Volume II Part 17 (1/2)

Rain had fallen during the night but the day was favourable though cloudy. I ventured on a straight line through the sand and bushes of Eucalyptus dumosa in order to cut off some miles of our beaten track, which was nearer the river and rather circuitous. We crossed some sandhills, the loose surface of which was bound down only by the p.r.i.c.kly gra.s.s already described. From these hills the view was extensive and bounded on all sides by a perfectly level horizon. On one of them a solitary tree drew my attention and, on examining it, I discovered with much satisfaction that it was of that singular kind I had only once or twice seen last year in the country behind the Darling. The leaves, bark, and wood tasted strongly of horse-radish. We now obtained specimens of its flower and seed, both of which seemed very singular.* By the more direct route through the scrub this day, with what we gained yesterday, we were enabled to reach, at the usual hour for encamping, the red cliffs near the spot where we formerly met the second division of the Darling tribe. I took up a position on the western extremity of the broken bank, overlooking an angle of the river, and commanding a gra.s.sy flat where our cattle would be also secure. The weather became very boisterous after sunset, and our tents were so much exposed to the fury of the wind that at one time I thought they would be blown into the river. The waters continuing to rise, the Murray now poured along nearly on a level with its banks, and how we should cross or avoid:

The mosses, waters, slaps, and stiles

that lay between us and the depot, if the river rose much longer, was a question for which I was prepared. On the other hand the very cold and boisterous weather was in our favour as being opposed to any a.s.sembling of the tribes at points of difficulty along the line of our track, as they certainly ought to have done as good tacticians, for they never lost sight of our movements while we were in that country.

(*Footnote. A new and genuine species of Gyrostemon. Gyrostemon pungens, Lindley ma.n.u.scripts; foliis rhomboideis acutis glaucis in petiolum angustatis. The capsules are arranged in a single verticillus and consequently this species will belong to Gyrostemon as distinguished from Codonocarpus by Mr. Endlicher.)

TRAVERSE THE LAND OF LAGOONS BEFORE THE FLOODS COME DOWN.

June 6.

It had rained heavily during the night but the morning was clear. As we continued our journey the natives were heard in the woods although none appeared. Fortunately for our progress the floods had not reached the lagoons, and we succeeded in pa.s.sing the whole of this low tract, so subject to inundations, without difficulty; and we finally encamped within four miles of the ground where we had been obliged to disperse the Darling tribes. We pitched our tents on the eastern side of the lagoon where we found an agreeable shelter from the storm in some scrub which, on former occasions, we should not have thought so comfortable a neighbour. We could now enter such thickets with greater safety; and in this we found a very beautiful new shrubby species of ca.s.sia, with thin papery pods and numbers of the most brilliant yellow blossoms. On many of the branches the leaflets had fallen off and left nothing but the flat leafy petioles to represent them. The pods were of various sizes and forms, on which account, if new, I would name it C. heteroloba.*

(*Footnote. C. heteroloba, Lindley ma.n.u.scripts; foliolis bijugis linearibus carnosis cito deciduis apice mucronulatis recurvis, glandula parva conica inter omnia, petiolo compresso herbaceo nunc aphyllo mucronulato, racemis paucifloris folio brevioribus, leguminibus oblongis planis obtusis papyraceis continuis aut varie strangulatis.)

June 7.

The ground had been so heavy for travelling during some days that the cattle much needed rest; and as I contemplated the pa.s.sage, in one day of that dumosa scrub, occupying twenty miles along the tract before us, I made this journey a short one, moving only to our old encampment of May 26. The scrub here seemed more than usually rich in botanical novelties for, besides the Murrayana tree, we found a most beautiful Leucopogon allied to L. rotundifolius of Brown, with small heart-shaped leaves polished on the upper side and striated on the lower, so as to resemble the most delicate sh.e.l.l-work.* Piper discovered, on examining the ground where we had repulsed the Darling tribes, that they had left many of their spears, nets, etc. on our side of the river, and had afterwards returned for them, also that a considerable number did not swim across, but had retired along the riverbank. Upon the whole it was estimated that the numbers then in our rear amounted to at least one hundred and eighty.

(*Footnote. L. cordifolius, Lindley ma.n.u.scripts; ramulis p.u.b.escentibus, foliis sessilibus subrotundis planis patentibus cordatis mucronatis margine scabris supra laevigatis subtus striatis, floribus solitariis sessilibus axillaribus.)

