During the time this last expedition had been endeavouring to proceed east, A. C. Gregory was put in charge of a party to make for the north, and ascertain the value of the country reported by Grey as existing on the Gascoyne. On his way, Gregory reported favourably of the country around Champion Bay, which had been extolled by Gray, and subsequently condemned by Captain Stokes. Beyond the Murchison, he did not succeed in penetrating any considerable distance; being turned back at all points, after repeated attempts, by the tract of impervious scrub that intervened between the Murchison and the Gascoyne. He therefore returned, without seeing the latter river, having attained a distance of three hundred and fifty miles north of Perth. On their return to the Murchison, a vein of galena was discovered, and the river traced upwards and downwards for a considerable distance. They reached Perth on the 17th November.

The following month Governor Fitzgerald, accompanied by A. C. Gregory, Bland, and three soldiers, went by sea to Champion Bay, and landing some horses, proceeded inland to examine the new mineral discovery. The lode was found to be more important than was at first supposed.

On their return journey to Champion Bay, an affray occurred with the natives. The blacks followed them for some time, their numbers constantly increasing, until fifty well-armed natives were present; in a thick scrub they succeeded in surrounding the whites, and commenced hostilities. The party found it necessary to resort to their firearms, and the Governor fired the first shot, bringing down the leading native, who had just thrown a spear at Gregory. A shower of spears then fell amongst the group of explorers, and the Governor was speared through the leg. The natives were, however, kept at bay, and that afternoon they reached the beach and embarked on board the schooner.

This was the second time an Australian Governor had been wounded by the natives, the first occasion being when Captain Arthur Phillip was speared.

Fears now began to be entertained in the other colonies as to the safety of Leichhardt and his party, and, in consequence of these fears being augmented by the tales and rumours that drifted in from the outside districts, gathered from the natives (referring to the murder of a party of whites to the westward), it was decided to equip an expedition to try and ascertain the truth of these reports.

The party was put in charge of Mr. Hovenden Hely, a former companion of Leichhardt on his second expedition, and in the beginning of 1852 he left Sydney on the search, his instructions being to act as circ.u.mstances should determine him.

About forty miles from Mitch.e.l.l's Mount Abundance he met with the first of a series of native statements that were destined to keep luring him forward on a false scent. The story, as usual, was most circ.u.mstantial, and did credit to the imaginations of the authors; two blacks offered to conduct Hely to the scene of the ma.s.sacre, and under their guidance he started, It was a very dry season, and when they reached Mitch.e.l.l's old depot camp on the Maranoa, where, it will be remembered that his party were encamped for four months, nothing of the fine sheet of water mentioned by him was seen; it had shrunk to a shallow pool in a bed of sand. Here the two guides insisted that the murder had taken place, pointing to the remains of Mitch.e.l.l's encampment as a proof thereof. This naturally led Hely to disbelieve their statement, but the blacks added such details to the original story as almost again convinced him. The most minute search, however, resulted in nothing, and one of the natives managed to make his escape. The other then altered his version of the affair, and shifted the scene of the tragedy to the westward again, and the party struck north-west to the Warrego.

More blacks were met with who confirmed the tale, and one guided them to a water hole in a brigalow scrub, which she said was the place where the tragedy was enacted. She also stated that she was present, and entered into a most minute description of the affair, describing the whole attack. Not the vestige of a trace could be found to give any colour to her story, but ten miles down the river an unmistakeable camping ground was found. There was a tree marked L, the letter being roughly cut into the bark, and inside the letter, X V A was carved; also there were indications that proved that a party of whites had been camped there during wet weather.

Still led on by the natives, Hely at last reached the Nivelle River, when his guides deserted him, and he returned.

On the Warrego he found another camp with a marked tree, exactly similar to the first one, the X V A being repeated, so that it could not have been intended to mean any distinguishing number. He also noticed amongst the natives some tomahawks formed from the battered gullet plates of saddles. His search served only to deepen the mystery around Leichhardt's fate.

