Part 1 (1/2)
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia In Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848).
by Lt. Col. Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitch.e.l.l Kt. D.C.L.
(1792-1855) Surveyor-General of New South Wales.
by Thomas Mitch.e.l.l.
PREFACE.
”Admiring Nature in her wildest grace,”[* Burns.] it has ever been the most attractive of the author's duties to explore the interior of Australia. There the philosopher may look for facts; the painter and the poet for original studies and ideas; the naturalist for additional knowledge; and the historian might begin at a beginning. The traveller there seeks in vain for the remains of cities, temples, or towers; but he is amply compensated by objects that tell not of decay but of healthful progress and hope;--of a wonderful past, and of a promising future.
Curiosity alone may attract us into the mysterious recesses of regions still unknown; but a still deeper interest attaches to those regions, now that the rapid increase of the most industrious and, may we add most deserving people on earth, suggests that the land there has been reserved by the Almighty for their use.
In Australia, the great family of civilized man seems still at that early period between history and fable, upon which, even in ”the world as known to the ancients,” the Roman poet had to look very far back:--
”Communemque prius, ceu lumina solis et auras, Cautus humum longo signavit limite mensor.” [* Ovid, Met. lib. i.]
The Journey narrated in this work was undertaken for the extension of arrangements depending on physical geography. It completes a series of internal surveys, radiating from Sydney towards the west, the south, and the north, which have occupied the author's chief attention during the last twenty years; and, as on former occasions, it has enabled him to bring under the notice of men of science some of the earth's productions. .h.i.therto unknown. He cannot sufficiently express his sense of obligation in this respect, to Mr. Bentham, Sir William Hooker, Dr. Lindley, and Professor De Vriese, for supplying the botanical matter and notes contained in this volume, and thus contributing to the general stock of human knowledge. It is also his pleasing duty to state, that during the long journey of upwards of a year, Captain P. P. King, R. N., kept a register of the state of the barometer at the sea side; and, in the midst of his important avocations, determined, by a very elaborate comparison of minute details, all the heights of localities herein mentioned.
The new geographical matter is presented to the public with confidence in its accuracy, derived as it is from careful and frequent observations of lat.i.tude; trigonometrical surveying with the theodolite, whereever heights were available; and, by actual measurement of the line of route.
This route was connected, at its commencement and termination, with the trigonometrical survey of the colony; and, in closing on Mount Riddell, a survey extending two degrees within the tropics, the near coincidence of his intersections with that summit, as fixed by his survey of 1830, could not but be very satisfactory to the author.
The geological specimens collected during this journey have been deposited in the British Museum, and their original locality is shown on the maps by the numbers marked upon the specimens, so that they may be available to geologists; hence, in the progress of geological science, the fossils now brought from these remote regions will be accessible at any future time, and something known of the geology as well as of the geography of the interior. As Professor Forbes most readily undertook to describe the freshwater sh.e.l.ls after the work had pa.s.sed through the press, that portion of the collection also has thus been brought under the notice of geologists.
JOURNEY INTO TROPICAL AUSTRALIA, ETC.
Chapter I.
OBJECTS OF THE EXPEDITION.--IT IS DELAYED BY A REFERENCE TO LORD STANLEY.--LIST OF THE PARTY.--DEPARTURE FROM BUREE.--SCATTERED POPULATION.--IRISH AMONGST THE SQUATTERS.--A TEA-TOTALLER FROM SYDNEY.--A SHEPHERDESS IN AUSTRALIA. SHEEP WALK WHERE CATTLE RUN.--MEET AN OLD ABORIGINAL ACQUAINTANCE.--CATTLE STATIONS ABANDONED.--THE BOGAN RIVER.-- YOUNG BULLOCKS TROUBLESOME.--EXCESSIVE HEAT.--GREAT SCARCITY OF WATER.-- THE PARTY MUCH DISTRESSED BY HEAT AND DROUGHT.--MELANCHOLY FATE OF THE BOGAN TRIBE.--INTERESTING PLANTS DISCOVERED.--CARRY WATER FORWARD.-- DESPERATE RIDE DOWN THE BOGAN.--FIND ITS CHANNEL DRY.--DOGS DIE FROM THIRST.--THE PARTY ATTACKED WITH OPHTHALMIA.--QUIT THE BOGAN, BY MOVING TO THE PONDS OF CANNONBa.--ENCAMP THERE TO REST AND REFRESH THE PARTY.
The exploration of Northern Australia, which formed the object of my first journey in 1831, has, consistently with the views I have always entertained on the subject [* See London Geographical Journal, vol. vii.
part 2, p. 282.], been found equally essential in 1846 to the full development of the geographical resources of New South Wales. The same direction indicated on Mr. Arrowsmith's map, published by the Royal Geographical Society in 1837, was, in 1846, considered, by a committee of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, the most desirable to pursue at a time when every plan likely to relieve the colony from distress found favour with the public.
