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The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888

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The Surveyor-General had with him as second on this trip, Mr. Stapylton,
a surveyor, and his company consisted of Burnett, the overseer, and
twenty-two men, some of whom had been with him before.

For some reason or other he seemed particularly anxious to upset Sturt's
positive belief that the junction of the large river with the Murray
discovered by him, was the confluence of the Darling and the Murray.
During his journey down the Lachlan he returns to this idea again, and
his remarks are decidedly inconsistent with his former statements. On
turning back from following the Darling down, his words were:--


"The identity of this river with that which had been seen to enter the
Murray, now admitted of little doubt, and the continuation of the survey
to that point was scarcely an object worth the peril likely to attend
it."


On the Lachlan, he writes:--


"I considered it necessary now to ascertain, if possible, and before the
heavy part of our equipment moved further, whether the Lachlan actually
joined the Murrumbidgee near the point where Mr. Oxley saw its waters
covering the country, or whether it pursued a course so much more to the
westward, as to have been taken for the Darling by Captain Sturt. Should
I succeed in reaching the Lachlan at about sixty miles west of my camp, I
might be satisfied that it was this river which Captain Sturt mistook for
the Darling, and then I might seek that river by crossing the range on
the north. Whereas, should I find sufficient reason to believe that the
Darling would join the Murray, I might continue my journey down the
Lachlan until I reduced the distance across to the Darling as much as the
scarcity of water might render necessary."


On the whole, then, Mitchell did not seem inclined to give Sturt any
credit for his discovery, until he had actually seen the two rivers
unite, and there could no longer be any room for doubt on the subject.

A long excursion to the westward for some days, resulted in nothing but
thirsty nights, and having finally to turn back from country bounded only
by an unbroken horizon. The descent of the Lachlan was continued, and on
May 5th, they reached Oxley's lowest point on the river, where he had
given up the quest as hopeless amid the shallow, stagnant lagoons that
then covered the face of the country. The tree marked by Oxley himself
was not found, it having been, as was ascertained, burnt down by the
blacks, and the bottle buried by him, broken by a child. Two trees were
seen marked respectively W.W. and I.W., 1817. This was the place where
Oxley left the river the second time, after his fruitless trip to the
south, and from here he struck across to the Macquarie.

Through level plains and by the beds of erstwhile lakes, the course of
the river continued, and as the party proceeded they found it abundantly
watered. From his intercourse with the native inhabitants, Mitchell was
now convinced that the Lachlan or Kalare would soon join the
Murrumbidgee, so that when on the 12th May he suddenly found himself on
the banks of a river that he thought surpassed all the Australian rivers
he had yet seen, he was not surprised.

Soon afterwards, as the Major was anxious not to encumber himself with
all his heavy waggons to the junction of the Darling, as he would have to
return again, a depôt was formed, and the men divided. Mitchell, with a
lightly equipped party following down the river, leaving Stapylton in
charge of the camp.

In a short time the advance party came to the Murray, and immediately
found themselves amongst their former enemies of the Darling, who hearing
of their approach, through the medium of other tribes, had come a
distance of over two hundred miles to settle the old score between them.
At first a kind of hollow truce was maintained, but this evidently could
not last long; for two days the natives followed the explorers, seeking
to cut off any stragglers; making the work of gathering and minding the
cattle and horses one of considerable danger.

At last Mitchell was convinced that he must read them a lesson, or lose
some of his men, and have to fight his way back, with the whole country
roused. Half the party were then sent back, under the overseer, to
conceal themselves in the scrub and allow the natives to pass on in
pursuit of the tracks; this ambuscade, however, was scented out by the
dogs accompanying the blacks, and the natives halted, poising their
spears. One of the men hastily fired, and a retreat was made for the bank
of the river by the blacks. The scrub party followed them up firing, and
no sooner did those in advance hear the sound of the shots, than they
rushed down to join in the fray, leaving the black boy's gin the sole
protector of the drays, and equipment. On his return, the Major found her
standing erect at the head of the leading horse, with a drawn sword over
her shoulder.

Her appearance was, above all, both laughable and interesting. She was a
tall, gaunt woman, with one disfigured eye, and her attitude, as she
stood there with the naked weapon in her hand, faithful guard of all
their belongings, was a picture that Mitchell did not soon forget.

