Volume I Part 28 (2/2)

There were two old men with grey beards who sat silent; and one who maintained a very ceremonious face seemed intent on preserving decorum, for he silenced a boy with a slight blow who had eagerly spoken while I was endeavouring to remind them of the former exploring party. After they had sat a very short time and I had pointed out the direction in which I was proceeding, they arose and went away, and we continued our journey.

After we had advanced a mile or two a deep reach of the Bogan appeared on our right, or northward; and one of the natives, followed by others who remained at some distance behind, came up to tell us there was water. We accordingly gave the cattle some, and then went on, finally encamping on a bit of plain near the Bogan where Oxley's Tableland bore about south-south-east, and having travelled nearly twelve miles. Observed lat.i.tude 33 degrees 3 minutes 29 seconds South.

NAKED PLAINS.

May 24.

The party moved this morning about seven miles towards the west until Oxley's Tableland bore 125 degrees. We travelled chiefly across plains dest.i.tute of gra.s.s; and from which we had good views of that strangely named hill, never seen by Oxley, and in fact, not a tableland.

A NATIVE VISITOR.

A native came after us, bearing a small piece of canvas which had been thrown away at the former camp. He accompanied us during the rest of the day's journey, and I gave him a tomahawk, and a seventh part of my old sword blade. He continued at the camp, and asked for everything he saw, but we took care not to understand him.

SOFT EARTH OF THE PLAINS.

All over these plains the ground was so soft, being quite clear of roots or sward, that the cartwheels sunk very deep in it. The soil nevertheless appeared to be excellent, although it was naked like fallow land, for the roots of the umbelliferous plants which grew there had so little hold that they were easily set loose by the winds and lay about the surface.

At dark five natives advanced along our track, shouting, but remaining at a distance. I sent two men to them (one with a fire-stick) in order to tell them we were going to sleep. Two of the party were old men, one having h.o.a.ry hair, and all five carried spears, which they stuck in the ground, and sat down as soon as our people went up to them. After that interview they decamped towards the Bogan.

May 25.

Early this morning the same men came to a tree, at some distance from the tents. I went to them and showed them my watch, compa.s.s, etc.; when they pointed to the northward, making motions by which I supposed they meant to represent three courses of the sun; and I therefore concluded that they had seen me on the Karaula three years before.

RIDE TO THE DARLING.

I then gave them a piece of my broken sword, and set off with a party on horseback to see the river Darling. By half-past ten I made this river at a distance of eight miles from our camp, by riding first three miles west, and then five in the direction of 20 degrees north of west by compa.s.s. The people with me immediately declared it was our old acquaintance the Karaula, unaltered in a single feature. Here we saw the same description of broken earthy banks; the same kind of lofty trees, and the long, deep, and still reaches, so characteristic of a lengthened and slumbering course.

THE WATER SWEET.

But the great question to be determined was the quality of the water, which, appearing to me from the top of the bank, very transparent, and of a greenish tinge, and without any indication of a current, I did not doubt was salt, as when first discovered in nearly the same lat.i.tude by Sturt. I was however so agreeably surprised, on descending the steep bank, to find the taste perfectly sweet, that I began to doubt if this river could be The Darling, thinking, from the difference in the longitude especially, that it might still be the lower part of the Bogan, the course of which continued westward, and on my right as I rode from the camp. I proceeded some distance down the river, and found the reaches to extend first west-north-west, next north-north-east (half a mile) then south-west by south (1 1/2 miles); I was at length satisfied that this was indeed the river Darling, and I was no less gratified in perceiving a slight current in it with no obstruction for our boats as far as I had yet examined. The paths of the natives were fresh-trodden, but we saw none of them, and I returned towards the camp, where I arrived by two P.M. The bed of the Darling at the place where we reached it could not be elevated more, according to the state of the barometrical column (as compared at the time with that of my barometer as it had stood at Parramatta bridge) than 250 feet above the level of the sea.

NATIVES AFRAID OF THE SHEEP.

I found that the natives whom I had left at the camp no longer remained there, having quitted it soon after my departure, apparently afraid of the sheep!

May 26.

A party of our friends the natives again made their appearance; and five of them, including the three who had visited us yesterday, took their stations under the same tree, while a number of gins and children remained on the border of the scrub, half a mile off. Just before the camp broke up I went to them and gave a tomahawk to an old grey-haired man. The chief spokesman was a ferocious forward sort of savage, to whom I would rather have given anything than a tomahawk, from the manner in which he handled my pockets. My horse awaited me and I by signs explained to them that I was going. I suspect that Watta is their familiar name for the Darling from their use of this word on any sign being made in reference to the river.

THE PARTY ENCAMPS ON A FAVOURABLE POSITION ON THE DARLING RIVER.

We proceeded on a bearing of 251 degrees until at 15 miles and 45 chains we reached the bank of the Darling. The cattle had been at some places rather distressed from the heaviness of the ground, having had scarcely any food for the last two days except a hard, dry, composite plant which usurped the place of gra.s.s. The camp I had left, which was in other respects a fine position, could not possibly have served as a depot for the cattle. We were extremely fortunate however in the place to which the bounteous hand of providence had led us. Abundance of pasture; indeed such excellent gra.s.s as we had not seen in the whole journey, covered the fine open forest ground on the bank of the river! There were four kinds but the cattle appeared to relish most a strong species of anthisteria, or kangaroo gra.s.s. But the position to which we had come, on so straight a line, reaching it however only at sunset, surpa.s.sed anything I had expected to find on this river. It consisted of the highest ground in the neighbourhood, rising gradually from the lower levels by which we had approached the river to an elevated and extensive plateau overlooking a deep and broad reach. This was covered or protected on the north by a green swamp which was again shut in by an extensive bend of the Darling.

On the west and north-west there was little timber in the way; and the whole place seemed extremely favourable for the object about which I was then most anxious, namely, the establishment of a secure depot and place of defence.

CHAPTER 2.5.

Rain at last.

Stockade erected.

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