
by the Armenians, by which also the use of smoky wood is avoided; for
having flayed it, they cover it again with the skin, and put it into an
oven upon the quick coals, covering it also with a good many of the same
coals, that it may have fire under and over to roast it well on all
sides; and the skin keeps it from being burnt." Harmer. Whoever has seen
the Australian natives cook a kangaroo must recognise in this description
the very same process.)
HIGH REEDS ON THE RIVERBANK.
I saw the first of these heaps when near the end of the last day's
journey along the Lachlan, where this river partook of the reedy
character of the Murrumbidgee. I understood that the balyan or
bulrush-root which is the chief food of the natives there is prepared in
those kilns when a family or tribe are together. I ascertained the name
of the place to be Weyeba; its latitude is 34 degrees 21 minutes 34
seconds South; longitude 143 degrees 56 minutes 27 seconds East.
May 16.
We commenced our journey down the Murrumbidgee. Our route passed
occasionally through reeds as we cut off the bends of the river; but they
formed no serious impediment although they stood so high that we
occasionally experienced some difficulty in following each other through
them. Having found, after surveying the river a few miles down, that the
general course was about south-west, as I had also found it to be above
our camp, I followed that direction as a general line of route, leaving
the river at length at some distance to the left. The country looked
well, lofty yarra trees and luxuriant grass giving it the appearance of
fine forest land; but most of these trees bore marks of inundation, and
the water appeared to have reached several feet up their trunks. At
length I came on a native path conducting westward; but as it led to
rising ground with Atriplex halimoides, etc., I bent our course to the
south and reached the river at sunset.
LAKE WEROMBA.
Burnett and Piper followed the native path until they came to the bed of
a fine lake about half a mile across, and they met some natives who told
them that the name of it was Weromba. Mr. Stapylton also discovered a
small lake of the same sort near our route and south of the other. Both
sheets of water, like that of Waljeers, were surrounded by a ridge of
rising ground consisting of the red earth of the dry plains, and it was
covered with the salsolaceous shrubs peculiar to them. These lakes seem
to be supplied only from the highest floods of the river, and to
constitute a remarkable and peculiar feature in the character of the
surface. I had been informed of a very large one of the same kind named
Quawingame near the left bank of the Lachlan, and not far from its
junction with the Murrumbidgee; but the singular turn of the
first-mentioned river prevented me from seeing it.
NATIVE ENCAMPMENT.
As we drew near the river I perceived the huts of a tribe with a fire
smoking before each. I immediately sent back for the gins, but before
they could come up the natives whom we saw there noticed us and
immediately disappeared among the reeds, shrieking as if they had been
mad. Our females soon after approached their huts and called on them to
return, but in vain.
RIVERBANKS OF DIFFICULT ACCESS. BEST HORSE DROWNED.
A misfortune befel us this evening which made the party better aware of
the treacherous nature of the banks of this part of the Murrumbidgee. I
had just time before it got dark to find a place where the cattle could
approach the water, the banks being almost everywhere water-worn and
perpendicular, and consequently inaccessible and dangerous to animals in
descending to drink. To this point I had sent the sheep, and the men were
leading the horses also towards it when the foremost, which unfortunately
was the best, made a rush to the water at a steeper place, and fell into
the river. He swam however to the other side but, in returning, sank in
the middle of the stream, never to rise again. He had winkers on and I
think it probable that he had put his foot into a short rein which was
attached to the collar. This horse was of the Clydesdale breed and drew
the cart containing my instruments throughout the journey along the
Darling last year. His name was Farmer--an unfortunate appellation for
surveying horses--for Farmer's Creek, in the new road to Bathurst, was
named after another horse which fell there and broke his neck while I was
marking out the line.
CROSS A COUNTRY SUBJECT TO INUNDATIONS.
The land adjacent to the river was of the richest quality; and the grass
on it was luxuriant and the forest scenery fine. The lofty trees
certainly bore marks of inundation one or two feet high; but as land
still higher was not far distant it cannot be doubted, notwithstanding
its liability to become flooded, that the soil might supply the wants of
an industrious population; especially as its spontaneous productions are
the chief support of the aboriginal inhabitants.