The fight was soon over; in a very short space of time the over-confident
warriors of the interior were driven ignominously across the river with
the loss of seven braves. This, after invading the territory of a
friendly tribe in order to provoke a battle with the whites, and boasting
that formerly they had driven them back from the Darling, was a blow that
they could not get over, and the result was that the whites were not
again molested. It turned out that this pugnacious tribe was the same
that threatened Sturt at the Darling junction, when the energetic
interference of one man was so effectual. This remarkable savage, it
seems, was dead and his influence lost.

On the 31st May, Mitchell struck the Darling some distance above the
junction, and traced its course upwards a short way, until he again felt
convinced that it was the same river that he had been on before, He
returned and examined the junction, which he says he recognised from the
view given in Captain Sturt's work [Note, end of paragraph] and the
adjacent localities described by him. Full of anxiety for the safety of
his depôt, and considering that he had done enough to verify the outflow
of the Darling, he at once started up the Murray, and was happily
relieved by finding his camp in perfect quiet and safety.

[Note Captain Sturt, writing in 1848, and speaking of Major Mitchell's
expedition, says:--"In due time he came to the disputed junction, which
he tells us he recognised from its resemblance to a drawing of it in my
first work. As I have since been on the spot, I am sorry to say that it
is not at all like the place, because it obliges me to reject the only
praise Sir Thomas Mitchell ever gave me." The original sketch of the
junction having been lost, Sturt, who was nearly blind at the time of the
publication of his work, got the assistance of a friend, who drew it from
his verbal description.]

First fixing the junction of the Murray and Murrumbidgee, the boats were
launched, and the whole of the party crossed the Murray, and the journey
up the southern bank commenced. On the 20th of June, they reached Swan
Hill and camped at the foot of it. The country was in every way
desirable, and the progress of the party was unchecked. On the 8th of
July, the Loddon was discovered and named, and on the 10th, the Avoca.
Mitchell was now convinced that he had found the Eden of Australia, and
his enthusiasm in describing it is unbounded. On the 18th of July, he
discovered the Wimmera, and on the 31st, the Glenelg. Here he launched
his boat once more, but found his way stopped at the outset by a fall,
and the river had to be followed on land. On the 18th of August, after
many excursions, the river being now much broader, the boats were again
resorted to, and in two days they reached the coast a little to the east
of Cape Northumberland.

Returning to the camp, the expedition made east, and reached Portland
Bay, where they found a farm established by the Messrs. Henty, who had
been there then nearly two years. Here they obtained some small supplies,
and again left on their homeward journey. On the 4th September Mitchell
abandoned one of his boats, in order to lighten his equipage, as the
draught work was excessively heavy for his cattle, and one boat would
answer the purpose of crossing rivers. On the 10th, he caught sight of a
range, and named it the Australian Pyrenees, and on the 19th the party
separated.

The Major and some of the men pushed on with the freshest of the animals,
leaving Stapylton and the remainder of the party to spell for a while,
and bring the knocked-up beasts slowly on.

On the 30th, Mitchell ascended Mount Macedon, and from the top recognised
Port Phillip.


"No stockyards nor cattle were visible, nor even smoke, although at the
highest northern point of the bay I saw a mass of white objects, which
might have been either tents or vessels."


But Mitchell was not to arrive home without another fatality amongst his
party. On October 13th, when looking for a crossing in a river, one of
the men, named James Taylor, was drowned.

On the 17th, after passing through a forest, they recognised with great
satisfaction, the lofty "Yarra" trees, and the low verdant alluvial flats
of the Murray. Once across the river, the boat was sunk in a deep lagoon,
and the boat carriage left on the bank for the use of Stapylton. Three
volunteers went back to meet him, and assist in crossing the Ovens and
Goulburn. The advance party were now almost within the settled districts,
and with the safe arrival of Stapylton at the Murrumbidgee, on November
11th, the history of the discovery of AUSTRALIA FELIX ends.

Sir Thomas Mitchell had been singularly favoured during this journey, his
route had led him through a country possessing every variety of feature,
from snow-topped mountains to level plains, watered by permanently-flowing
stream and rivers; fitted, as he says, for the immediate occupation of the
grazier, and the farmer. It, therefore, was of more real benefit to the
colony than the former exploratory journeys, that had met with only
partial success in this respect.

