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The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888

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After many days' rest, he started again, this time to the eastward of
north, and in ten miles came to a well-watered creek, which he named
Phillips' Creek. Once more he had another two or three days of useless
efforts to force his way through a dry belt, vainly flattering himself
that he was approaching the watershed of the Gulf; but had to fall back
on the Phillips again. Whilst camping here some natives visited them, two
of them wearing a kind of helmet made of net work and feathers, tightly
bound together:--


"One was an old man, and seemed to be the father of these two fine young
men. He was very talkative, but I could make nothing of him. I have
endeavoured, by signs, to get information from him as to where the next
water is, but we cannot understand each other. After some time, and
having conferred with his two sons, he turned round, and surprised me by
giving me one of the Masonic signs. I looked at him steadily; he repeated
it; and so did his two sons. I then returned it, which seemed to please
them much, the old man patting me on the shoulder and stroking down my
beard."


Whether Stuart's imagination here led him astray, it is impossible to
say, but very shortly afterwards they encountered a tribe who displayed
anything but the friendly feelings that should have been shown by brother
masons.

On the next start they came in fourteen miles to a large gum creek, with
very fair-sized sheets of water in it, and as they followed it down they
passed the encampment of some natives, but did not take any notice of
them, keeping steadily on their course. Finding no water lower down the
creek, they had to return. When close to the place where they crossed the
creek in the morning, and the evening rapidly closing in, they were
suddenly surrounded by a number of well-armed natives, who started out of
a scrub they were passing through. All signs of friendship, masonic or
otherwise, were thrown away on them, and at last, after receiving two or
three showers of boomerangs and waddies they had to turn and fire on
them. So bold and determined were they in their attack upon the three
men, that Stuart had to return to his camp of the night before still
followed by them. Here he had to make up his mind to abandon his further
progress for the present. He had too small a party to stand a pitched
battle with the aboriginal proprietors; the water behind them was
failing, and they had suffered considerable loss in their horses. Most
wisely Stuart determined to return.

On the 27th June he commenced his retreat. On reaching the Bonney he
halted for a few days, during which time the cloudy aspect of the sky
made him entertain the idea of another effort to reach the Victoria
River; but no rain fell, and he had to keep on his way. On the 26th of
August the party arrived at Mr. Brodie's camp at Hamilton Springs, all of
them very weak and reduced.

After the result of Stuart's expedition had been reported in Adelaide,
and it was seen how inadequate means alone had led to the retreat of the
explorer, the Government voted £2,500 to equip a larger and
better-organized party, of which he was to take command. Meanwhile, such
a report of the results of the journey as the Government thought might
prove useful to the leaders of the Victorian expedition, then on the
march, was forwarded, but, as will be seen, shared the same chapter of
accidents that beset that unfortunate expedition, and never reached them.

This time Stuart's party numbered at the final start, ten men and
forty-seven horses; and by the end of January, 1861, they were fairly on
their way outside the settled districts, and here we must leave them to
turn to that other expedition, the issue of which attracted so much
attention throughout the world.

Public opinion is notably fickle, and never more so than when dealing
with the memories of distinguished men. No guide, no standard is followed
in the matter; the recognition of their services is made solely a matter
of sentiment.

Poor Kennedy, who, confronted with almost insurmountable difficulties,
harassed by hostile natives, and ill-provisioned at the start, lost his
life, and the majority of his party, in a gallant effort to fulfil his
task, is almost forgotten, save by the few who take an interest in the
history of our country. Whilst Burke--who left the settlements, equipped
with everything that a generous people could provide, and that the
experience of others could suggest, to make the journey safe and ensure
its success--travelled through a country that is now a vast sheep and
cattle walk; and frittered away his magnificent resources, wantonly
sacrificing his own life and those of his men, is elevated into a hero.
It may truly be said that for the fate of the two leaders, the mistakes
of others must be greatly held accountable; but at the same time it must
be also kept strongly in view that, for the want of judgment that placed
Burke in such a position that the mistake of a subordinate could entail
such fatal results, he alone was responsible.