TRAVERSE A BARREN REGION AT SOME DISTANCE FROM THE RIVER.
May 17.
A beautiful morning. The latitude of this camp being exactly that of the
most southern bend of the river in Arrowsmith's map, I ventured upon a
course nearly west in order to clear the bends. The lofty trees I had
seen before me were found to be situated, not on the banks of the river,
but amongst scrubs. We afterwards came to sandhills and extensive tracts
covered with that most unpleasing of shrubs to a traveller, the
Eucalyptus dumosa, and the prickly grass mentioned by Mr. Oxley. We
traversed ridges of sand rising perhaps sixty feet above the plains,
nearer the river; and, when viewed from trees, the same kind of country
seemed unlimited in all directions. I therefore travelled
south-south-west and afterwards southward; until we once more entered
among the yarra trees on the more open ground by the river, and encamped
after a journey of about twelve miles. The country we had this day
traversed was of so unpromising a description that it was a relief to get
even amongst common scrubs, and escape from those of the Eucalyptus
dumosa. This species is not a tree but a lofty bush with a great number
of stems, each two or three inches in diameter; and the bushes grow
thickly together, having between them nothing but the prickly grass in
large tufts. This dwarf wood approached to the very river, where we
encamped without leaving an intermediate plain, as on the Lachlan. In
this country, however dreary it appeared, we found a beautiful grevillea
not previously seen by us.
KANGAROOS THERE.
During the day we saw also a great many kangaroos and killed two of them.
ANOTHER HORSE IN THE RIVER.
Notwithstanding every precaution in watering the cattle, and at a place
selected too as the best that could be found after a careful examination
of two miles of the river, one of the horses fell in; but on this
occasion it was safely got out again. The abundance of water, though a
novelty to us, was a source of new trouble and anxiety from the danger
our cattle were in of being drowned, owing to the precipitous banks and
soft mud of the river. This peril was indeed so imminent that in the
morning it was thought most prudent to water all the horses with a
bucket, and not to risk the loss of the bullocks by suffering them to
drink at all.
May 18.
Being determined to keep the river in sight, we this day continued our
journey along its margin. I found we could follow the general course
without entering bends by travelling at the base of a second bank, which
seemed to divide the yarra-tree flats from the scrubby ground behind.
LAGOONS PREFERABLE TO THE RIVER FOR WATERING CATTLE.
We came thus upon some rainwater in the clay of the plains which, being
sufficient to satisfy the bullocks, we gladly availed ourselves of the
opportunity it afforded of watering them without unyoking. After
proceeding about three miles further we saw a lagoon between us and the
Murrumbidgee. It resembled a bend of the river, and contained abundance
of water on which were three pelicans and a number of ducks. When we had
travelled nearly far enough to encamp, we came on two other lagoons of
the same kind, similarly situated and both containing water. The grass
being good, I determined to pitch our tents between them, as the cattle
might thus be watered for one night at least without the risk of being
bogged or drowned. These lagoons looked like different bends of a river,
although we saw the ends of both and passed on firm ground between them.
It was evident however that they could only be supplied by the
inundations of the river. On this day we killed a kangaroo.
HIGH WIND, DANGEROUS IN A CAMP UNDER TREES.
May 19.
