Читать книгу Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Vol. 2 - George Grey - Страница 5

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WILD TURKEYS SEEN.

April 6.

We moved off this morning on a course of 180 degrees. The first mile of our journey was over low scrubby ironstone hills. We then came down upon rich flats through which the main branch of the Hutt ran; and followed the course of this branch for about two miles. It was not running but there were many pools with water in its bed: the flats were rich and grassy and on the hills to the westward (the Menai Hills) we descried wild turkeys, being the farthest point north at which I had seen this bird.

As I saw that the ground in front of us was very steep and abrupt, so that the weak and weary would have found it a difficult task to master such an ascent, I turned off on a course of 168 degrees, ascending a sandy tableland covered with scrub. When we had walked three miles in this direction the table-hill of Captain King bore east by south distant five miles. We now proceeded parallel to the sea, which was distant one mile through an indifferent country. This course continued for about five miles, and on the ranges to the eastward the country still appeared to be grassy and good.

RELUCTANCE OF THE MEN TO HASTEN ONWARDS. DIFFICULTY OF URGING THE PARTY FORWARD.

Although we had walked very slowly many of the party were completely exhausted, and one or two of the discontented ones pretended to be dreadfully in want of water, notwithstanding they carried canteens and had only walked eight miles since leaving the bank of a river; I was therefore obliged to halt, and could not get them to move for three hours. I am sorry to say that some who should have known much better endeavoured to instil into the minds of the men that it was preferable only to walk a few miles a day and not to waste their strength by long marches; utterly forgetting that most of the party had now only seven or eight pounds of fermented flour left, and that if they did not make play whilst they had strength their eventually reaching Perth was quite hopeless. This however was a very popular doctrine for thoughtless and weary men, who were overloaded and yet from a feeling of avarice would not abandon any portion of what they were carrying. The majority of the party not only adopted these views in theory but doggedly carried them into practice; and from this moment I abandoned all hope of getting the whole party into the settled districts in safety. Poor fellows! most of them paid dearly for the mistaken notions they now adopted. Mr. Smith, with his usual spirit, was for pushing on, although his strength was inadequate to the task. I laid under the shade of a bush lost in gloomy reveries and temporary unpopularity; Kaiber by my side lulled me with native songs composed for the occasion, and in prospective I saw all the dread sufferings which were to befall the doomed men who sat around me, confident of their success under the new plan; but like all prophets I was without honour amongst my own acquaintance; and after considering the matter under every point of view I thought it better for the moment to succumb to the general feeling, yet to lose no opportunity on every subsequent occasion of endeavouring to rouse the party into a degree of energy suited to our desperate circumstances.

At the end of the three hours I again begged several of the party, who appeared to be in an exhausted state, to abandon a portion of their useless loads; but they were quite sure that by making short marches, not exhausting their strength, and now and then halting for a day or two to refresh, they could carry them into Perth, and therefore refused to part with them. Mr. Smith and myself found that stopping in this way and getting cold rendered our limbs so stiff and painful when we walked on again that we could scarcely move; and I suspect that such was the case with the other men, for when we started again I could hardly get them along. One man of the name of Stiles, who was a stout supporter of the new theory, made us stop for him nearly every five minutes.

THE BOWES RIVER.

After walking one mile we fortunately came to a very deep valley, having such steep limestone cliffs on each side that it assumed quite the character of a ravine: it was about a mile wide and in it was a watercourse winding through deep flats. We however only found water in pools; the course of the stream was very tortuous and its mouth was almost blocked up by sandhills. The valley itself was both picturesque and fertile, and the appearance of the country to the east and north-east was highly promising. The stream I called the Bowes.

NATIVE RESTING-PLACE. NATIVE HUTS.

This spot was a favourite halting-place of the natives; and from the number of huts and other indications which we saw the district must be very densely populated. The huts were of the same superior construction as those which we had seen near the Hutt, and the traces were very recent, but the natives themselves were either at a distance or kept carefully out of our way. The valley that we were now in, as well as the other limestone valleys in this province, partook exactly of the character of those in the carboniferous limestone districts of England inasmuch as they were deep gorges, or ravines, now traversed by watercourses or streams apparently much too insignificant to have grooved them out.