The action of Victoria in sending out the expedition of discovery under
Burke and Wills, was, without doubt, exceptional in the annals of
exploration; it was an instance of a public body emulating the generous
act of a private individual. The colony itself had no territory left to
explore. Her rich and compact little province was known from end to end,
and it was not with her, as with others, a case of necessity to send her
sons into the wilderness, to open fresh fields for emigration.

Whatever then was the upshot of the expedition, and whatever the guilty
mismanagement attaching to its progress, the colony must ever look back
with pride upon the noble and unselfish motives that prompted its
inauguration.

Without counting the cost of the relief parties, seven lives were laid
down, and over £12,000 expended, and it was all cheerfully rendered; and
Victoria, in her one expedition, had the satisfaction of knowing that her
representatives carried off the coveted prize, and were the first to
cross the continent from south to north.

The money for the expenses was subscribed as follows:--
£6,000 voted by Government, £1,000 subscribed by Mr. Ambrose Kyte, and
the balance of the £12,000 made up by public subscription.

The outfit was on a most lavish scale; camels were imported from
Peshawar, with native drivers; provisions and stores for twelve months
provided, and no expense spared to render the whole appointments the most
complete ever provided for an exploring expedition. When the party was
organised, it consisted of the leader, R. O'Hara Burke; second in
command, G. J. Landells, who had brought the camels from India; third, W.
J. Wills, astronomical and meteorological observer., Dr. Hermann Beckler,
medical officer and botanist; Dr. Ludwig Becker, artist, naturalist, and
geologist; ten white men, and three camel drivers.

It was a gala day when they left Melbourne, and their progress through
the settled districts was a triumphant march; it almost seemed that Fate
was playing with them in very mockery, smiling at the thought of the
return.

The choice of the leader has always been a puzzle to most men, and it can
only be accounted for in two ways. First, that the committee of
management did not wish (as was only natural) to go outside of the colony
for a man, and the tried and experienced explorers were all residents in
other colonies; secondly, that the committee was, with two notable
exceptions, composed of men quite unable to judge of the qualities
essential in a leader; for the man of their choice, the unfortunate
Burke, was most singularly unfitted for the position.

Burke was an Irishman, from the county of Galway. He had been in the
Austrian service, and also in the Irish mounted constabulary. At the time
when he applied for the post, which unhappily was awarded to him, he was
an inspector of mounted police at Castlemaine. His appointment as leader
was strongly supported by the chairman of the committee, Sir William
Stawell, and it appears to have been backed up by those kind of general
testimonials as to ability which recommend a man almost equally for any
grade or position. Of special aptitude or scientific training he
possessed no pretension, and his selection was a fatal blunder. In saying
this, there is no reflection on the private character of the mistaken
leader; he paid for the wrong estimation he held of his own fitness with
his life, and the fault rests with those who placed him in a position
where he also was responsible for the lives of others. After passing in
review the different expeditions that have added so much lustre to our
history, and striving to judge dispassionately of the characters of the
men who, with good and evil fortune, have commanded them, one cannot help
being struck by the exaggerated and misplaced stress laid upon the
reputation Burke possessed for personal bravery. The calm and simple
courage of Sturt, the cool judgment and forethought of Mitchell, the
devotion of Austin, seem all to have been lost sight of by writers, who
extol Burke in a way that would lead men to believe that every other
Australian leader must have been an abject craven. This mistaken
laudation has done more to glaringly parade Burke's many failings than
more modest and judicious praise would have done.

Of his second, W. J. Wills (who shared the fate of his leader), he
appears to have been a man eminently possessed of most of the qualities
that would fit him for the position he held, but apparently tempered with
an amiability of disposition that led him to give way completely to the
rash judgment of his superior, without striving to temper that rashness.

Before the expedition travelled outside of the settled country, trouble
appeared. First, Landells resigned in consequence of a quarrel with the
leader. On returning to Melbourne, he expressed publicly an opinion that,
under Burke's management, the expedition would be attended by most
disastrous results.

Wright was then appointed third in charge, and he apparently had not the
most remote idea of any of the functions entailed on him by his position,
and has since been blamed as having caused the final catastrophe. He
joined the party at Menindie, which, for the purpose of explanation, may
be said to occupy the same position on the Darling as Laidley's Ponds,
whence Sturt started for the interior.