During the night the weather was tempestuous; at three A.M. it blew a
hurricane and the rain fell heavily afterwards. I was not sorry when the
wind abated for we were so confined for room between the two lagoons that
my tent had been pitched, and most of our encampment placed, unavoidably
under a large yarra tree, a very unsafe position during high winds, but
fortunately no branches fell. In the morning, after proceeding about a
mile, another lagoon lay before us, which was full of water and indeed
terminated in the river. We avoided it by turning to the right and
gaining the higher ground above the level of floods. We continued along
this upper land, thus crossing two small plains; but soon after, being
apprehensive of going too far from the river, we again entered the open
forest of yarra trees which marked so distinctly its immediate margin. At
3 1/2 miles we passed a bend of the river, full of dead trees, the banks
being quite perpendicular and loose. After reaching another bend three
miles further we noticed two lagoons, apparently the remains of an
ancient channel of the river; and at ten miles we came upon a creek as
capacious as the Lachlan and full of large ponds of water. Mr. Stapylton
examined this creek some way up and he found that it came from the
north-east; and on arriving at a favourable place I crossed with the
party and encamped, the day having been very rainy and cold. We soon
discovered that this channel was only a branch of one from the north and,
the latter being very deep, I determined to halt next day, that its
course might be explored while the men made a fit passage across it for
the carts.
May 20.
This morning the weather appeared beautifully serene; and the barometer
had risen higher than I had ever seen it on this side of the mountains.
Mr. Stapylton, who left the camp in the morning, returned about sunset
after exploring the creek through a very tortuous course, more or less to
the northward of west. He had also ascertained that it supplied a small
lake about eight miles to the westward of our camp, whence he had
perceived its course bending again towards the river, of which he in fact
considered it only a branch: and I therefore concluded that the ponds of
water so abundant in it were but the remains of a flood in the
Murrumbidgee.
May 21.
A good passageway having been made, we crossed the watercourse and
proceeded towards Lake Stapylton as I understood that there we might
easily recross. I was informed by Burnett that when the journey commenced
this morning the gins in the bush had not responded to Piper's call until
after such a search as convinced him that both intended to leave the
party. He said that in such cases the law of the aborigines was that the
two first attempts of a wife to leave her husband might be punished by a
beating, but that for the third offence he might put her to death. On the
way we traversed the head of a creek somewhat similar to the last, at a
place where it was nearly level with the plain although, just below, it
contained a fine reach of water obviously supplied by the river.
SERIOUS ACCIDENT; A CARTWHEEL PASSES OVER THE WIDOW'S CHILD.
Here an unfortunate accident befel the little native child Ballandella
who fell from a cart and, one of the wheels passing over, broke her
thigh. On riding up I found The Widow her mother in great distress,
prostrate in the dust with her head under the limb of the unfortunate
child. I made the doctor set it immediately; but the femora having been
broken very near the socket, it was found difficult to bandage the limb
so as to keep the bone in its place. Every care however was taken of the
poor little infant that circumstances would allow; and she bore the pain
with admirable patience though only four years old. In her cries on first
meeting with the accident she was heard to call for Majy, a curious
instance of this child's sense at so early an age.
I found that the ground near the lake afforded so good a position for a
depot that I encamped upon it with the intention of ascertaining what
grass the neighbourhood afforded, and how the situation was likely to
answer this purpose in other respects. It had been latterly my intention
to leave the carts, boats, and most of the cattle in a depot at the
junction of the Murrumbidgee and Murray; and to proceed with two light
carts only and a month's provisions to complete the survey of the
Darling. We were now, I considered, within three days' journey, at most,
of that junction (according to Arrowsmith's map) and as these rivers were
dangerous to the cattle, and their banks much frequented by the natives,
such a place as this seemed more convenient and secure for a temporary
depot.
GRAVES OF THE NATIVES.
On the rising ground near our camp were several graves, all inclosed in
separate parterres of exactly the same remarkable double or triple ridges
as those first seen on the lower part of the Lachlan. There were three of
these parterres all lying due east and west. On one, evidently the most
recent, the ashes of a hut appeared over the grave. On another, which
contained two graves (one of a small child) logs of wood mixed with long
grass were neatly piled transversely; and in the third, which was so
ancient that the enclosing ridges were barely visible, the grave had sunk
into a grassy hollow. I understood from The Widow that such tombs were
made for men and boys only, and that the ashes over the most recent one
were the remains of the hut which had been burnt and abandoned after the
murder of the person whose body was buried beneath had been avenged by
the tribe to whom the brother or relative keeping it company above ground
had belonged.
