The Explorers (33 page)
Saturday Septr. 14th.âGot my cloths dry the weather still very Bad so wet that we are obliged to remain untill Monday casterated a young Cock for Mr McLeayâ¦
Wednesday Septr. 18th.âThe weather still favourable I leave here to accompany the Teams which are wating a short distance at a place called Mount Hunter left Mount Hunter this Morning at 9 ockâ¦the Roads not the best and the Bullocks young and troublesome in travelling i collected a few Insectsâ¦I slept in a Team with an old Tarpolian over me, I must say it was anything but comfortable night fine shot nothingâ¦
Friday Septr. 20th.âThe morng. very gloomy and likely to rain had a smart showerâ¦shot 1 mock Diamond Bird 1 yellow-eared Honey sucker and 2 common Birds saw nothing rareâone of our Bullocks droped on the Road which prevents us from going any furtherâ¦
Monday Septr. 23rd.âUp at sunrise the morning fine but stormy we start from here about 7 oclk. feel Rather bettor in health
thank god
during the day I got very I11 so much so that I am determined to return by the mail tomorrow morng. Toward Evening we reached Luctam's Publick House and I their made enquiries about my fair to Sydney I thought by leaving my Box and other things that he might forward me on the Coach but the answer I received from him was dam his Eyes if he would forward his motherâ¦
Wednesday Septr. 25th.âThe morning very dark and likely to rain we are obliged to remane here all day as our Bullocks are compleatly nocked up for want of food some of them are not able to walkâ¦my stomach very raw and sore attribute it solely to makeing use of the damper which is half of it raw Badly Baked I have longily this last week for a Potatoe and I put on a bold face and Begged a few on the Road which I found to do me a great deal of goodâ¦
Thursday Septr. 26th.âThe morning fine saw a Black Satin Bird took a long ramble in the Bush saw nothing uncommon returned about 12 oclock one of our best Bullocks lost and 3 or 4 compleatly shook so that we cannot stir to day Woolingong is only 20 miles from us. I am quite tired of this mode of collecting in fact it is a very great loss of time as to get anything new along the Roads it is impossible I account for it in this way the Birds and animals are compleatly driven into Bush for miles oweing to the number of Teams and other vaicles going the Road many Persons with teams I notice carry guns and shoot every thing the
see
, worth haveing whether they have any
use
for it or not so that I consider this mode of collecting will never answer I am compleatly sick of Bullock driving and Bullock drivers their company is anything but edifyingâ¦
Saturday Septr. 28th.ââ¦during the day we had a visit from a Bush Rainger one of the men fortunately was with me he demanded Tobacco but was told by the man that we had but very little when we startedâ¦the Bush Rainger not finding Tobacco was just in the act of putting his hands on the Gun which was lying against a tree when the man took it and placed it in one of our drays greatly against the wishes of the Bush Rainger no doubt as he might with eas â
Bailed
' us up and helpt himself to what he pleased I had a long walk in the morning and shot 1 sattin Bird male, 2 Black headed shrikes males and 1 Kangaroo rat female, with young the night very dark no Moon.
Sunday Septr. 29th.ââ¦made 12 miles in all this was the best days travelling we had sinse we started =
Bad is the Bush
= we met a tribe of Blacks returning from the Berama Racesâ¦
Saturday October 5th.âWe left Medigang eirly this morng. and proceeded on our journey for Browlow Hill where we expect to reach with smart walking and a
Gods assistenec
by Sundown it is a distance of 33 miles Parts of the day very wet and the Road very Bad and hevey we arrived late at night when I arrived I was compleatly stiffened and suffered a great deel of Pain in my legs in fact I thought I should have droped before I got their. Mr Clark the overseer was compleatly punalised when he saw us and sayed the cattle must have been illused as they never would have Died on the Roadâ¦I went to bed and scarcely able to go that far the night wet and very dark never saw one Bird on my journey or anything else worth collecting.
Sunday October 6th.âThe morning fine when I awoke could scarsely stand with Pains in my legs but during the day I got a diel better I thought to borrow as much money as would take me to Sydney but a man might as well expect to fly as get a shilling from anyone on the farmâ¦
Sunday October 13th.âNo change has taken place in the weather as yet raning all last night and continues to do so today during the day in rane fell in torrens everything I have is in a mess of wet Bed clothing and all in fact my situation at pressent is anything but eviable to describe the miseary which I am placed in is impossible. Some portions of the day I go to a few burning lims wich are collected together for a fire or at least intended for one and their stand looking at the smoke as if it could warm or dry me when I grow tired of that
Move
I go to the dray and sit under it for an hour or so and in this way I spend the dayâ¦
Thursday October 17th.âThis morning the weather chainged and I am extremely happy to say for the better we have at last a fine day the sun during the day very warm so that we were able to get our bed and bedding dried had the Rain continued much longer everything we had must have perrished everything we had in the Team was wet through and must have wrotted in another day or two this day we were without provisions of any sort and had to go to bed with nothing but a drink of sugar and water this day we had to go and beg but unfortunately for us we were unsuccessfull in our attempt all we could get was a promise for tomorrow I went out into the Bush for several hours but could see nothing but magpies and Crows not a single specimen worth shooting either for Eating or Preserving such a miserable place as this for specimens I never was inâ¦
Friday October 18th.âStill in the same place this morning I went out eirly into the Bush in hope of collecting the Eirly Worm but the worm provied to be a snake wich was the only thing I sawâ¦during the day the other two men came up with the Team and they brought with them a little provision about as much as will last two days with care so that we are here to a pegâ¦
Tuesday October 22nd.âA glorious morning everything right and Start eirly. This is my birthday I am 29 years of age todayâwe had an excellent day travelling 25 miles we went through Goulbourn and campt at a place called the Run of Waters. Goulbourn is a beautiful inland town by far the pretiest I have seen in the Colony it is built on a plain which extends for several miles with a splendid river running through the center previous to our arriving at Goulbourn our team got stuck in a mud holeâ¦
Thursday October 24th.âThe day extremely hot I finde it very tiresome travelling yesterday we traveled 22 miles and today we expect to go as many more I have to walk all the way as we have a very heavy load and only 2 horses my feet are cut and my Boots have no soulsâ¦
Saturday October 26th.âThe morning dark and very cold. Soon after we started it commenced to rane and continued to rain hail and snow all day part of the day the men amused themselves throwing snow Ballsâ¦
Wednesday October 30th.âThe morning fine started at sun rise and reached the station about 8 oclock had to swim the horses and Team over 2 Creeks which wet everything we had on our arrival we met Mr George McLeay and Mr Gunn the overseer who were delighted to see us and seemed surprised at our making the journey in so short a time I have now compleated my long and tiresome journey of 350 miles thank god in good health and trust with
gods blessing
to finde some new specimensâ
Commandant! Come Here, Very Good, 1844
Ludwig Leichhardt, Prussian by birth and educated in Paris, arrived in Australia in 1840, and died somewhere in the vast outback sometime after 26 February 1848. Attempts to solve the mystery of Leichhardt's disappearance did much to spur further exploration.