PROVOKING INDOLENCE OF THE MEN.

Our finding water here was fortunate for I now showed the men that, had they walked one mile farther instead of halting in the manner they had done, they would have had abundance of it, and would have been, at this moment, at least, five miles nearer home. I also directed Mr. Walker to examine Stiles and to state whether he was in good health or not. He did so and reported him quite well. I therefore when we started again gave Stiles warning that I should not halt every minute for him but would leave him behind, at the same time ordering him to walk in front of the party, next after me.

I continued a course of 180 degrees up a steep limestone range, behind which apparently ran a branch of the watercourse we had just passed: a good country lay to the eastward of us. Stiles now delayed us so much that some of his comrades spoke to him very warmly on the subject, whilst others still held to the opinion that walking a few miles a day and sometimes halting a day or two to refresh was the true mode of proceeding. We only made two miles this evening and I threw myself on the ground so worn and harassed that I could not sleep.

AN EXTENSIVE FERTILE COUNTRY.

Sunday April 7.

Before the sun had appeared above the horizon I managed to get the party fairly started, and we followed a course of 180 degrees over elevated sandy downs which rested on a limestone formation. The first four miles of our journey was not very encouraging; we could only see as far to the eastward as the flat-topped range; and although the slopes of these hills looked very fertile I had no means of judging how far back this good country extended; we had however been creeping gradually up an ascent, and when we gained the summit of this I turned to look to the northward after the straggling party, who were slowly mounting the hill, some of them staggering along under loads so heavy that I should have hated the tyranny of any man who could have compelled them to carry such a weight; but as it was I could only grieve to see men, from the hope of gain, rushing so inevitably on their fate. Having gazed till weary at this painful picture of the weakness of human nature, I turned to the north-eastward, and there burst upon my sight a most enchanting view. In the far east, that is, some twenty or five-and-twenty miles away, stretched a lofty chain of mountains, flat-topped and so regular in their outline that they appeared rather the work of art than of nature. Between this range and the nearest one lay a large rich valley vying with the most fertile I have ever seen in an extra-tropical country. In front of us lay another valley which drained a portion of the large one, and in both rose gently swelling hills and picturesque peaks, wooded in the most romantic manner. Whilst I stood and looked on this scene, my woes were forgotten. Such moments as these repay an explorer for much toil and trouble.

THE VICTORIA RANGE AND DISTRICT. THE PROVINCE OF VICTORIA.

The distant range I at once named the Victoria in honour of Her Majesty; and being now certain that the district we were in was one of the most fertile in Australia I named it the Province of Victoria. There is no other part of extra-tropical Australia which can boast of the same number of streams in an equal extent of coast frontage, or which has such elevated land so near the sea; and I have seen no other which has so large an extent of good country. It is however bounded both to the north and south by comparatively-speaking unproductive districts; but what the character of the country to the north-east and south-east may be still remains to be ascertained.

Another mile on a course of 180 degrees brought us to the valley in our front; it was of the same rich and romantic character as that which I have just described, being in depth about two hundred feet, down limestone rocks, in places assuming the character of cliffs. In its bottom was a watercourse containing water in pools only; but it must be borne in mind that it was now the very end of the dry season. The party all came up, and we laid ourselves down under the grateful shade of the mimosas. Those who chose took their fill of water. I had made a rule never to taste it except to wash out my mouth from sunrise until we halted for the night; for I found that drinking water promoted profuse perspiration and more ardent thirst, and I preferred practising a little self-denial to enduring the greater pangs arising from indulgence.

Whilst I stretched my weary length along under the pleasant shade I saw in fancy busy crowds throng the scenes I was then amongst. I pictured to myself the bleating sheep and lowing herds wandering over these fertile hills; and I chose the very spot on which my house should stand, surrounded with as fine an amphitheatre of verdant land as the eye of man has ever gazed on. The view was backed by the Victoria Range, whilst seaward you looked out through a romantic glen upon the great Indian Ocean. I knew that within four or five years civilization would have followed my tracks, and that rude nature and the savage would no longer reign supreme over so fine a territory. Mr. Smith entered eagerly into my thoughts and views: together we built these castles in the air, trusting we should see happy results spring from our present sufferings and labours, but within a few weeks from this day he died in the wilds he was exploring.