CHOOSE A POSITION FOR THE DEPOT.
May 22.
This morning the bullock-drivers gave so favourable an account of the
pasture that I determined to leave a depot there and to set out next
morning with the rest of the party for the Darling. The day was therefore
passed in making the necessary arrangements. I proposed leaving Mr.
Stapylton with eight trusty men; and to take with me the rest, consisting
of fifteen, including Burnett and Piper. I calculated on being absent
four weeks at most; and rations for the supply of the party for that time
were immediately weighed out and packed, along with our tents, in two
light carts which were to be drawn by five bullocks each. Thus I expected
to be able to travel fifteen miles a day; and to have the men in better
order for dealing with the fire-eaters of the Darling than when they were
all occupied as bullock-drivers, carters, etc. etc.
MY HORSE KILLED BY THE KICK OF A MARE.
May 23.
Before I got up this morning I was informed that the same unlucky mare
which had already caused the death of one of the horses had just broken
the thigh of my own horse; and thus I was forced to have it shot when it
was in better condition than usual, having been spared from working much
for some time that it might be fresh for this excursion. Such an
inauspicious event on the morning of my intended departure for the
Darling was by no means encouraging. I left The Widow at the depot camp,
having given directions that she should have rations and that every care
should be taken of the child whose broken limb had been set and bound to
a board in such a manner that the little patient could not, by moving,
disturb the bone in healing. Mr. Stapylton was aware of the necessity for
preventing The Widow from going back just then, lest she might have
fallen into the hands of any pilfering tribe likely to follow us. The
accident which had befallen Ballandella (of whom she was very fond) was
however likely to be a tie on her, at least until our return; for it
would have been very injurious to have moved the child in less than
several weeks. A stockyard was to be erected for the cattle that they
might be brought up there every night during our absence; and the men
appointed to remain at the depot were told off in watches for the cattle
and camp.
PROCEED TO THE DARLING WITH A PORTION OF THE PARTY.
Mr. Stapylton and I then separated with a mutual and most sincere wish
that we should meet again as soon as possible. The position of the camp
was excellent, being on the elevated edge of a plain overlooking an
extensive reach of water, and surrounded with grass in greater abundance
and variety than we had seen in any part for some time.
During our progress this day we were for some miles in danger of being
shut in by the creek extending from the lake, as it increased
prodigiously and at length resembled a still reach of the Murrumbidgee
itself. After crossing it several times I was fortunate enough to be able
to keep the right bank, by which we got clear, passing along the edge of
a slight fall which looked like the berg of the main stream.
REACH THE MURRAY.
At 7 1/2 miles we crossed ground of a more open character than any we had
seen for some days; and it appeared to belong to the river margin, as it
was marked by some yarra trees. On approaching this river I judged, from
the breadth of its channel, that we were already on the banks of the
Murray. Thus without making any detour, and much sooner than I had reason
to expect from the engraved map, we had reached the Murray, and our depot
thus proved to be in the best situation for subsequently crossing that
river at its junction with the Murrumbidgee, as originally intended.
Leaving a little plain on our right, we entered the goborro or box-forest
with the intention of keeping near the river; but from this we had to
recede on meeting with a small but deep branch of the stream with some
water in it. Proceeding next directly towards some high trees at the
western extremity of the plains, we reached a favourable bend of the
Murray and there encamped.
ITS BREADTH AT OUR CAMP. DESCRIPTION OF ITS BANKS.
This magnificent stream was 165 yards broad, its waters were whitish, as
if tinged with some flood; the height of the red bank, not subject to
inundation, was 25 feet and by comparing these measurements with the
Murrumbidgee, which at Weyeba was 50 yards wide, with banks 11 feet high
(and that seemed a fine river) some idea may be formed of the Murray.* At
the place where we encamped the river had no bergs, for its bank
consisted of the common red earth covered with the acacia bushes and
scrub of the interior plains. The land at the point opposite was lower
and sandy, and a slight rapid was occasioned in the stream by a ridge of
ironstone.