The foregoing estimate of the men holding the principal commands is
essential to enable the reader to understand how the astonishing blunders
were so constantly perpetrated, that brought the whole campaign to such
utter grief.

From Menindie to Cooper's Creek was the next stage, but the country now
being fairly well known, they did not follow the route of Sturt the
explorer. The main body of the party was left behind. Burke took with him
Wills, six men, five horses, and sixteen camels, leaving the others to
follow afterwards under the guidance of Wright, who went two hundred
miles with them to point out the best route. They left Menindie on the
19th of October, 1860. On the 11th of November they arrived at Cooper's
Creek, and here they camped, waiting for the arrival of Wright with the
main body, and making short excursions to the northward. Grass and water
were both plentiful, and up to their arrival at Cooper's Creek the
journey had not been so arduous as an ordinary overlanding trip with
cattle.

Wright's non-arrival, and the delay caused thereby, seemed to have worked
upon Burke's impatient temper, and the extraordinary notion came into his
head to divide his party of eight, and with three men to start across the
continent to the Gulf of Carpentaria, leaving the others in charge of
Brahe, to await his return, and also Wright's long-delayed arrival. On
the 16th December, 1860, Burke, having with him Wills, King, and Gray,
six camels, two horses, and three months' provisions, started on this
tramp, which for perverse absurdity stands unequalled. The first duty of
a man entrusted with such a large party, was to have carried out its
chief aim and mission of reporting on the geographical features and
formation of the country he was sent to explore, and bringing back the
fullest and most minute account of it, and its productions. Burke, during
the most important part of his journey, left behind him his botanist,
naturalist, and geologist, and started without even the means at his
disposal of following up any discoveries he might make. His sole thought
evidently was to cross to Carpentaria and back, and be able to say that
he had done so--a most unworthy ambition on the part of the leader of
such a party, containing within itself all the elements of geographical
research, and one that could certainly not have been anticipated by the
promoters. After all the pains and cost expended in the organisation of
this expedition, we have now the spectacle of the main body, including
two of the scientific members, loitering on the outskirts of the settled
districts; four men killing time on the banks of Cooper's Creek, and the
leader and three others racing headlong across the country ahead, all
four of them being utterly inexperienced men. As might be expected, the
results of the journey are most barren. Burke scarcely troubled to keep
any journal at all.

Wills' diary, too, is sadly uninteresting--it is but the baldest record
of the day's doings, and destitute of the sympathetic style which is so
essential in an explorer's log. From it we find that their first point
was to make Eyre's Creek, but, before reaching it, they discovered a fine
water-course coming from the north that took them a long distance on
their way, there being abundance of both water and grass along its banks.
From where this creek turned to the eastward they kept steadily north,
the rivers, fortunately for them, keeping mostly a north and south
course. They crossed the dividing range at the head of the Cloncurry
River, and by following that river down reached the Flinders, and,
finally, the mangroves and salt water in February, 1861. At the end of
his scanty notes, Burke says:--


"28th March. At the conclusion of report, it would be as well to say that
we reached the sea, but we could not obtain a view of the open ocean,
although we made every endeavour to do so."


Wills' description of their arrival is as follows:


"Finding the ground in such a state from the heavy falls of rain that the
camels could scarcely be got along, it was decided to leave them at camp
119, and for Mr. Burke and I to proceed towards the sea on foot, After
breakfast, we accordingly started, taking with us the horse and three
days' provisions. Our first difficulty was in crossing Billy's Creek,
which we had to do where it enters the river, a few hundred yards below
the camp. In getting the horse in here he got bogged in a quicksand so
deeply as to be unable to stir, and we only succeeded in extricating him
by undermining him on the creek side, and then lunging him into the
water. Having got all the things in safety, we continued down the river
bank, which bent about from east to west, but kept a general north
course. A great deal of the land was so soft and rotten that the horse,
with only one saddle on and twenty-five pounds on his back, could
scarcely walk over it. At a distance of about five miles we again had him
bogged, in crossing a small creek, after which he seemed so weak that we
had some doubts about getting him on. We, however, found some better
ground close to the water's edge, where the sandstone rock runs out, and
we stuck to it as far as possible. Finding that the river was bending
about so much that we were making very little progress in a northerly
direction, we struck off due north, and soon came on some tableland,
where the soil is shallow and gravelly, and clothed with box and swamp
gums. Patches of the land were very boggy, but the main portion was sound
enough. Beyond this we came on an open plain, covered with water up to
one's ankles. The soil here was a stiff clay, and the surface very
uneven, so that between the tufts of grass one was frequently knee-deep
in water. The bottom, however, was sound, and no fear of bogging. After
floundering through this for several miles, we came to a path formed by
the blacks, and there were distinct signs of a recent migration in a
southerly direction. By making use of this path we got on much better,
for the ground was well-trodden and hard. At rather more than a mile the
path entered a forest, through which flowed a nice watercourse, and we
had not gone far before we found places where the blacks had been
camping. The forest was intersected by little pebbly rises, on which they
made their fires, and in the sandy ground adjoining some of the former
had been digging yams, [The DIOS-COREA of Carpentaria.] which seemed to
be so numerous that they could afford to leave plenty of them behind,
probably having selected only the very best. We were not so particular,
but ate many of those that they had rejected, and found them very good.
About half a mile further we came close on a blackfellow who was coiling
by a camp fire, whilst his gin and piccaninny were yabbering alongside.
We stopped for a short time to take out some of the pistols that were on
the horse, and that they might see us before we were so near as to
frighten them. Just after we stopped, the black got up to stretch his
limbs, and after a few seconds looked in our direction. It was very
amusing to see the way in which he stared, standing for some time as if
he thought he must be dreaming, and then, having signalled to the others,
they dropped on their haunches and shuffled off in the quietest manner
possible."


It will be, however, tedious to continue the quotation, suffice it to say
that they reached a channel with tidal waters, and had to return without
actually seeing the open sea. Then comes a blank in Wills' diary, and
when he next writes they were on their way back.

Having accomplished their task, but with little profit, for they did not
actually know their position on the Gulf, being strangely out in their
reckoning; mistaking the river they were on for the Albert, over a
hundred miles to the westward, the retreat commenced. Short rations and
hardship now began to tell, and during the struggle back to the depôt
there seems to have been an absence of that kindly spirit of self
sacrifice which is so distinguishing a feature in nearly all the other
expeditions whose lines have fallen disastrously. Gray fell sick, and
stole some flour to make some gruel with; for this Burke beat him
severely. Wills writes on one occasion that they had to wait, and send
back for Gray, who was "gammoning" that he could not walk. Nine days
afterwards the unfortunate man dies--an act which at any rate is not
often successfully gammoned. But to bring the story to an end, they at
last, on the evening of the 21St of April, reached the camp on Cooper's
Creek, where they had left their four companions, and instead of finding
the whole party there to greet them, found it lifeless and deserted.

Searching at the foot of a tree marked "dig" they found a small quantity
of provisions concealed, and a note from Brahe stating that they had left
only that morning. They sat down and ate a welcome supper of porridge,
and considered their position. They could scarcely walk, and their camels
were the same; they had fifty pounds of flour, twenty pounds of rice,
sixty pounds of oatmeal, sixty pounds of sugar, and fifteen pounds of
dried meat; a very fair stock if they only had had the means of transit;
if Brahe had left three or four horses hobbled at the depôt they would
have been able to follow, but as it was they could do nothing, and all
the time Brahe was only separated from them by a very short distance, had
they but known it,

Burke consulted his companions as to the feasibility of their being able
to overtake Brahe, and they all agreed that in their tired and enfeebled
condition it was hopeless to attempt it; then, according to King's
narrative, Burke said that instead of returning up the creek, their old
route to Menindie, they would go down to Mount Hopeless, in South
Australia, following the line taken by A. C. Gregory. Wills objected and
so did King, but ultimately both gave in, and this was the death warrant
of two of them.