His greatest work was the expedition from Brisbane to Port Essington, north-east of Darwin, in 1844â45. Here we join him in the vicinity of what is now Kakadu National Park, on the final leg home. He encounters not only Aborigines who speak English, but water buffaloes escaped from the abandoned settlement at Raffles Bay. Leichhardt was a culinary explorer; his willingness to experiment with native foods doubtless contributed to his success.
December 2âWhilst we were waiting for our bullock, which had returned to the running brook, a fine native stepped out of the forest with the ease and grace of an Apollo, with a smiling countenance, and with the confidence of a man to whom the white face was perfectly familiar. He was unarmed, but a great number of his companions were keeping back to watch the reception he should meet with. We received him, of course, most cordially; and upon being joined by another good-looking little man, we heard him utter distinctly the words, âCommandant!', âCome here!', âVery good!', âWhat's your name?'
If my readers have at all identified themselves with my feelings throughout this trying journey, if they have only imagined a tithe of the difficulties we have encountered, they will readily imagine the startling effect which these, as it were, magic words producedâwe were electrifiedâour joy knew no limits, and I was ready to embrace the fellows who, seeing the happiness with which they inspired us, joined, with a most merry grin, in the loud expression of our feelings. We gave them various presents, particularly leather belts, and received in return a great number of bunches of goose feathers, which the natives use to brush away the flies. They know the white people of Victoria, and called them Balanda, which is nothing more than âHollanders', a name used by the Malays from whom they received it.
â
We had most fortunately a small collection of words, made by Mr Gilbert when at Port Essington, so that we were enabled to ask for water (
obert
); for the road (
allun
); for
limbo cardja
, which was the name of the harbour. I wished very much to induce them to become our guides; and the two principal men, Eooanberry and Minorelli, promised to accompany us, but they afterwards changed their minds.
My first object was to find good water, and our sable friends guided us with the greatest care, pointing out to us the most shady road to some wells surrounded with ferns which were situated in some tea-tree hollows at the confines of the plains and the forest. These wells, however, were so small that our horses could not approach to drink, so that we had to go to another set of wells, where I was obliged to stop, as one of our horses refused to go any farther. This place was about four miles
ENE
from our last camp. The wells were about six or eight feet deep, and dug through a sandy clay to a stiff bed of clay, on which the water collected. It would appear that the stiff clay of the plains had been covered by the sandy detritus of the ridges, from which the water slowly drained to the wells.
It was evident, from the pains which the natives had taken in digging them, that the supply of fresh water was very precarious. In many instances, however, I observed that they had been induced to do so simply by the want of surface water in the immediate neighbourhood of places where they obtained their principal supply of food. This was particularly the case near the sea-coast, where no surface water is found; whilst the various fish, and even vegetable productions, attract the natives who will, in such a case, even contract the habit of going the longest possible time without water or, at least, with very little, as is well shown in Mr Eyre's journey round the Australian Bight. We had to water our horses and the bullock with the stew pot; and had to hobble the latter, to prevent his straying and attacking the natives.
The natives were remarkably kind and attentive and offered us the rind of the rose-coloured eugenia apple, the cabbage of the seaforthia palm, a fruit which I did not know, and the nut-like swelling of the rhizoma of either a grass or a sedge. The last had a sweet taste, was very mealy and nourishing, and the best article of the food of the natives we had yet tasted. They called it
allamurr
(the natives of Port Essington,
murnatt
) and were extremely fond of it. The plant grew in depressions of the plains, where the boys and young men were occupied the whole day in digging for it. The women went in search of other food; either to the sea-coast to collect shellfishâand many were the broad paths which led across the plains from the forest land to the salt waterâor to the brushes to gather the fruits of the season, and the cabbage of the palms.
The men, armed with a wommala, and with a bundle of goose spears, made of a strong reed or bamboo (?), gave up their time to hunting.
â
It seemed that they speared the geese only when flying, and would crouch down whenever they saw a flight of them approaching: the geese, however, knew their enemies so well that they immediately turned upon seeing a native rise to put his spear into the throwing stick. Some of my companions asserted that they had seen them hit their object at the almost incredible distance of 200 yards: but, making all due allowance for the guess, I could not help thinking how formidable they would have been had they been enemies instead of friends.