Part 25 (1/2)
A new route
A good Mussul
New places
Antediluvian cisterns
Still ards
Lake Bring
Rain and a bath
A line cut in the scrubs
High sandhills
Return to Youldeh
Waking dreams
In depot
Fowler's Bay once more
The officers explore to the north
Jimmy and Tommy
Jimmy's bereavement
At the bay
Richard Dorey
Return to Youldeh
Tommy's father
The officer's report Northwards
Remarks
Sir Thomas Elder was desirous that the new expedition for Perth, for which camels were to be the only animals taken, should start from Beltana by the 1st of May I was detained a few days beyond that time, but was enabled to leave on Thursday, May the 6th The members of the party were six in number, namely myself, Mr William Henry Tietkens, who had been with me as second on my last expedition with horses--he had been secured fro as second; Mr Jess Young, a young friend of Sir Tholand; Alexander Ross, mentioned previously; Peter Nicholls, who had just come with me frohan camel-driver as they like to be called I also took for a short distance, until Alec Ross overtook uide Jimmy, as to return to the bosom of his fahbourhood of his country Poor old Jireatly from colds and influenza
The Beltana blacks did not treat him so well as he expected, and so his nose into their country, consequently he did not like the place at all, and was lad to be taken away Thus, as I have said, on the 6th of May, 1875, the caravan departed from Beltana, but we did not immediately leave civilisation or the settled districts, as I had to travel 150 usta at the head of Spencer's Gulf, where I intended to take in e, as most of my equipment was forwarded by Sir Tho very particular occurred on the road down, except soee, on account of the extraordinary and absurd manner in which these two men wanted to load and work the ca camels or colts in the hans have a hen travelling of bringing the ca theht, whether they have had ti to my notions of fair play that I deter that annoyed , and unhobbling, while the ca down This may be necessary for the first few days after the creatures are handled, but if they are never accustos and feet touched while they are standing up, of course theyhorse; and if a camel is a striker, he is rather an aard kind of a brute, but that is only the case with one in a thousand The Afghans not only persist in hobbling and unhobbling while the ca the hobbles entirely off at all, as they unfasten the hobble fro and put both on the other, so that the poor brutes always have to carry the I quickly put a stop to this, but Coogee Mahomet exclaimed, ”Oh, master! you mustn't take off a hobble, camel he keek, he keek, you mustn't” To which I replied, ”Let him kick, and I hope he will kick you to death first, so that there will be one Afghan less in the world, but every hobble shall co though lazy, indolent beggar He never ceased to brag of what he could ratiate himself with me in the hope I would take him with me, but I had already determined to have only one of his countrymen
He said if he cao 200, 300, 400 or 500to thee He used to say, ”You know, master, cauage, he no like English ca camel, only my country about the ca without water, e had been only four days gone froee had held a council and decided that I norance, stupidity, and reckless treat, the weather having been delightfully cool and the caee came to me and said, ”Master, when you water caned astonish, they will get no water until they reach Port Augusta” This coee, and he replied, ”What! no water till Port Gusta? caet water three, four tiee, they will get none noith ee said, ”Ah! Mr Gile, you very smart master, you very clever man, only you don't know camel, you'll see you'll kill all Sir Thoet Perth, you and all you party, and all you caive poor camel water, camel he die, then where you be?” I was rather annoyed and said, ”You stupid ass, it was only yesterday you said you could take camels, 300, 400, 500 miles without water, with heavy loads, and now they have no loads and we have only coive the of what camels can do, and yet, when they have been only three days without water, you begin to cry out that they want it?”
To this he only condescended to reply, ”Ah! ah! you very clever, you'll see” Of course the camels went to the port just as ithout water as with it Alec Ross overtook us on the road, and brought a special little riding-caee before we arrived at the port We reed and all the ca Saleh and another of his countryman who happened to be there, worked hard at this, while the rest of the party arranged the loads
While at Port Augusta, Mr Charles Roberts, who had been with me, and hom I left all the horses at Youldeh, arrived, by the usual road and broughtblack boy, Master Tommy Oldham, hom I had travelled to Eucla from Fowler's Bay with the three horses that had died on my journey to Beltana He was very sorry to hear of the loss of Chester and For-horse Old Jihted to reat acquisition to the party, he was a very nice little chap, and soon becath ready, the equipment of the expedition was most excellent and capable Sir Thoe pairs of leather bags, one to be slung on each side of a camel; all our minor, breakable, and perishable articles were thus secure fros I had wooden boxes at the bottolass, etc, were safe At starting the loads were rather heavy, the lightest-weighted cas of flour, cased in raw-hide covers, the two bags weighing about 450 pounds, and a large tarpaulin about 60 pounds on top, or a couple of eear, which did not require to be placed inside the leather bags The way the cahan ca to persons accustos of flour are carried as perpendicularly as possible As a general rule, it struck ed the loads was absurd, as the whole weight comes down on the unfortunate anis nor trunks, but tie up alhan, Saleh, was horrified at the fearful innovations I s with broad straps to sustain theh and fasten in the ordinary way of buckle and strap; this had the effect of s and trunks lie as horizontally as possible along the sides of the pads of the pack-saddles Saleh still wanted to encumber the about a thousand knots I would not permit such a violation of my ideas, and told hiround; his arguee Mahomet, ”Camel he can't carry them that way,” to which I invariably replied, ”Camel he must and camel he shall,” and the consequence was that causta, I had fifteen pack- or baggage-ca ones The two blacks, Jimmy and To-cae-caed 550 pounds all round
All the equip in a proper state, and all theready, we left Port Augusta on the 23rd of May, 1875, but only travelled about six miles, nearly west-north-west, to a place called Bowman's or the Chinaood bushes for the caht A few ducks which incautiously floated too near fell victi day we passed Mr Bowot a fat sheep from one of his paddocks On the 25th we encahbourhood of Euro Bluff, a hill that exists near the south-western extremity of Lake Torrens;travelled about north-north-west up Lake Torrens, upon the opposite or western side to that on which we had lately travelled down, to Port Augusta, as I wished to reach a watercourse (the Elizabeth), where I heard there ater On the 28th of May we encamped on the banks of Pernatty Creek, where we obtained a feild ducks; the country here was very good, being open salt-bush country The nextwe met and passed a Government Survey party, under the coonometrical survey In an hour or two after, we passed Mr Bowman's Pernatty cattle-station; there was no one at ho, and the appearance of the camels seemed to strike him dumb There were some nice little sheets of water in the creek-bed, but scarcely large enough to be per low, flat-topped, tent-shaped table-lands occurring at intervals all over it; it was quite open, and no timber existed except upon the banks of the watercourses
On the 30th of May we reached the Elizabeth; there was an old hut or two, but no people were now living there The water was at a very low ebb We got a few ducks the first day we arrived As some work had to be done to the water-casks to enable us to carry them better, we remained here until the 2nd of June The Elizabeth comes from the table-lands near the shores of Lake Torrens to the north-eastward and falls into the northern end of Pernatty Lagoon Here ere al 31 degrees 10' 30”