He had well carried out his instructions, and obtained a full knowledge
of the country south of the Murray, and of the rivers there; flowing
either into that river, or into the sea; confirming the impression
already entertained of the great value of the district, and the report of
Hume and Hovell, who with their slender resources were unable to do much
in the way of extended examination.

We have seen that the brothers Henty, of Tasmania, had formed a
settlement at Portland Bay, and in 1835 the historic founding of Port
Phillip settlement by Batman took place, so that the mere extension of
settlement would soon have thrown open for settlement the splendid area
that Mitchell was just in time to claim as his discovery. The story of
Batman's compact with the blacks, by which he asserted his right to a
princely territory is too well-known to require repetition; [Note, end of
paragraph] it is scarcely necessary to add that such a preposterous
demand was neither ratified by the government, nor recognised by the
settlers.

[Note: The agreement was between Messrs. Batman, Gellibrand, Swanston,
and Simpson, on the one side, and the natives were represented by
Jagajaga, Cooloolook, Bungaree, Yanyan, Mowstrip, and Mommamala, the
price was fixed at an annuity of two hundred a year, in return for
750,000 acres of land. Mr. Gellibrand afterwards perished in the bush
with a companion, Mr. Hesse, having lost himself through persisting in
keeping in the wrong direction, although warned by a guide who left them
on finding Gellibrand determined to go wrong.]

It was through the energy of the Tasmanian colonists that this settlement
of Port Phillip took place; as already noticed, Port Phillip was
abandoned, almost without the slightest examination, by Colonel Collins
in favour of Tasmania, and now, after thirty years had passed, the
abundant flocks and herds of the little island forced the owners to look
to the mainland for extended pastures.

One of the incidents of the early settlement was also the discovery of
Buckley, a white man, who having escaped from Collins' party in 1803, had
been living with the natives ever since.

In 1836 Colonel Light surveyed the shores of St. Vincent's Gulf, and
selected the site of the present city of Adelaide; Governor Hindmarsh and
a company of emigrants soon after arrived, and the colony of South
Australia was proclaimed.

The continent was now being invaded on three sides. From Perth on the
western shore, from St. Vincent's Gulf and Port Phillip on the south, and
from the settled districts of New South Wales and from Moreton Bay on the
east.

Henceforth, the tale of exploration embraces many simultaneous
expeditions; no longer is the whole of the narrative confined to the
struggle of one man, hopelessly endeavouring to surmount the coast range,
or toiling across the western plains, anxiously watched by the little
community at Port Jackson. Each new-formed centre had their members
pushing out, month after month, and continually adding to the knowledge
of Australia.

As usual, the records of most of these private expeditions have not been
preserved, and the utmost the historian can do is to trace out the broad
lines of discovery, leaving the reader to consider the detail filled in
by the monotonous, if valuable, and untiring efforts of the pioneer
squatters. Already these men and their subordinates were close on the
footsteps of the explorers; should the adventurer remain some months
absent from civilization, he found, on his return, settlement far across
what had been the frontier line when he departed. Hundreds of lives have
been laid down in this service, under as strong a sense of duty, and
under circumstances as heroic as any of the deaths in the roll of martial
history, and the names of the victims unknown, and their graves
unhonoured. They have only been members of the great band ever forcing a
way, and smoothing a road for a commercial population, to whom their
deeds, their struggles, their hopes, and their fates are often but a
sealed book. But the feelings of a man who knows that he has founded
homes for future thousands, must be a greater recompense than any his
fellowmen could give him.




CHAPTER V.



Lieutenants Grey and Lushington on the West Coast--Narrow escape--Start
with an equipment of Timor ponies--Grey wounded by the natives--Cave
drawings--Return, having discovered the Glenelg--Grey's second
expedition--Landed at Bernier Island, in Shark's Bay, with three
whale-boats--Cross to borne Island--Violent storm--Discovery of the
Gascoyne--Return to Bernier Island--Find their CACHÉ of provisions
destroyed by a hurricane--Hopeless position--Attempted landing at
Gautheaume Bay--Destruction of the boats--Walk to Perth--Great
sufferings--Death of Smith--Eyre and the overlanders--Discovery of Lake
Hindmarsh--Exploration of Gippsland--Eyre's explorations to the
north--Discovery of Lake Torrens--Disappointment in the country bordering
on it--Determines to go to King George's Sound--Repeated attempts to
reach the head of the Great Australian Bight--Loss of horses--Barren and
scrubby country--Final determination to send back most of the party--
Starts with overseer and three natives--Hardship and suffering--Murder of
the overseer by two of the natives--Eyre continues his journey with the
remaining boy--Relieved by the MISSISSIPPI whaler--Reaches King George's
Sound.

