Part 13 (2/2)
Giles says: ”Ludwig Leichhardt was a surgeon and botanist, who successfully conducted an expedition froton, on the northern coast A military and penal settleton by the Government of New South Wales, to which colony the whole territory then belonged At this settlehteen months' travel--Leichhardt and his exhausted party arrived
”Of Leichhardt's sad fate, in the interior of Australia, no certain tidings have ever been heard I, who have wandered into and returned alive froions he attempted and died to explore, have unfortunately never cole record, nor any remains or traces of the party”
Leichhardt started on his last sad venture with a party of eight, including one or two native black-boys They had with them about twenty head of bullocks broken in to carry pack loads ”My first and second expeditions,” says Giles, ”were conducted entirely with horses, but in all subsequent journeys I was accompanied by camels” His object, like that of Leichhardt, was to force his way across the thousand miles of country that lay untrodden and unknown between the Australian telegraph line and the settlements upon the Swan River And Giles remarks that the exploration of 1000 miles in Australia is equal to at least 10,000 miles on any other part of the earth's surface--always excepting the Poles
I continued residing on the shores of the lagoon in the hope that et better, when I proposed continuing my journey north I was still quite unable to understand his babblings, although he was for everthe names of persons and places unknown toparty He never asked et into serious trouble with the natives, being privileged He never developed any dangerous vices, but was simply childlike and imbecile
Gradually I had noticed that, instead of beco away He was constantly troubled with acomplaint, and in addition to this he would be seized with fits of depression, when he would re out I always kneas the matter with hio in to try and cheer him up, but usually it was a hopeless effort on iven hi person seemed to consider him quite an ordinary specimen of the white man Indeed, she was vastly flattered, rather than otherwise, by the attentions lavished upon her husband by her people One reason for this treated person to be related in any way to one whoarded as almost a demi-God She looked after hi soo to her hut, and there lay the er apparently stretched out for dead I soon realised that he was in a fit of some kind
I now approach the momentous tiained consciousness after the fit Yamba and I ith him, and so was his wife I had not seen hie that had taken place He was ghastly pale and very ained consciousness--I can see the picture now; yes, ere all around his fragrant couch of eucalyptus leaves, waiting for hiazed at ely, and _I kneas looking at a sane white er and tre and strange story of how I had found hi with me nearly two years I pointed out to hi walks and brought him back safely, and who had so frequently driven away from him deadly snakes, and warned him when it was time to turn back I told him he was in the centre of Australia; and then I told in brief my own extraordinary story
I sent Yamba to our shelter for the letter I had found in his tracks, and read it aloud to him He never told me who the writer of it was He listened to all I had to tell hiave place to one of weariness--the weariness of utter weakness He asked me to carry hi down beside hi up another conversation _He then told me his name was Gibson_, _and that he had been a member of the Giles Expedition of_ 1874 Froht or day He told me much about that expedition which I can never reveal, for I do not knohether he was lying or raving Poor, vulgar, cockney Gibson! He seeht seemed to please him rather than otherwise He appeared to me to be too tired, too weary to live--that was the predominant sy we possibly could to cheer hiradually sank lower and lower I would say, ”Cheer up, Gibson Why, when you are able to ill htway for civilisation I aht as I a man Shortly before the end his eyes assu The thought of his approaching end was to me a relief; it would be untrue if I were to say otherwise For weeks past I had seen that the ht its battle for life, you will readily understand that this poor helpless creature was a terrible burden to ed to keep him clothed For some little tith I was compelled to make him a suit of skins Of course, we had no soap hich to wash his garments, but we used to clean thereasythem out in water Moreover, his feet were so tender that I always had to keep him shod with skin sandals
His deathbed was a dramatic scene--especially under the circumstances
Poor Gibson! To think that he should have escaped death after those fearful waterless days and nights in the desert, to live for two years with a white protector, and yet then die of a wasting and distressing disease!
He spent the whole day in the open air, for he was very ht I carried him back into his hut, and laid hi for hi even before I did, but she could do nothing
We tried the effect of the curious herb called ”pitchori,” but it did not revive him ”Pitchori,” by the way, is a kind of leaf which the natives chew ineffect upon them
On the last day I once s on the floor of Gibson's hut Surrounding hiirl--Yamba, myself, and Bruno--who, by the way, knew perfectly well that his friend was dying He kept licking poor Gibson's hand and chest, and then finding no response would nestle up close to him for half-an-hour at a time Then the affectionate creature would retire outside and set up a series of low, ain with hope renewed
Poor Gibson! The women-folk were particularly attached to him because he never went out with the men, or with me, on e Sometimes, however, he would follow at our heels as faithfully and instinctively as Bruno himself For the past two years Bruno and Gibson had been inseparable, sleeping together at night, and never parting for aIndeed, I am sure Bruno became more attached to Gibson than he was to me And so Gibson did not, as I at one time feared he would, pass away into the Great Beyond, carrying with hi at hi the eucalyptus leaves, pale and emaciated, I knew the end was now very near
I knelt beside hireat effort, he turned towards ?” I listened intently, and at last was compelled to reply that I did not
”Well,” he said, ”I hear soin his ain, but still his eyes did not seeaze I had previously noticed in the steadily at hts, for he s I can hear the me away
They have cohtened up with a slow, sad sht pressure, he whispered almost in my ear, as I bent over him, ”Good-bye, coht shi+ver, and Gibson passed peacefully away
CHAPTER XV
Lost in the desert--Gibson's dying advice--Giles meets Gibson--A fountain in the desert--A terrible fix--Giles regains his camp--Gibson's effects--Mysterious tracks--A treasured possession--A perfect paradise--Grape vines a failure--A trained cockatoo--An extraordinary festival--My theory of the ”ghosts”
After the funeral his wife followed out the usual native conventions She covered herself with pipeclay for about one month She also ashed her head with stone knives, until the blood poured down her face Gibson's body was not buried in the earth, but embalmed with clay and leaves, and laid on a rock-shelf in a cave
The general belief was that Gibson had one back to the Spirit Land froood man, he would return to earth in the forh indeed I must say I never attached very much importance to what he said, even in his sane ence and no culture If I rehtly, he told me that the expedition to which he was attached left Adelaide with the object of going overland to Fre ti ith the party One day, whilst so on their own account, he lost hiht that the sun must have affected his brain even then, because he didn't try to find his coht, but went to sleep quite contentedly under a tree He realised the horror of his position keenly enough the nextfor food or water, in the hope of quickly regaining his friends at the chief caht stole down upon him once more, and he was still a lonely wanderer, half delirious with thirst; the supply he had carried with hi, when he roused hiot lost After this he had only a vague recollection of what happened Proe, unaccountable impulse, he set out on a hopeless search for water, and alking on and on until all recollection faded away, and he re he had been lost when I found hi whatever about his rescue So far as I remember, he was a typical specimen of the Australian pioneer--a man of fine physique, with a full beard and a frank, but unintelligent, countenance He was perhaps five feet nine inches in height, and about thirty years of age When I told him the story of my adventures he was full of earnest sy those regions for civilisation again, my best plan would be to steer more south-east, as it was in that direction that Adelaide lay