Volume Ii Part 9 (1/2)

The rain continued throughout the day.

June 21 and 22.

The rain still continued. Two of our horses were found bogged in a creek near the camp, but were soon released without injury; they had strayed into the creek to eat the aquatic gra.s.s, which is plentiful on almost all the creeks between the swamps and the sea. The soil here was rather stiffer than we had found it before, being a light sandy loam, and in places clayey. There were not so many sh.e.l.ls to be seen, and what there were, were princ.i.p.ally bivalves.

Mr. Kennedy returned this evening, and having again found it impossible to cross the swamps, we were obliged to return to the beach, where the travelling was far better than among the trees. While travelling inland a man was always obliged to walk before the carts, to cut down small trees.

At this time we had only two meals per day; breakfast at daylight, and dinner when we had completed our day's work, and camped. The time for dinner was therefore irregular, depending on the nature of the country over which we travelled. Some days we dined at one o'clock, on others not till dark. Whenever any birds were shot, they were boiled for supper; but as yet we had killed very few.

Mr. Kennedy appeared to be, in every respect, admirably fitted for the leader of an expedition of this character. Although he had innumerable difficulties and hards.h.i.+ps to contend with, he always appeared cheerful, and in good spirits. Travelling through such a country as we were in, such a disposition was essential to the success of the expedition. He was always diverting the minds of his followers from the obstacles we daily encountered, and encouraging them to hope for better success; careful in all his observations and calculations, as to the position of his camp, and cautious not to plunge into difficulties, without personal observation of the country, to enable him to take the safest path. But having decided, he pursued his deliberate determination with steady perseverance, sharing in the labour of cutting through the scrub, and all the hara.s.sment attendant on travelling through such a wilderness, with as much (or greater) alacrity and zeal as any of his followers. It was often grievous to me to hear some of the party observe, after we had pa.s.sed over some difficult tract, that a better road might have been found, a little to the right or to the left. Such observations were the most unjust and vexatious, as in all matters of difficulty and of opinion, he would invariably listen to the advice of all, and if he thought it prudent, take it. For my own part, I can safely say, that I was always ready to obey his orders, and conform to his directions, confident as I then was of his abilities to lead us to the place of our destination as speedily as possible.

June 23.

We started early this morning, and proceeded along the beach till we came to a small river, which was narrow and shallow, but the bottom being muddy, and it being low-water, we diverged towards the sea, where the sand was firmer, and there crossed it with little difficulty, without unloading the packhorses or carts. The tide runs but a short distance up this river, and as far as the tide goes it is fringed with a belt of mangroves. The banks are muddy, and so soft that a man sinks up to his knees in walking along them. A little above the mangroves the river divides into several small creeks, in swampy ground, covered with small melaleucas so thickly, that although they are not at all bushy below, but have straight trunks of from three to five inches in diameter, and from ten to twenty feet high, a man can scarcely walk between them.

After crossing this river we again turned inland for a short distance, and camped by the side of a small river south of the last; with steep gra.s.sy banks on the north side, overhung by Tristanias and arborescent Callistemons. On the south side grew mangroves, and the large blue-flowered Ruellia seen at our first camp. The tide ran up to our camp, the fresh water coming from the north-west. There were plenty of waterholes in the valley, between the river and the higher sandy ground.

The gra.s.s here consisted princ.i.p.ally of Agrostis, near the river, where the land is occasionally inundated, and of Uniola, a little further back, growing in tufts. On the sandy ridges, however, there was little else than Xanthorrhoea, Xerotes, and Restio (rope gra.s.s). Here we saw a great many native companions (Grus antigone), and swamp pheasants (Centropus phasia.n.u.s).

June 24.

Mr. Kennedy and a party of five men again proceeded to examine the swamps, but returned without finding any practicable way of crossing.

June 25.

We started early this morning, proceeding towards the beach in a southerly direction, the river turning again south by west, and camped after travelling over five or six miles of rotten and rather sandy ground.

June 26.

We proceeded along the beach till we came to a small river, most probably the same we left yesterday, which we attempted to cross in the same manner as we had done the one on the 23rd, but unfortunately the horses and carts sank so deeply into the mud that they were completely set fast.

We were now obliged to unload, and carry the goods ash.o.r.e. Some of the flour-bags fell into the water, but were quickly taken out--very little damaged. We had great difficulty in getting the carts out of the mud.

A number of natives had accompanied us all day, and pointed out to us the best place to cross the river. Some of them also a.s.sisted us in carrying our things across, while one or two attempted petty thefts. I caught one with two straps belonging to a saddle, and a pair of Mr. Kennedy's spurs in his basket, which I took from him and sent him away. Many of these natives were painted all over with a sort of red earth, but none of them had visited us armed with spears for several days past. Some of them had learned to address several of our party by name, and seemed pleased when they received an answer. We frequently made them small presents, and endeavoured to impress upon them the anxiety we felt to remain on friendly terms with them.

After having crossed the river we turned inland; cutting our way through a belt of mangrove scrub, about half a mile wide; we got the carts through with comparative ease, the ground being harder than usual. We camped on a rising ground, with good gra.s.s around us, by the side of a small creek running here almost parallel with the beach, and coming from the westward. At this camp I obtained seeds of a dwarf spreading tree, with alternate, exstipulate, pinnate leaves, and axillary racemes of a round flattened fruit, similar in size and shape to the small blue fig cultivated in gardens, of a dark purple colour, and possessing a flavour similar to an Orleans plum when hardly ripe, with a hard rough stone inside.

June 27.

We proceeded about five miles in a westerly direction, pa.s.sing over two small creeks running to the south-east. The country here appeared to be gradually rising, and the land to be growing drier; and we now hoped to be enabled to prosecute our journey without any great obstruction from the swamps.

June 28.

Proceeding on the same course as on the previous day, we crossed two small creeks, running rapidly to the eastward. The bottoms of these creeks were covered with granite pebbles, of various sizes. The first creek we crossed at the entrance, and the other near the middle of a thick scrub, extending nearly three miles, and through which we had to cut a road. The various plants of which this scrub was composed corresponded with those described as forming the scrub near our first camp in the Bay. The greatest obstacles to our progress through these scrubs were the long shoots of the Flagellaria, and climbing palm. We camped in an open patch of forest land, covered with gra.s.s, and the trees consisted princ.i.p.ally of Moreton Bay ash, (a species of eucalyptus), Casuarina, and a rather large-growing Acacia, with broad, rhomboidal, sericeous phyllodia, and very broad, flat legumes.

Luff and Douglas were this day taken very ill with the ague.

June 29.

We found that some of our horses had strayed into the scrub, and we did not succeed in finding them until nearly twelve o'clock, and Luff and Douglas being no better, Mr. Kennedy with three others proceeded to examine the country in advance of us.

June 30.