An expedition, most unique in its composition, now made an attempt on the
west coast to penetrate inland, and also verify the existence or
non-existence of the large river, still currently supposed to find its
way into the sea at Dampier's Archipelago. The expedition was placed
under the command of Lieutenant Grey, Mr. Lushington acting as second in
command. It originated in England, and its members, with one exception,
were what would locally be called "new chums." The one exception was a
sailor, named Ruston, who had been with Captain King on one of his
surveying voyages; an experience that, under an older leader might have
made him a most serviceable man, but, otherwise, scarcely deserved the
stress that Grey laid upon his acquisition. Most of the equipment was
procured at the Cape of Good Hope, where a small vessel--the LYNHER--was
chartered, and the landing-place in Australia was at Hanover Bay, on the
extreme north-west coast, near the mouth of the Prince Regent's River;
though, why this particular point was chosen, does not appear quite
clear. Being becalmed a short distance from Hanover Bay, the foolish
impetuosity of the young explorers very nearly put an abrupt ending to
their journey. Grey, Lushington, and four men landed, and started to walk
across to Hanover Bay, there to be picked up again by the LYNHER. It was
December, the middle of a tropical summer, and they took with them two
pints of water. They all very soon knocked up. Grey swam across an inlet
to try and signal the schooner, and nearly lost his life doing so.
Fortunately, the the flashes of their guns, with which they kept firing
distress signals, were noticed on board, and a boat came to their rescue.
This was an inauspicious beginning.

After landing the stores, the LYNHER sailed for Timor, to procure some
ponies and other live stock, and on the 17th of January, 1838, she
returned. At the end of January, Grey and his party started from the
coast with twenty-six half-broken Timor ponies as a baggage train, and
some sheep and goats. The rainy season had set in, and the stock began to
die almost before they had well started, added to which, the party were
entangled in steep ravines and spurs from the coast range, and their
strength worn out in useless ascents and descents. On the 11th of
February, they came into collision with the natives, and Grey was
severely wounded.

On the leader recovering sufficiently to be lifted on one of the ponies,
a fresh start was made, and on the 2nd of March they were rewarded by
finding a river, which they called the Glenelg, unaware that Mitchell had
already usurped the name. The adventurers followed the course of this
river upward, traversing good country, well grassed and timbered, so far
as their limited experience allowed them to judge. Sometimes their route
was on the river's bank, and at other times by keeping to the foot of a
sandstone range that ran parallel with its course, they were enabled to
cut off some wearisome bends.

The party continued on the Glenelg for many days until they were checked
by a large tributary coming from the north, causing them to fall back on
the range, both the river and its tributary being swollen and flooded. On
this range they discovered some curious paintings and drawings in the
caves scattered amongst the rocks, also a head in profile cut in the face
of a sandstone rock. [See Appendix.] Unable to find a pass through the
mountains, which barred their western progress, and greatly weakened by
his wound, Grey determined to return, but before doing so he sent Mr.
Lushington some distance ahead, who, however, could find no noticeable
change in the country.

The expedition, therefore retraced their footsteps, and on the 15th of
April they reached Hanover Bay, and found the schooner at anchor, and
H.M.S. BEAGLE lying in the neighbouring Port George the Fourth. Thus
ended the first expedition; toil, danger, and hardships having been
incurred for little or no purpose, the discovery of the Glenelg River
being the only result obtained, and perhaps, some little experience. The
party having embarked, they sailed for the Isle of France in the
Mauritius, where they safely arrived.

In August, Grey visited the Swan River, and endeavoured to get assistance
from Sir James Stirling, the Governor, to continue his explorations; no
vessel being available, he had to wait some time before making a start,
during which delay he made short excursions from Perth into the
surrounding country.

On the 17th of February, 1839, he started once more in an American
whaler, taking with him three whale-boats. The objects of this expedition
are not very definite. The whaler was to land them and their boats at
Shark's Bay, or on one of the islands: there they intended to form a
depôt. After examining the bay, and making such incursions inland as they
found possible, they were to extend their operations to the north as long
as their provisions lasted, when they would return to the depôt and make
their way south.