THE BULLER RIVER.

The stream we were on I named the Buller; we rested some time by it and when we moved on some of the advocates of the eight or ten mile a day system very unwillingly followed the party. We fell in with a native path which wound up through a thick scrub in pleasing sinuosities, and emerged upon a tableland similar to the one we had traversed this morning.

THE CHAPMAN RIVER.

I now followed a course of 169 degrees, and after walking three miles more we arrived at the edge of a valley of the same character as that wherein the Buller flowed, and through it we had another view of the fertile country to the eastward: into this valley we descended and, finding a watercourse running through it with water in pools, I seated myself with such of the party as were up, about half a quarter of a mile from the Mount Fairfax of Captain King, and named this stream the Chapman.

SEARCH FOR A MISSING MAN.

Mr. Walker now came up with the remainder of the party and reported that Stiles was missing. As he could have no difficulty in finding us I merely took the precaution to make the men sit in such positions that he could distinguish us from the summit of the opposite cliffs when he arrived there, and we patiently awaited that moment. Time however wore on, and some of the men finding a species of geranium with a root not unlike a very small and tough parsnip, we prepared and ate several messes of this plant. At length, no signs of Stiles having been seen, I sent Mr. Walker, Corporal Auger, and Kaiber to the top of the cliffs we had descended to try if they could discern anything of him or his tracks. During their absence I expressed, in the hearing of some of the men, my anxiety lest he should have lingered behind and have fallen in with the natives; upon which they smiled and said that "Tom Stiles was a man who did not care about the natives; and that only that morning he had said he didn't mind for all the natives in the island, d--- them;" and that they thought he had stopped behind on purpose.

GATHERING OF NATIVES. SCENE WITH NATIVES.

The absence of Mr. Walker and his party continued much longer than I expected, and just at the moment that I had become rather alarmed about it Coles reported to me that he saw natives on the opposite cliff, jumping about and running up and down brandishing their spears in the manner they do before and after a fight. Coles was at this time posted as sentry on a terrace just above where we were, and the ascent to which was very difficult. I got up on this as fast as I could; it was only two or three yards broad and ran apparently along the whole length of the valley. The natives used it as a path, and a very steep hill rose behind it. I could not however make out the natives, and as the opposite cliffs were a long way off I thought that Coles might have been mistaken. When I told him this he merely said "Look there, then, Sir," and pointed to the top of Mount Fairfax, distant about 400 yards due north of us, and sure enough there were a party of natives, well armed and going through a variety of ceremonies which the experience of centuries had proved to be highly efficacious in getting rid of evil spirits. In the present instance however their wonted efficacy failed, but the natives appeared every moment to be getting more vehement in their gestures.

Our situation by no means pleased me: Stiles and a separate party of our own men had mysteriously disappeared in the direction where Coles had first seen the natives, by whom we were in a manner surrounded, and that in an abominable position, for they could steal amongst the underwood close above us in our rear, and annoy us with missiles of all sorts; whilst from the extent and thickness of the scrub it was impossible to occupy it effectually against treacherous (or rather, bold and skilful) enemies. On the other hand I could not quit my present position and occupy a more favourable one, for, in the event of Mr. Walker and Corporal Auger being pressed by the natives and retreating on us, it was our duty to be at that spot where they would calculate on finding us and an effectual assistance. I made therefore the best disposition of my little force I could, and, occupying the centre of the party, I had the satisfaction of seeing our wild friends on Mount Fairfax, blowing strongly at us and capering more furiously than ever when they beheld our unaccountable manoeuvres.

THEIR MANOEUVRES.

It was fortunate that poor Kaiber was absent, for so fearful an exhibition of sorcery would have altogether upset his nerves; but the British soldiers and sailors I had with me remained surprisingly calm; whilst the natives, having exhibited their antics for a few minutes more, suddenly withdrew in a hurried manner. I therefore made up my mind for a surprise, and we anxiously waited to see from what quarter the attack would come.

CONTINUATION OF SEARCH FOR THE MISSING MAN. RETURN OF PARTY FROM SEARCH.

