قراءة كتاب Australian Heroes and Adventurers

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Australian Heroes and Adventurers

Australian Heroes and Adventurers

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camels escaped from them, and he and his companions were forced to return on foot. Fortunately for them they found a pool on their way back to the depôt, but the camels were never recovered. On another occasion Wills and King got into a stony desert. The knowledge obtained by means of these and other short excursions was not of an encouraging nature to the explorers.

After waiting at Cooper's Creek for more than a month, the advance party grew tired of their life of inaction, and made preparations for the journey to the Gulf of Carpentaria. As Wright did not come forward as expected, Burke got impatient, and decided to subdivide the few men he had with him as follows:—Four men were to remain at the depôt, one of them named William Brahé in command; and were to construct a stockade while waiting for Wright, and when he had arrived they were to seek a more available and direct route to the Darling. The rest of the little party—Burke, Wills, King, and Gray—were to push forward to the Gulf, and were to take with them six of the camels, one horse, and three months' provisions.

On 16th December the little band of explorers bade their companions good-bye, and started northwards. As they proceeded, Burke and Wills walked ahead, while Gray and King followed behind, leading the horse and the six camels. Burke himself seldom wrote, but Wills, every evening after taking astronomical observations, wrote his diary, and then read it to Burke, who made such alterations in it as he thought necessary. Their allowance of provisions were a pound of flour and a pound of meat daily, with a little rice occasionally, and the party camped out every evening without tents. In his admirable history of the Exploration of Australia, a work published in 1865, and containing, in addition to the adventures of the explorers, a very lucid description of the physical features of the continent, so far as they had been made known by the journeys and discoveries previous to the year 1863, the Rev. Mr. Woods writes in reference to this journey:—"No doubt this self-denying mode of proceeding was very heroic and courageous, but was it necessary? It certainly does seem a pity that after the great care taken to equip the party adequately, that its main work should have been done by a feeble party, badly provisioned, and subject to the disadvantage of crossing the country on foot. The work was done, it is true, but done in an imperfect way. No one could expect four poorly-fed men to manage six camels, to force their way through untrodden scrubs, and yet keep a journal and make observations. No one could expect it, and it was not done. The journal left is most incomplete, and to this day several portions of the route are still matters of dispute."

For some distance the exploring quartette travelled over well-watered country. Numerous parties of natives were met with, but they were friendly to the whites. Mr. Wills writes of a tribe of these:—"They pestered us to go to their camp and have a dance, which we declined. They were very troublesome, and nothing but a threat to shoot them will keep them away. They are, however, easily frightened; and although fine-looking men, decidedly not of a warlike disposition. They show the greatest inclination to take whatever they can, but will run no unnecessary risk in so doing. They seldom carry any weapon except a shield and a large kind of boomerang, which I believe they use for killing rats, etc. Sometimes, but very seldom, they have a large spear; reed spears seem to be quite unknown to them. They are undoubtedly a finer-looking race of men than the blacks on the Murray and Darling, and more peaceful; but in other respects I believe they will not compare favourably with them. They appear to be mean-spirited and contemptible in every respect." After the explorers had passed through this fertile country, they had to cross about twenty miles of stony desert. On the other side of it they came upon an earthy plain of about nine miles. Then another nine miles of travelling through swampy plains brought them to the banks of a magnificent stream. The four men followed up this creek from point to point of the bends, and on the 7th of January camped well within the tropics. Afterwards they entered upon immense fertile plains, with innumerable creeks coursing through them, on the banks of which gum and box-trees and splendid grass grew luxuriantly. Pigeons and wild ducks were also found in abundance. For five days the travellers marched over these flourishing plains. Then they crossed over a series of low sandstone hills, and after passing over a stony plain came upon a range of mountains, which they called the Standish Ranges. On 27th of January the explorers reached Cloncurry Creek, one of the derivative streams of the river Flinders. They had afterwards to travel over swampy ground; the camels could not be got along, so all of them were abandoned. On the 9th of February, King and Gray were left behind with the bulk of the provisions, while Burke and Wills, taking the horse with them to carry supplies sufficient for three days, pushed forward towards the sea. They had to cross over patches of swampy ground; a great deal of it was so soft and rotten that the horse got bogged, and it was only by digging him out that he could be extricated. After great difficulty and delay they managed to do this. Then they came across some tableland, and beyond that a plain covered with water, which in some places reached up to their knees. After wading through several miles of this swamp, they came again to dry land. Further on they met a few natives, who, on seeing the explorers, decamped immediately, leaving behind in their hurried departure some yams, which were at once appropriated to appease the sharp hunger of Burke and Wills. A small distance beyond they reached a narrow inlet on the shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria. A forest of Mangroves intercepted their view of the open sea beyond, so the two heroic men attempted to advance through it. The horse had by this time become too weak to advance further, therefore they hobbled him, and hastened forward without him. But the two gallant fellows were soon obliged to relinquish their attempt to pierce the thick undergrowth. They could not obtain a view of the open ocean, although they made every effort to do so. 'Tis true their mission was accomplished; they had crossed the continent to within a mile or two of its northern shore—the victory was gained! But now the necessities of the case compelled the triumphant explorers to immediately hurry back to Cooper's Creek.

J. A. King.

J. A. King.


CHAPTER II.

THE RETURN JOURNEY.

The two leaders returned to King and Gray on the 12th February 1861. The explorers soon afterwards recaptured all the camels, which had been greatly improved in condition by their rest. The remainder of the return journey was singularly disastrous. At first the progress was very much retarded by the incessant rain that deluged the whole country. Sickness commenced with Gray, and then Burke suffered a severe attack of dysentry, owing to his having eaten of the flesh of a large snake that he had killed. Their provisions became sadly reduced, and one camel, then another, had to be killed, in order to eke out their scanty supplies. On 6th of March one of the camels became bogged, and they were compelled to leave it. On the 20th, 60 lbs. of baggage were abandoned. They killed another camel on the 30th, and on the 6th of April they killed the

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