(*Footnote. See comparative sections of these and other rivers to one
scale on the General Map in Volume 1.)
May 24.
It was quite impossible to say on what part of the Murray, as laid down
by Captain Sturt, we had arrived; and we were therefore obliged to feel
our way just as cautiously as if we had been upon a river unexplored. The
ground was indeed a tolerable guide, especially after we found that this
river also had bergs which marked the line of separation between the
desert plain or scrub and the good grassy forest-land of which the
river-margin consisted. As we proceeded I found it best to keep along the
bergs as much as possible in order to avoid ana-branches* of the river.
Where the bergs receded forest land with the goborro or dwarf-box
intervened. In travelling over ground of this description we crossed, at
two miles from the camp, a dry creek or branch, and another at a mile and
a quarter further.
(*Footnote. Having experienced on this journey the inconvenient want of
terms relative to rivers I determined to use such of those recommended by
Colonel Jackson in his able paper on the subject, in the Journal of the
Royal Geographical Society for 1833, as I might find necessary. They are
these:
Tributary: Any stream adding to the main trunk.
Ana-branches: Such as after separation unite.
Berg, bergs: Heights now at some distance, once the immediate banks of a
river or lake.
Bank: That part washed by the existing stream.
Border: The vegetation at the water's edge, forest trees, or quays of
granite, etc.
Brink: The water's edge.
Margin: The space between the brinks and the bergs.)
MEET WITH A TRIBE.
Soon after we entered a small plain bounded on the west by another dry
channel, and beyond this we were prevented from continuing in the
direction in which I wished to travel by a creek full of water, obliging
us to turn northward and eastward of north until I at length found a
crossing-place, and just as we perceived smoke at some distance beyond
the other bank. To this smoke Piper had hastened, and when I reached a
plain beyond the creek I saw him carrying on a flying conversation with
an old man and several gins who were retiring in a north-west direction
to a wood about a mile distant.
LAKE BENANEE.
This wood we also at length reached, and we found that it encircled a
beautiful lake full sixteen miles in circumference and swarming with
natives both on the beach and in canoes.
The alarm of our arrival was then resounding among the natives whom I saw
in great numbers along its western shores. This lake, like all those we
had previously seen, was surrounded by a ridge of red earth, rather
higher than the adjacent plains, and it was evidently fed, during high
floods, by the creek we had crossed. I travelled due west from the berg
of this lake along the plain which extended in that direction a mile and
three-quarters. We then came to another woody hollow or channel in which
I could at first see only a field of polygonum, although we soon found in
it a broad deep reach of still water. In tracing it to the left or from
the lake towards the river, we found it increased so much in width and
depth, after tracing it three-quarters of a mile, that a passage in that
direction seemed quite out of the question. Many of the natives who had
followed us in a body from the lake overtook us here. They assured Piper
that we were near the junction of this piece of water with the Millewa
(Murray) and that in the opposite direction, or towards the lake, they
could show us a ford. We accordingly turned and we came to a narrow place
where the natives had a fish-net set across. On seeing us preparing to
pass through the ford, they told Piper that, at a point still higher up,
we might cross where the channel was dry. Thither therefore we went, the
natives accompanying us in considerable numbers, but each carrying a
green bough. Among them were several old men who took the most active
part and who were very remarkable from the bushy fulness and whiteness of
their beards and hair; the latter growing thickly on the back and
shoulders gave them a very singular appearance, and accorded well with
that patriarchal authority which the old men seem to maintain to an
astonishing degree among these native tribes. The aged chiefs from time
to time beckoned to us, repeating very often and fast at the same time
"goway, goway, goway," which, strange to say, means "come, come, come."
Their gesture and action being also precisely such as we should use in
calling out "go away!" We crossed the channel at length where the bed was
quite dry, and pitched our tents on the opposite side.
DISCOVER THE NATIVES TO BE THOSE LAST SEEN ON THE DARLING.