The cause of their disappearance was however soon explained. Mr. Walker, Corporal Auger, and Kaiber came winding down the hills under Mount Fairfax, and gave the following account of their proceedings: On ascending the cliffs opposite to us they had found Stiles's tracks, and had followed them until they reached the sea beach; on passing the stream on their way there they found a place where he had halted and made up all his flour into dampers; but on coming out on the shore they saw a large party of natives seated on the sandhills in front, whilst others were fishing in the sea at this point; and the tracks of Stiles turned off into the interior: this hero, who wished to encounter all the natives of the island single-handed, had evidently fled from them. Mr. Walker had been unable to follow his tracks any further and had therefore thought it most prudent to return to the main party.

From the circumstances of Stiles having thrown away part of his clothes, and having made such a large quantity of dough to bake into dampers at the first convenient opportunity, together with various expressions he had dropped in the presence of the men, there could be no doubt but that he had purposely quitted the party; yet to abandon him to his fate amongst natives, who were by no means friendly in their gestures and appearance, required a degree of resolution I was unprepared at that moment to exercise. To leave him without a search was to sacrifice one life, to allow one man to perish, whilst occupying one or two days in looking for him would merely increase the temporary sufferings of the rest; whilst the loss of time would probably occasion no other bad result than a little more personal privation; and this, in order to try to save the life of a fellow-creature, I conceived it to be my own duty and that of the rest of the party to undergo. Influenced by these reasons I desired all hands to prepare to start in search of Stiles.

Strange however to say, my resolution was scarcely made known ere much grumbling arose; and this chiefly amongst those men who had lately been loudest in their praises of the system of only marching a few miles a day and occasionally halting for a day or two where we could get native roots to eat, in fact, amongst those whose foolish ideas had led Stiles to desert the party. We however moved on in the direction of the spot where Kaiber had lost the tracks, and on our way over the high ground we met a native with his spear and a handful of fish; he was lost in thought and we were close to him before he saw us: when he did so he took no notice whatever of us, but without even quickening his pace continued in his original line of direction, which crossed ours obliquely. As he evidently did not wish to communicate with us I directed the men not to take the least notice of him, and thus we passed one another. He must have been a very brave fellow to act so coolly as he did when an array so strange to him met his eye.

ANOTHER PARTY OF NATIVES.

On arriving at the beach to the south of a bay or harbour,* which the pressure of circumstances precluded me from examining, we could find nothing of Stiles's tracks: he appeared to have gone off due east in the hope of crossing our route, but, being in advance of us, and consequently not finding our traces, it was impossible to say in which direction he might have turned. The natives now mustered a very large force and occupied the high hills (almost cliffs) which lay a few hundred yards to our left, and, as they had such an advantageous position and could at any moment surprise us amongst the low sandhills where we were searching for Stiles's footsteps, our situation was one of great danger. At length, finding it impossible to keep the men steady, I moved them up to the higher ground, where we could have met the natives upon a footing of equality. They appeared, although very numerous, to be now by no means hostile, merely standing on a high hill, watching us and calling out "Yoongar kaw," or "Oh, people!" whilst Kaiber, who knew nothing of their vile magical practices, and therefore regarded them as mere ordinary flesh and blood, was very ready to communicate with them; but as they made no other advances, I thought it better merely to remain near them for the night, occasionally firing a gun in hopes Stiles might hear it, and with this intention I selected a spot for our encampment.

(*Footnote. For a further description of this harbour, which has been since denominated Port Grey, see the account of the schooner Champion's Expedition in the 6th chapter.)

April 8.

We started very early this morning and Kaiber exerted himself to the utmost to find Stiles's traces. At the end of three miles, on a course of 180 degrees, we descended from the elevated scrubby plains we had been moving along to the lowlands, and on reaching this came upon the bed of a small watercourse. I here halted the party; and as it was uncertain when we might again fall in with water I commenced a search for it with Kaiber, but after travelling rapidly over a good deal of ground without seeing either water or any traces of Stiles we rejoined the party very much fatigued.

THE MAN FOUND.