The party consisted of Grey himself, four of his former companions, a
young volunteer, Mr. Frederick Smith, five other men, and a native,
twelve in all. They were landed on Bernier Island, and at once their
troubles commenced. The whaler sailed away taking with her, by an
oversight, their whole supply of tobacco; there was no water on the
island, and on the first attempt to start one of the boats was smashed up
and nearly half a ton of stores lost. The next day they landed at Dorre
Island, and that night both their boats were driven ashore by a violent
storm.

Two or three days were occupied repairing damages, and then they made the
mainland and obtained a supply of fresh water.

They landed near the mouth of a river, which, however, was dry above
tidal influence, and Grey christened it the Gascoyne. After a short
examination of the surrounding country, they pulled up the coast to the
north, and effecting a landing one night, both boats were swamped, to the
great damage of their already spoiled provisions. Here Grey ascended a
hill to look upon the surrounding country, and was so deceived by the
mirage, that he believed he had discovered a great lake studded with
islands; in company with three of his men he started on a weary tramp
after the constantly shifting vision, needless to say without reaching
it. Returning to the boats they found themselves prisoners for a time,
until the wind dropped and the surf abated a little, and here they had to
remain for a week sick, hungry and weary, and at one time threatened and
attacked by the blacks. At last a slight cessation in the gale tempted
them, and they got the boats out and made for the mouth of the Gascoyne,
where they refilled their water breakers. On March 20th, they made an
effort to fetch their depôt on Bernier Island in the teeth of the foul
weather, and reached it to find that during their absence a hurricane had
swept the island, and their hoarded stores were scattered to the winds.

Their position was now nearly desperate, the southerly winds had set in,
they had a surf-beaten shore to coast along, and no food of any sort
worth mentioning, added to which, as may be well supposed, they were all
weak and exhausted.

There was nothing for it, however, but to put out to sea again, and they
managed to reach Gautheaume Bay on the 31st of March; in attempting a
landing, the boat Grey was in was dashed on a rock, and the other boat
too received such great damage that it was impossible to repair either of
them. Nothing was now left, but to walk to Perth, and so wearied had the
men become of fighting with the wind and sea, that they even welcomed
this hazardous prospect as a change. They were about three hundred miles
from the Swan River and had twenty pounds of damaged flour, and one pound
of salt pork per man, to carry them there.

Soon after starting, a diversity of opinion sprang up about the best mode
of progressing. Grey wished to get over as much ground as possible while
their strength held out; most of the men, however, were in favour of
proceeding slowly, taking constant rests. This feeling increased so much
that, when within two hundred miles of Perth, Grey found it necessary to
take with him some picked men, and push on, leaving the others to follow
at their leisure. He reached Perth after terrible suffering and
privation, and a relief party was at once sent out, but they only found
one man, who had left the others, thinking they were travelling too slow.
Meanwhile, Walker, the second in charge, had come into Perth, and related
that, being the strongest, he had pushed on in order to get relief sent
back to the remainder. Another party, under Surveyor-General Roe, left in
search, and after some trouble in tracking the erratic wanderings of the
unfortunates, came upon them hopelessly gazing at a point of rocks, that
stopped their march along the beach, not having sufficient strength left
to climb it. They had been then three days without any water but sea
water, and a revolting substitute, which they still had in their
canteens. Poor young Smith, a lad of eighteen was dead. [ See Appendix.]
He had lain down and died two days before they were found. He was buried
in the wilderness.

During these two expeditions Grey had faced death in every shape, and
shown great powers of endurance, but the results of all his toil were but
meagre, and of no very great importance. He had crossed and named the
rivers running into the west coast, between where he abandoned his boats
and the Moore River, but in the state he was in he knew little more than
the fact that they were there, having neither strength nor resources to
follow them up and determine their courses. Grey claims the discovery of
the Gascoyne, Murchison, Hutt, Bower, Buller, Chapman, Greenough, Irwin,
Arrowsmith, and Smith Rivers. This disastrous journey may be said to have
concluded his services to Australia as an explorer, although he
afterwards, when Governor of South Australia, made an excursion to the
south-east, but it was through comparatively stocked and well-known
country in the neighbourhood of the Glenelg and Mount Gambier. Before
being appointed Governor of South Australia, he was Acting Government
Resident at Albany, King George's Sound.

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