TRACES OF MANY NAKED FEET ALONG OUR OLD TRACK.

June 8.

As soon as daylight appeared this morning we commenced our long journey through the scrub; and we discovered to our surprise, by the traces of innumerable feet along our track, that the natives had not, as I till then supposed, come along the riverbank, but had actually followed us through that scrub. They have nevertheless a great dislike to such parts, not only because they cannot find any game there, but because the p.r.i.c.kly spinifex-looking gra.s.s is intolerable against their naked legs. While we were encamped in the scrub on May 25 they must have also pa.s.sed that stormy night there, without either fire or water. On our way through it now we discovered a new h.o.a.ry species of Trichinium, very different from Brown's Tr. incanum.* The cattle, though they were jaded, accomplished the journey before sunset, and we halted beside the large lagoon adjacent to that part of the river which was within three miles of our former camp, being the spot where the natives, in following us from lake Benanee, first emerged from the woods. The weather being still boisterous, we occupied a piece of low ground where we were sheltered from the west or stormy quarter by the river berg.

(*Footnote. Tr. lanatum, Lindley ma.n.u.scripts; incano-tomentosum, caule corymboso, foliis obovatis cuneatisque, capitulis hemisphericis lanatis, bracteis dorso villosis.)

CAMP OF 400 NATIVES.

On the brow of this height and just behind our camp I counted the remains of one hundred and thirty-five fires at an old encampment of natives and, as one fire is seldom lighted for less than three persons, there must have been at least four hundred. The bushes placed around each fire seemed to have been intended for that temporary kind of shelter required for only one night.

June 9.

We proceeded this morning as silently as possible, for we were now approaching the haunts of the enemy, and I wished to come upon them by surprise, thinking that I might thereby sooner ascertain whether any misfortune had befallen the depot.

NARROW ESCAPE FROM THE FLOODS OF THE RIVER.

Two creeks lay in our way and, from the flood then in the Murray, it was likely that they might be full of water, and the savages prepared to take advantage of the difficulty we should then experience in crossing them.

The first channel we arrived at, which was quite dry when we formerly crossed, was now brimful of the muddy water of the Murray and before we reached its banks we heard the voices of natives on our right. We forded it however without annoyance, the water reaching only to the axles of the carts, but the current was very strong and FROM the river, that is to say, upwards. We next reached our old camp where we had pa.s.sed that anxious night near Benanee. Here to my great satisfaction and indeed surprise, I found the bed of the larger creek, which occasioned us so great a detour when we first met the natives, still quite dry at our old crossing-place; being in the same state in which it was then, although the flood water was now fast approaching it. We got over however with ease and at length again traversed the plain which skirts the lake; and we were glad to find that tranquillity prevailed along its extensive sh.o.r.es.

PIPER OVERTAKES TWO YOUTHS FIs.h.i.+NG IN LAKE BENANEE.

I perceived only one or two natives fis.h.i.+ng, and I took Piper down to the beach to speak to them, being desirous also to examine at leisure this fine sheet of water. We found on arriving there that other natives had run off from some huts on the sh.o.r.e, but Piper pursued those in the lake, for the purpose of obtaining information about the tribe, until they ran so far out into the water that they seemed at length up to their ears, and I was really afraid that the poor fellows, who were found to be only boys, would be drowned in endeavouring to avoid him. I could scarcely distinguish them at length from the numerous waterfowl floating around.

In vain I called to their pursuer to come back, Piper was not to be baffled by boys, and continued to walk through the water like a giant, brandis.h.i.+ng a short spear, or, as the boys would probably say to their tribe;

Black he stood as night, Fierce as ten furies, terrible as h.e.l.l, And shook a dreadful dart.

At length, when apparently near the centre of the lake, he overtook one; and while leading him towards the sh.o.r.e he ascertained that the Darling tribe had returned to the lake only on the day before, having been ever since their dispersion on the 27th May until this time, on the opposite bank of the Murray. That they were then fis.h.i.+ng in a lagoon near the river (where in fact we afterwards saw smoke and heard their voices) and that they had despatched three messengers to a portion of the tribe on the upper Darling, with the news of what had befallen them, of our progress in that direction, and requesting them to join them as soon as possible at the lake.