For the next two and a half miles we wound along low, grassy, swampy plains, thinly wooded with clumps of Acacias, and then entered upon low scrubby plains bounding the sea-shore. I here caught sight of Stiles just ahead of us and coming in from the eastward: he was very glad once more to find himself in safety; and his comrades seemed pleased to see him again, although many a suppressed murmur had met my ears during our morning's walk at the trouble I was taking to look for him.

THE GREENOUGH RIVER.

Four miles further over similar plains in a south by east direction brought us to a river, about five-and-twenty yards wide, which I named the Greenough; and travelling up it a short distance we found a spot where we could cross by stepping from rock to rock. Its waters were quite salt. I continued our route for about three miles, when I found it was impossible to induce some of the men to walk any further; they laid sullenly down and were so fully convinced that I was pursuing a wrong system in marching so far in a day, and never halting for two or three days to refresh, as they wished, that I could do nothing with them, and was therefore forced to sit down too. Corporal Auger soon afterwards found water near us, and I moved the party down to it.

Finding water in some degree revived their spirits and I contrived to get them to proceed seven miles more before nightfall, the way being over sandy open plains very favourable for walking.

MORE NATIVE HUTS.

We passed a large assemblage of native huts of the same permanent character as those I have before mentioned: there were two groups of those houses close together in a sequestered nook in a wood, which taken collectively would have contained at least a hundred and fifty natives. We halted for the night in the dry bed of a watercourse, abounding in grass, so that we again enjoyed the luxury of a soft bed. At first I thought that we were near natives from hearing a plaintive cry like that of a child, but Kaiber assured me that it was the cry of the young of the wild turkey.

CROSS THE HEADS OF TWO BAYS.

In the course of this day we travelled across the heads of two bays, which were indistinctly visible through the woods.

FERTILE VALLEY.

April 9.

The first three miles of our route this day lay over sandy scrubby plains; we saw however a good country to the eastward. I found that a man of the name of Charley Woods was much knocked up; he was a supporter of the eight or nine miles a day system, and had a very heavy load with no portion of which could I induce him to part; he however insisted on sitting down every half mile and detaining the party, and as I found that they got more worn out and weaker, and the impression in favour of long rests and short marches became much stronger, I thought it more prudent to acquiesce for the present.

We now reached a very thick belt of trees, pushing through which was a task of great difficulty, but at length we emerged upon some clear hills overlooking a very extensive and fertile valley, from which arose so dense a fog that portions of it appeared to be a large lake. Into this valley we descended, and the remainder of the day until near noon was spent by me in endeavouring to get the men to move.

THE IRWIN RIVER. AUSTRALIND.

We this morning for the first time met with Zamia trees, and about 12 P.M. came down upon the large sandy bed of a dried up river which I named the Irwin after my friend Major Irwin, the Commandant at Swan River; following this for half a mile we found a native well, dug to a considerable depth in the bed, but all our scraping here was vain. Water was found at a great depth, but so shallow that we could not dip it up. Some of the men saw four native boys playing in the grassy plains near us; directly however the little fellows perceived us, they scampered off at their utmost speed, and no doubt ever since that period they have been firm believers in the existence of ghosts.

The men now began to complain much of the want of water, and I for some time followed the traces of these native boys, who had come from the southward and eastward, in the hope that their tracks would lead us to it, but the grumbling and discontent of some of the men was so great that I found it almost impossible to induce them to move. My object was to get them to walk to a high peaked hill distant about five miles from us in a due south-east direction, and under which I felt certain, from its height, that we should find water, but I was obliged at last to give up this idea: Charles Woods would not stir at all, and several of the men followed his example; they laid down on the ground and no inducement could prevail on them either to move or to abandon a portion of their loads; and this obstinacy on their part was accompanied in some instances with the most blasphemous and horrid expressions. Indeed I could not conceal from myself the fact of its being the general impression that my mode of proceeding was "killing the men," and that consequently some of them had arrived at the resolution of compelling me by their conduct to adopt their favourite system of short marches and long halts. But I was still aware of the disastrous consequences which must necessarily result from such a mode of proceeding, and determined to have nothing to do with it.

In the course of the afternoon I managed to get the party to move about a mile and a half in an easterly direction, but they here again sat down and could neither be induced to walk or to part with their bundles.

