Volume I Part 1 (1/2)
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia.
by Thomas Mitch.e.l.l.
VOLUME 1.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
The following Journals were written at the close of many a laborious day, when the energies both of mind and body were almost exhausted by long-continued toil. The author trusts that this circ.u.mstance will account for, and palliate, some of the defects which may be discovered in his volumes. Conscious as he is of the deficiencies of his work, he nevertheless hopes that the reader will not p.r.o.nounce it to be wholly devoid of interest. Though Australia calls up no historical recollections, no cla.s.sical a.s.sociations of ideas, it has other, and not less valid t.i.tles to our attention. It is a new and vast country, over the largest portion of which a veil of mystery still hangs; many of its productions vary in a singular manner, from those in other parts of the world; within the memory of man one British colony has risen there, in spite of adverse circ.u.mstances, to a high degree of prosperity; others have been founded, which promise to be equally successful; and it seems impossible to doubt that, at no distant period, the whole territory will be inhabited by a powerful people, speaking the English language, diffusing around them English civilisation and arts, and exercising a predominant influence over eastern Asia, and the numerous and extensive islands in that quarter of the globe.
In his expeditions into the interior of Australia, the author was led cheerfully on, by an eager curiosity to examine a country which is yet in the same state as when it was formed by its Maker. With respect to the narrative of those expeditions, the sole merit which he claims is that of having faithfully described what he attentively observed; neither his pencil nor his pen has been allowed to pa.s.s the bounds of truth. There is however one branch of his subject on which justice and grat.i.tude render it necessary for him to say something more. In those departments of natural history, to which he owns himself a stranger, he has received a.s.sistance of the utmost value from several distinguished persons. To the few plants which, after his unfortunate fellow traveller had sacrificed his life to the pursuit, the writer was able to collect, a permanent place in the botanic system has been given by Dr. Lindley. Much importance has been added to the work, by the researches and discoveries which Professor Owen has made, with regard to the fossil remains; and the few particulars gleaned relative to existing animals have enabled Mr.
Ogilby to introduce several interesting novelties to the attention of zoologists. To these gentlemen, and also to Professor Faraday, Mr.
MacLeay, and other scientific friends, the warmest acknowledgments of the writer are due, for whatever naturalists may deem worthy of praise in these pages.
The aid thus liberally afforded, acting in unison with a feeling that, as the surveys were undertaken by order of Government, it is his duty to lay the result of them early before the public, has encouraged the author to persevere steadily in bringing out these volumes; though he must candidly own that, but for these considerations, he would rather have delayed the performance of this task till he had completed another,* of a national character, which, connected as it is with the days of his early service in the cause of his country, may naturally be supposed to have stronger and more attractive claims upon him.
August 18, 1838.
(*Footnote. Plans of the Fields of Battle in the Peninsula.)
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD GLENELG, HER MAJESTY'S PRINc.i.p.aL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES, ETC. ETC. ETC.
THIS WORK IS WITH PERMISSION DEDICATED BY HIS LORDs.h.i.+P'S VERY OBEDIENT AND MOST HUMBLE SERVANT,
T.L. MITCh.e.l.l.
BUSHRANGER'S STORY.
The journey northward in 1831 originated in one of those fabulous tales which occasionally become current in the colony of New South Wales, respecting the interior country, still unexplored.
A runaway convict named George Clarke, alias The Barber, had, for a length of time escaped the vigilance of the police by disguising himself as an aboriginal native. He had even accustomed himself to the wretched life of that unfortunate race of men; he was deeply scarified like them and naked and painted black, he went about with a tribe, being usually attended by two aboriginal females, and having acquired some knowledge of their language and customs.
But this degenerate white man was not content with the solitary freedom of the savage life and his escape from a state of servitude. He had a.s.sumed the cloak and colour of the savage that he might approach the dwellings of the colonists, and steal with less danger of detection. In conjunction with the simple aborigines whom he misled, and with several other runaway convicts he had organised a system of cattle stealing, which was coming into extensive operation on Liverpool plains when, through the aid of some of the natives, who have in general a.s.sisted the detection of bushrangers, he was at length discovered and captured by the police.
After this man was taken into custody, he gave a circ.u.mstantial detail of his travels to the north-west along the bank of a large river, named, as he said, the Kindur; by following which in a south-west direction he had twice reached the seash.o.r.e. He described the tribes inhabiting the banks of the Kindur and gave the names of their chiefs. He said that he had first crossed vast plains named Balyran, and, on approaching the sea, he had seen a burning mountain named Courada. He described, with great apparent accuracy, the courses of the known streams of the northern interior which united, as he stated, in the Namoi, a river first mentioned by him; and, according to his testimony, Peel's river entered the Namoi by flowing westward from where Mr. Oxley had crossed it.
Now this was contrary to the course a.s.signed to the Peel in the maps by early travellers, but consistent nevertheless with more recent surveys.
Vague accounts of a great river beyond Liverpool plains, flowing north-west, were current about the time General Darling embarked for England. The attention of the acting governor, Colonel Lindesay, was particularly drawn to the question by this report of Clarke, and also by the subsequent proposals of various persons, to conduct any expedition sent in search of the great river.
PLAN OF EXPLORATION.
There are few undertakings more attractive to the votaries of fame or lovers of adventure than the exploration of unknown regions; but Sir Patrick Lindesay, with due regard to the responsibility which my office seemed to impose upon me, as successor to Mr. Oxley, at once accepted my proffered services to conduct a party into the interior.
The princ.i.p.al object of my plan was the exploration of Australia, so that whether the report of the river proved true or false, the results of the expedition would be, at least, useful in affording so much additional information; equally important geographically, whether positive or negative.
After I had surveyed extensive tracts of territory I never could separate the question respecting the course of any river from that of the situation of the higher land necessary to furnish its sources and confine its basin. I could not entertain the idea of a river distinct from these conditions, so necessary to the existence of one; and it appeared to me that if a large river flowed to the north-west of any point north of Liverpool plains its sources could only be sought for in the Coast Range in the opposite direction; or to the eastward of these plains.