It will however be readily understood with what caution we followed these
natives when we discovered, almost as soon as we fell in with them, that
they were actually our old enemies from the Darling! I had certainly
heard, when still far up on the Lachlan, that these people were coming
down to fight us; but I little expected they were to be the first natives
we should meet with on the Murray, at a distance of nearly two hundred
miles from the scene of our former encounter. There was something so
false in a forced loud laugh, without any cause, which the more plausible
among them would frequently set up, that I was quite at a loss to
conceive what they meant by all this uncommon civility. In the course of
the afternoon they assembled their women and children in groups before
our camp, exactly as they had formerly done on the Darling; and one or
two small parties came in, whose arrival they seemed to watch with
particular attention, hailing them while still at a distance as if to
prevent mistakes. We now ascertained through Piper that the tribe had
fled precipitately from the Darling last year to the country westward,
and did not return until last summer, when they found the two bullocks we
left there; which, having become fat, they had killed and eaten. We also
ascertained that some of the natives then in the camp wore the teeth of
the slaughtered animals, and that they had much trouble in killing one of
them, as it was remarkably fierce. This we knew so well to the character
of one of the animals that we had always supposed it would baffle every
attempt of these savages to take it.
In the group before me were pointed out two daughters of the gin which
had been killed, also a little boy, a son. The girls exactly resembled
each other and reminded me of the mother. The youngest was the handsomest
female I had ever seen amongst the natives. She was so far from black
that the red colour was very apparent in her cheeks. She sat before me in
a corner of the group, nearly in the attitude of Mr. Bailey's fine statue
of Eve at the fountain; and apparently equally unconscious that she was
naked. As I looked upon her for a moment, while deeply regretting the
fate of her mother, the chief who stood by, and whose hand had more than
once been laid upon my cap, as if to feel whether it were proof against
the blow of a waddy, begged me to accept her in exchange for a tomahawk!
HARASSING NIGHT IN THEIR PRESENCE.
The evening was one of much anxiety to the whole party. The fiendish
expression of some of these men's eyes shone horribly, and especially
when they endeavoured to disguise it by treacherous smiles. I did not see
the tall man nor the mischievous old one of last year; but there were
here many disposed to act like them. One miserable-looking dirty aged man
was brought forward, and particularly pointed out to me by the tribe. I
accordingly showed him the usual attention of sitting down and smoothing
the ground for him.* But he soon requested me to strip, on which I arose,
mindful of a former vow, and perceiving the blacksmith washing himself, I
called him up and pointed out the muscles of his arm to the curious sage.
The successor and brother, as the natives stated, of king Peter, was also
looking on, and I made Vulcan put himself into a sparring attitude and
tip him a touch or two, which made him fall back one or two paces, and
look half angry. We distinctly recognised the man who last year threw the
two spears at Muirhead; while on their part they evidently knew again
Charles King who, on that occasion, fired at the native from whose spears
Tom Jones so narrowly escaped.
(*Footnote. Instead of handing a chair the equivalent of politeness with
Australian natives is to smooth down or remove with the foot any sharp
spikes or rubbish on the ground where you wish your friend to be seated
before you.)
Night had closed in and these groups hung still about us, having also
lighted up five large fires which formed a cordon around our camp. Still
I did not interfere with them, relying chiefly on the sagacity and
vigilance of Piper whom I directed to be particularly on the alert. At
length Burnett came to inform me that they had sent away all their gins,
that there was no keeping them from the carts, and that they seemed bent
on mischief.
PIPER ALARMED.
Piper also took alarm and came to me inquiring, apparently with a
thoughtful sense of responsibility, what the Governor had said to me
about shooting blackfellows. "These," he continued, "are only Myalls"
(wild natives). His gin had overheard them arranging that three should
seize and strip him, while others attacked the tents. I told him the
Governor had said positively that I was not to shoot blackfellows unless
our own lives were in danger. I then went out--it was about eight
o'clock--and I saw one fellow, who had always been very forward, posted
behind our carts and speaking to Piper's wife.
ROCKETS FIRED TO SCARE THEM AWAY.