At no great distance lay India and China, and still nearer, the rich islands of the Indian Archipelago; all well-peopled countries, while the industrious and enterprising colonists of the South were unable to avail themselves of the exuberance of the soil and its productions,
”Which mock'd their scant manurings, and requir'd MORE HANDS THAN THEIRS to prune their wanton growth.”
The same attraction which drew the greatest of discoverers westward, ”al nacimiento de la especeria [* To the region where spices grew.],” seemed to invite the Australian explorer northward; impelled by the wayward fortunes of the Anglo-Saxon race already rooted at the southern extremity of the land whose name had previously been ”Terra Australis incognita.”
The character of the interior of that country still remained unknown, the largest portion of earth as yet unexplored. For the mere exploration, the colonists of New South Wales might not have been very anxious just at that time, but when the object of acquiring geographical knowledge could be combined with that of exploring a route towards the nearest part of the Indian Ocean, westward of a dangerous strait, it was easy to awaken the attention of the Australian public to the importance of such an enterprise. A trade in horses required to remount the Indian cavalry had commenced, and the disadvantageous navigation of Torres Straits had been injurious to it: that drawback was to be avoided by any overland route from Sydney to the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
But other considerations, not less important to the colonists of New South Wales, made it very desirable that a way should be opened to the sh.o.r.es of the Indian Ocean. That sea was already connected with England by steam navigation, and to render it accessible to Sydney by land, was an object in itself worthy of an exploratory expedition. In short, the commencement of such a journey seemed the first step in the direct road home to England, for it was not to be doubted that on the discovery of a good overland route between Sydney and the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria, a line of steam communication would thereupon be introduced from that point to meet the English line at Singapore.
In this view of the subject, it seemed more desirable to open a way to the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the nearest part of the sea, than to the settlement at Port Essington, on a presque-ile forming the furthest point of the land; and, that the journey would terminate at the Gulf was therefore most probable. The map of Australia, when compared with that of the world, suggested reasonable grounds for believing that a considerable river would be found to lead to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
My department having been reduced to a state of inactivity in 1843, I submitted a plan of exploration to Sir George Gipps, the Governor, when His Excellency promised, that if the Legislative Council made such reductions as they seemed disposed to make in the public expenditure, he should be able to spare money for such an expedition. The Legislative Council not only made reductions in the estimates to save much more money than His Excellency had named, but even voted 1000L. towards the expense of the journey, and pet.i.tioned the Governor to sanction it. His Excellency, however, then thought it necessary to refer the subject to the Secretary for the Colonies. Much time was thus lost, and, what was still worse, the naturalist to whom I had explained my plan, and invited to join my party, Dr. Leichardt. This gentleman, tempted by the general interest taken by the colonists at the time in a journey of discovery, which afforded a cheering prospect amid the general gloom and despondency, raised and equipped a small party by public subscription, and proceeded by water to Moreton Bay. Dr. Leichardt, and the six persons who finally accompanied him thence to the northward, had not been heard of, and were supposed to have either perished or been destroyed by natives. [* Dr. Leichhardt returned afterwards to Sydney from Port Essington by sea; and the journal of his journey, recently published, shows what difficulties may be surmounted by energy and perseverance.]
The reply of Lord Stanley was, as might have been antic.i.p.ated, favourable to the undertaking; but the Governor of the colony still declined to allow the journey to be undertaken, without a.s.signing any reason for keeping it back. This was the more regretted by me, when it became known in New South Wales that Captain Sturt was employed, with the express sanction of Lord Stanley, to lead an exploring expedition from Adelaide into the northern interior of Australia, and that he was actually then in New South Wales. Sir George Gipps had expressed, in one of his early despatches to the British Government, his readiness to encourage such an undertaking as that, and stated that ”no one came forward to claim the honour of such an enterprise;” yet now that Lord Stanley had sanctioned the plan of the Surveyor General, whose duty it was to survey the country, he refused to allow this officer to proceed. The Legislative Council, however, renewed the pet.i.tion for this undertaking, to which the Governor at length a.s.sented, in 1845; and the sum of 2000L. was unanimously voted for the outfit of the party, but with the clear understanding on the part of the Council, that the plan of the Surveyor General should be adopted.
The idea of a river flowing to the northward, was not, however, new. The journey in 1831 was undertaken chiefly in consequence of a report that a large river had been followed down to the coast by a bushranger, accompanied by the natives: and the ultimate course of the Condamine, still a question, was a subject of controversy in some of the first papers published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. My suggestions on the subject are detailed at length in the London Geographical Journal, Vol. VII., Part 2., page 282., and accompanied by a map showing the line of exploration then recommended.