Volume II Part 7 (1/2)
(MR. WALKER'S PARTY.)
PARTY SENT IN SEARCH FROM PERTH.
I arrived at Perth on the 21st of April and not a moment was lost in preparing a party to go in search of the men I had left with Mr. Walker, and who, it will be recollected, were instructed to proceed along the coast until they made the Moore River, where a.s.sistance was to be sent out to them from Perth.
SEARCH FOR THE OTHER PARTY.
Accordingly on the 23rd of April Lieutenant Mortimer of the 21st regiment and Mr. Spofforth, with four soldiers, left Perth and arrived on the Moore River in two days; but after traversing its banks in vain for two days more they abandoned all hope of finding those they were in search of there, and pursued a straight course about 25 miles further north, when they fell in with another river where they formed a depot, and detours were made in various directions for several days without any avail.
RETURN WITH CHARLES WOODS.
At length, on one of these excursions, the seaman Charles Woods, one of my party, was found by Mr. Spofforth, lying on the beach, wrapped in his blanket and fast asleep. He soon awoke and was not a little delighted to recognise Mr. Spofforth whom he had seen before at Fremantle. By the account Woods gave it appears that from the period of my departure much disorder and discontent at the direction of their course prevailed among the men. They frequently left the beach and wandered inland to procure water and food, not sufficiently exerting themselves to advance southward. They had succeeded, he said, in procuring upon the whole about a dozen birds, a crab, and eighteen fish. On the 21st of April Mr.
Walker, who had frequently exerted himself in procuring firewood and water for the weaker of the party, divided two dough cakes still remaining in his possession among them all. They were then upon the beach, and though still at a great distance from the appointed place of rendezvous the men were very unwilling to distress themselves to reach it, being persuaded they should be tracked, wherever they might be, by the natives whom I should send to their help. Woods, being dissatisfied with their slow progress, now quitted them at a place where, he says, they had to go round two very deep bays close together, which took him a whole day; and it was owing to his having obeyed my instructions more strictly than the others that he was found by Mr. Spofforth. Woods, who seemed to have a singularly accurate idea of the distance he was from Perth when found, added that he thought he could have walked to it had he not been discovered, although he had nothing to eat but a few native figs; and that he thought the whole of the party were getting more accustomed to native food and were latterly better than they had been at first; he said he felt so himself.
SECOND PARTY IN SEARCH, UNDER MR. ROE.
Lieutenant Mortimer's party, having made every exertion but in vain to find the five remaining persons, were compelled at the end of a fortnight by want of provisions to return to Perth, where they arrived on the 6th of May; and early the next morning the Surveyor-General, Mr. Roe, accompanied by Mr. Spofforth (who again volunteered his services) four men, and two native youths, with five horses, set out in search of those still missing.
ARRIVAL OF MR. WALKER AT PERTH. JOURNAL OF MR. WALKER'S PARTY.
On the 9th of May, two days after the departure of Mr. Roe's party, Mr.
Walker came into Perth alone, and from his statement, together with what was gleaned subsequently from the other men, I shall here briefly narrate what befel them after my departure on the 10th of April.
NARRATIVE OF THEIR PROCEEDINGS FROM WATER PEAK.
On the next day they started at dawn and soon came to a great deal of scrub; this was the belt of thick wood mentioned in my journal. Mr.
Walker says the men, being disheartened at this, they went down to the beach and halted about a mile from it; Water Peak Hill being distant about fifteen miles. Woods said much discontent was caused amongst the men by its being conceived that they were following a bad course; or, according to Ruston's expression, that ”the steering was very bad.”
April 12.
They found a river with pools of water in coa.r.s.e gravel in which they caught here two small fish, and travelled six miles through the scrub along a native path.
April 13.
They started and went down towards the beach. The men cut and cooked some greens but found no water. Travelled twelve or fourteen miles along the beach.
Sunday April 14.
They shot a pigeon, two red-bills, and a hawk. In the afternoon it rained, and they travelled along the beach and got some c.o.c.kles, and found a fine stream of water running out from under the rocks. They then got under the scrub to keep the rain off, having made about eight miles.
April 15.
They again came out on the beach and kept along it. Good travelling. Made a march of nearly twenty miles.
EXTREME DISTRESS FROM HUNGER AND THIRST.
April 16.
They continued on the beach till they came to a good place for fis.h.i.+ng and caught eighteen. Mr. Walker shot a bird. After eating the fish, they were all very thirsty.
April 17.