I ordered him away, then drew up the men in line and when, as
preconcerted, I sent up a rocket and the men gave three cheers, all the
blacks ran off, with the exception of one old man who lingered behind a
tree. They hailed us afterwards from the wood at a little distance where
they made fires, saying they were preparing to corrobory and inviting us
to be present. Piper told them to go on, and we heard something like a
beginning to the dance, but the hollow sounds they made resembled groans
more than any sort of music, and we saw that they did not, in fact,
proceed with the dance. It was necessary to establish a double watch that
night and indeed none of the men would take their clothes off. The most
favourable alternative that we could venture to hope for was that a
collision might be avoided till daylight.
THEY AGAIN ADVANCE IN THE MORNING.
May 25.
The night passed without further molestation on the part of the natives;
but soon after daybreak they were seen advancing towards our camp. The
foremost was a powerful fellow in a cloak, to whom I had been introduced
by king Peter last year, and who was said to be his brother. Abreast of
him, but much more to the right, two of the old men, who had reached a
fallen tree near the tents, were busy setting fire to the withering
branches. Those who were further back seemed equally alert in setting
fire to the bush and, the wind coming from that quarter, we were likely
soon to be enveloped in smoke. I was then willing that the barbarians
should come again up, and anxious to act on the defensive as long as
possible; but when I saw what the old men were about I went into my tent
for my rifle and ordered all the men under arms. The old rascals, with
the sagacity of foxes, instantly observed and understood this movement
and retired.
MEN ADVANCE TOWARDS THEM HOLDING UP THEIR FIREARMS.
I then ordered eight men to advance towards the native camp, and to hold
up their muskets as if to show them to the natives, but not to fire
unless attacked, and to return at the sound of the bugle.
THEY RETIRE, AND WE CONTINUE OUR JOURNEY.
The savages took to their heels before these men who, following the
fugitives, disappeared for a time in the woods but returned at the bugle
call. This move, which I intended as a threat and as a warning that they
should not follow us, had at least the effect of giving us time to
breakfast, as Muirhead observed on coming back to the camp.
AGAIN FOLLOWED BY THE NATIVES. DANGER OF THE PARTY.
We afterwards moved forward on our journey as usual; but we had scarcely
proceeded a mile before we heard the savages in our rear and, on my
regaining the Murray, which we reached at about three miles, they were
already on the bank of that river, a little way above where we had come
upon it and consequently as we proceeded along its bank they were behind
us. They kept at a considerable distance; but I perceived through my
glass that the fellow with the cloak carried a heavy bundle of spears
before him.
He comes, not in peace, O Cairbar:
For I have seen his forward spear. Ossian.
LONG MARCH THROUGH A SCRUBBY COUNTRY.
We were then upon a sloping bank or berg,* which was covered backwards
with thick scrub; below it lay a broad reach of still water in an old
channel of the river and which I, for some time, took to be the river
itself. It was most painfully alarming to discover that the knowledge
these savages had acquired of the nature of our arms, by the loss of
several lives last year, did not deter them from following us now with
the most hostile intentions.
(*Footnote. See above.)
DISMAL PROSPECT.
We had endeavoured to prevent them, by the demonstration of sending the
men advancing with firearms, yet they still persisted; and Piper had
gathered from them that a portion of their tribe was still before us. Our
route lay along the bank of a river, peopled by other powerful tribes;
and at the end of 200 miles we could only hope to reach the spot where
the party already following in our rear had commenced the most unprovoked
hostility last season. I had then thought it unsafe to divide my party,
it was already divided now, and the cunning foe was between the two
portions; a more desperate situation therefore than this half of my party
was then in can scarcely be imagined. To attempt to conciliate these
people had last year proved hopeless. Our gifts had only excited their
cupidity, and our uncommon forbearance had only inspired them with a poor
opinion of our courage; while their meeting us in this place was a proof
that the effect of our arms had not been sufficient to convince them of
our superior strength. A drawn battle was out of the question, but I was
assured by Piper and the other young natives that we should soon lose
some of the men in charge of the cattle. Those faithful fellows, on whose
courage my own safety depended--some of them having already but narrowly
escaped the spears of these very savages on the former journey. We soon
discovered that the piece of water was not the river, by seeing the
barbarians passing along the other side of it; and I thereupon determined
to travel on as far as I could. The river taking a great sweep to the
southward, we proceeded some miles through an open forest of box or
goborro; and when I at length met with sandhills and the Eucalyptus
dumosa I continued to travel westward, not doubting but that I should
reach the Murray by pursuing that course. We looked in vain however
during the whole day for its lofty trees, and in fact crossed one of the
most barren regions in the world.