SEARCH FOR WATER.

As they had not tasted water today I selected the best walkers, namely, Corporals Auger and Coles, Hackney, Henry Woods, and Kaiber, and went off to look for some to bring to the rest. We were now on a well-beaten native path which traversed a fertile tract of country, and along this we continued our route, walking as rapidly as we could, for night was coming on apace. From this path we made frequent divergencies but found no water; in one instance we met with a native well of great depth, where a party of them had been drinking a few days before, but it was now quite dry.

FIND IT AT WATER PEAK. WATER PEAK HILL.

We therefore continued our search, and just as it was growing dark had made about seven miles of a circuitous course and found ourselves at the foot of the high-peaked hill seen this morning, named by me Water Peak. I still hurried along the native path, and was so wrapped up in the thoughts of our present position that I passed, without seeing it, a beautiful spring that rose to within a few inches of the surface. Near this the natives had built a small hut, covered with boughs, concealed in which they might kill the birds and animals which came to drink at this lone water; the keen eye of Coles in a moment detected the little pool, and our thirst was soon assuaged.

For a few minutes we lay on the bank of this clear spring, resting our wearied limbs and admiring the scenery around us. There is a something in the wild luxuriance of a totally new and uncultivated country which words cannot convey to the inhabitant of an old and civilized land, the rich and graceful forms of the trees, the massy moss-grown trunks which cumber the soil, the tree half uptorn by some furious gale and still remaining in the falling posture in which the winds have left it, the drooping disorder of dead and dying branches, the mingling of rich grasses and useless weeds, all declare that here man knows not the luxuries the soil can yield him: it was over such a scene, rendered still more lovely by the falling shadows of night, that our eyes now wandered.

BENIGHTED IN RETURNING TO THE PARTY.

I roused the men again and we commenced our return to the party, loaded with a supply of water. It was now dark and we soon wandered from the path. Kaiber took a star for his guide and led us straight across the country; but our route lay through a warran ground, full of holes, and in the darkness of the night we every now and then had a tremendous tumble, so that at the end of about four miles I thought that it would be imprudent to proceed farther, as we every moment were in danger of breaking a limb or seriously injuring ourselves. I therefore halted for the night, and as we were unable to light a fire both on account of the heavy dew and of having no proper materials with us, the first portion of it passed wretchedly enough, indeed, weary as I was, I found it necessary to walk about in order to preserve some slight degree of warmth in my frame.

At length however the men, who were much too cold to sleep, got up and, renewing their efforts, succeeded in kindling a blaze. Kaiber soon collected plenty of wood, and as I was unable to sleep I passed the night in meditating on our present state.

POSITION AND PROSPECTS.

I felt sure that if the men persisted in their resolution of moving slowly a lingering and dreadful death awaited us all; yet my opinion was a solitary one. Mr. Walker had in many instances plainly and publicly shown that he on this point differed with me; and he was a medical man, and one who certainly never shrank from any danger or toil which he thought it his duty to encounter. The most therefore I could say against those who were opposed to my system of moving was that I conceived them to be guilty of a grievous error in judgment; but it was not until our separate opinions had been tested by the future that it could be definitely pronounced who was right. Nevertheless those who have been much with men compelled to make long marches cannot fail to have remarked how readily and foolishly they find excuses to enable them to obtain a halt, and such persons would probably have agreed with me in suspecting that natural indolence of disposition, strengthened by fatigue and privation, might induce men to adopt, without a very strict investigation, any opinion falling in with their immediate feelings of feebleness.

Being firmly convinced that these men intended to pursue a plan of operations which would entail great misery both upon themselves and the others, I considered that I ought undoubtedly to endeavour to save them from the danger which I foresaw impending over them; and this could only be accomplished by my making forced marches to Perth and sending out supplies to meet them before they were reduced to the last extremities. Had I foreseen a week ago that I should be compelled eventually to adopt such a step I would then have taken with me all such as were willing to march and have left the others; but this time had passed. My movement to Perth must now be accomplished with the greatest expedition or it would be useless; and to take anyone with me who was so much reduced as to have delayed, impeded, or perhaps altogether to have arrested our progress, would have sacrificed the lives of all.