The following paper was placed in the depôt by Burke before starting:--


"Depôt No. 2, Cooper's Creek, Camp 65. The return party from Carpentaria
consisting of myself, Wills and King (Gray dead), arrived here last
night, and found that the depôt party had started on the same day. We
proceed on to-morrow slowly down the creek to Adelaide, by Mount
Hopeless, and shall endeavour to follow Gregory's track, but we are very
weak. The two camels are done up and we shall not be able to travel
faster than two or three miles a day. Gray died on the road from
exhaustion and fatigue. We have all suffered much from hunger. The
provisions left here will, I think, restore our strength. We have
discovered a practicable route to Carpentaria, the chief portion of which
lies on 140 deg. of east longitude. There is some good country between
this and the Stony Desert. From there to the tropics the country is dry
and stony. Between the tropics and Carpentaria a considerable portion is
rangy, but it is well-watered and richly-grassed. We reached the shores
of Carpentaria on February 11th, 1861. Greatly disappointed at finding
the party here gone.

"(Signed) ROBERT O'HARA BURKE.

"April 22, 1861.

"P.S.--The camels cannot travel, and we cannot walk or we should follow
the other party. We shall move very slowly down the creek."


After resting four or five days, and finding great advantage from their
change of diet, the three men started, but one of the camels got bogged,
and had to be shot as he lay in the creek, the explorers cutting off what
meat they could from the body, and staying a couple of days to dry it in
the sun. When they again started, the one camel they had left carried
most of what they had, and they each took with them a bundle of about
twenty-five pounds; but they made no progress, all the creeks they
followed to the southward ran out into earthy plains and their one
solitary beast of burden being knocked up, they had to return.

Now commenced a terrible struggle for mere existence the camel being past
recovery, was shot, and the meat dried, and then the men tried to live,
after the fashion of the blacks, on fish and nardoo. The natives were
especially kind to the unfortunate men. In Wills' diary we find frequent
mention of the liberal hospitality they extended to them, but to a great
extent the novelty soon died out, and the blacks began to find their
white guests rather an encumbrance, and soon commenced shifting their
camps to avoid the burden of their support.

On the 27th May, Wills started alone to the depôt to deposit the
journals, and a note stating their condition. He reached there on the
30th, and says in his diary:--


"No traces of anyone, except blacks, have been here since we left.
Deposited some journals and a notice of our present condition."


This was the notice:--


"May 30th, 1861.

"We have been unable to leave the creek. Both camels are dead. Mr. Burke
and King are down on the lower part of the creek. I am about to return to
them, when we shall probably all come up this way. We are trying to live
the best way we can, like the blacks, but we find it hard work. Our
clothes are going fast to pieces. Send provisions and clothes as soon as
possible.

"(Signed) WILLIAM J. WILLS."

"The depôt party having left, contrary to instructions, has put us in
this fix. I have deposited some of my journals here for fear of
accidents."


Having done this, Wills returned to his companions, being fed by the
friendly natives on his way back. During the intercourse that of
necessity they had had with the blacks during their detention on Cooper's
Creek, they had noticed the extensive use the natives made of the seeds
of the nardoo [See Appendix.] plant as an article of food; but for a long
time they were unable to find out this plant, nor would the blacks show
it to them. At last King accidentally found it, and, by its aid, they now
managed to prolong their lives. But the seeds had to be gathered,
cleaned, pounded and cooked, and even after all this labour (and to men
in their state it was labour) very little nourishment was derived from
eating it. An occasional crow or hawk was shot, and, by chance, a little
fish obtained from the natives, and as this was all they could get, they
were sinking rapidly. At last they decided that Burke and King should go
up the creek and endeavour to find the natives and get food from them.
Wills, who was now so weak as to be unable almost to move, was left lying
under some boughs, with an eight days' supply of water and nardoo, the
others trusting that before that time they would have returned to him.

On the 26th June the two men started, and poor Wills was left to meet his
death alone. He must have retained his consciousness almost to the last.
So exhausted was he, that death must have been only like a release from
the trouble of living. His last entries, though giving evidences of
fading faculties, are almost cheerful. He jocularly alludes to himself as
Micawber, waiting for something to turn up. It is evident that he had
given up hope, and waited for death's approach in a calm and resigned
frame of mind, without fear, like a good and gallant man.

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