NIGHT WITHOUT WATER OR GRASS.
Not a spike of grass could be seen and the soil, a loose red sand, was in
most places covered with a scrub like a thick-set hedge of Eucalyptus
dumosa. Many a tree was ascended by Burnett, but nothing was to be seen
on any side different to what we found where we were. We travelled from
an early hour in the morning until darkness and a storm appeared to be
simultaneously drawing over us. I then hastened to the top of a small
sandhill to ascertain whether there was any adjacent open space where
even our tents might be pitched, and I cannot easily describe the
dreariness of the prospect that hill afforded. No signs of the river were
visible unless it might be near a few trees which resembled the masts of
distant ships on a dark and troubled sea; and equally hazardous now was
this land navigation, from our uncertainty as to the situation of the
river on which our finding water depended, and the certainty that,
wherever it was, there were our foes before us, exulting perhaps in the
thought that we were seeking to avoid them in this vile scrub. On all
sides the flat and barren waste blended imperceptibly with a sky as
dismal and ominous as ever closed in darkness. One bleak and sterile spot
hard by afforded ample room for our camp; but the cattle had neither
water nor any grass that night.
HEAVY RAIN.
A heavy squall set in and such torrents of rain descended as to supply
the men with water enough; and indeed this was not the only occasion
during the journey when we had been providentially supplied under similar
circumstances.
May 26.
It appeared that we had not, even in that desert, escaped the vigilance
of the natives, for Piper discovered, within three hundred yards of our
camp, the track of two who, having been there on the preceding evening,
had that morning returned towards the river. At an early hour we yoked up
our groaning cattle and proceeded, although the rain continued for some
time. I pursued by compass the bearing of the high trees I had seen,
though they were somewhat to the northward of west.
AGAIN MAKE THE MURRAY.
Exactly at five miles a green bank and, immediately after, the broad
expanse of the Murray, with luxuriantly verdant margins, came suddenly in
view on the horizon of the barren bush in which we had travelled upwards
of twenty-three miles, and which here approached the lofty bank of the
river. The green hill I had first seen afforded an excellent position for
our camp; and as the grass was good I halted for the rest of the day to
refresh the cattle.
STRANGE NATIVES VISIT THE CAMP AT DUSK.
Towards evening the natives were heard advancing along our track, and
seven came near the camp but remained on the river margin below, which
from our post on the hill we completely overlooked. Piper went to these
natives to ascertain if they were our enemies from the lake. He
recognised several whom he had seen there, and he invited them to come up
the hill; but when I saw them I could not, from their apparently candid
discourse, look upon them as enemies. They said that the tribe which we
had seen at Benanee did not belong to that part of the country, but had
come there to fight us, on hearing of our approach. One of them, who had
been seen at the lake, asked Piper several times why I did not attack
them when I had so good an opportunity, and he informed us that they were
the same tribe which intended to kill another white man (Captain Sturt)
in a canoe, at the junction of the rivers lower down. They also informed
us, on the inquiry being made, that the old man who then behaved so well
to the white men was lately dead, and that he had been much esteemed by
his tribe. I desired Piper to express to them how much we white men
respected him also. I afterwards handed to these people a fire-stick and,
pointing to the flat below, gave them to understand, through Piper, that
the tribe at Benanee had behaved so ill and riotously about our camp that
I could not allow any natives to sit down beside us at night.