The meaning of the marked tree discovered on the Warrego is perplexing, both on account of the recurring letters and its connection with an old camping ground of some white party. Mitch.e.l.l's party were camped in the neighbourhood for some time; his camps were marked from XLI. to XLIll., but the weather was fine and dry during his stay. Kennedy encamped twice in the locality, and he had with him a man named Luff, whereas no name in Mitch.e.l.l's camp began with L; but he, too, crossed the river when the weather was dry, and no bushman could possibly make a mistake about the state of the country during the time a large party had remained stationary in a certain position.

The most likely explanation is that these marks had nothing whatever to do with either Mitch.e.l.l, Kennedy or Leichhardt, having probably been made by some private party out run hunting.

This futile effort to track up the lost explorer has led us away from Western Australia, where again the desert country was to be encountered, and again fruitlessly.

In 1854, Mr. Robert Austin, a.s.sistant Surveyor-General, was given charge of a party to search for available pastoral country, and also (for now the gold fever was at its height), to examine the interior for auriferous deposits.

They started from the head of the Swan River, on a northeasterly course, and on the 16th of July, reached the Cow-cowing Lake, reported by the aborigines, and hoped by the colonists, to be a sheet of fresh water in the Gascoyne valley. The take proved to be dry, and the bed covered with salt incrustation, showing its character when full. Thence Austin made directly north, and pa.s.sed through the wretchedly-repellent country that seemed fated to always cross the path of the western explorer; he directed his course to a distant range of table-topped hills and peaks.

Here they found feed and water, and named the highest point Mount Kenneth, after one of the party, Mr. Kenneth Brown. From thence to the north-east they traversed stony plains, broken by sandstone and ironstone ridges, and intersected by the dry beds of sandy watercourses; and in this country, one of the worst possible misfortunes happened to them.

Their horses got on to a patch of poison plant, and nearly the whole of them were laid up in consequence, and unfit for work. Some few escaped, but the greater number never recovered the effects of the weed, and many died. Pushing hastily on to a safer place to recruit, Austin found himself so crippled by this accident, that he had to abandon all but his most necessary stores for no less than fourteen of the horses having succ.u.mbed.

They now turned north-west to make for Shark's Bay, where a vessel was to be sent to render them a.s.sistance or bring them away, as should be desired.

Their course to Shark's Bay led them over country that offered them no temptation to linger on the way. On the 21st September they found a cave in the face of a cliff, in which were drawings similar to those seen by Gray near the Prince Regent's River. Near this cave was a spring, and, while resting at this camp, one of the party, a young man named Charles Farmer, accidentally shot himself in the arm, and in spite of the most careful attention, the poor fellow died of lock-jaw, in terrible agony.

He was buried at the cave spring camp, and the highest hill in the neighbourhood called Mount Farmer after him. Thus two lonely mountains in the desert interior watch over the graves of men who first saw them-Mount Poole and Mount Farmer.

They now got on to the head waters of the Murchison, or rather the dry channels of these tributaries, and at last reached the Murchison itself; a river with a deep-cut channel, but perfectly dry. Beyond this their efforts were in vain, they fought their way to within a hundred miles of Shark's Bay, but they had then been so long without water that it was courting certain death to proceed. Even during the retreat to the Murchison the lives of the horses were only saved by the party accidentally finding a small native well in a most unexpected situation, namely, in the middle of a bare ironstone plain.

Pushing on ahead of his party, Austin reached the Murchison twenty-five miles south-west of his former course, but the river was the same, or worse, tantalising him with pools of salt water.

A desperate search was made to the southward, during a day of fierce and terrible heat, and when in utter despair they, on the second day, made for some small hills that they sighted, providentially, they found both water and gra.s.s. The whole of the party were then moved to this spot, which out of grat.i.tude was named Mount Welcome.

Nothing daunted by the sufferings he had undergone, Austin now made another attempt to reach Shark's Bay. On their way to the Murchison they captured an old native, and took him with them to point out the watering places of the blacks. At first he was able to show them one or two that they would probably have missed, but after they had crossed the Murchison and got some distance to the westward, the watering places the native had relied on were found to be dry, and it was only after the most acute sufferings from thirst, and the loss of some more horses, that they managed to straggle back to Mount Welcome. Austin's conduct during these terrible marches seems to have approached the heroic. When his companions fell off one by one and laid down to die, and the native inhabitant of the wilds was cowering weeping under a bush, he managed to reach the little well that the blackfellow had formerly shown them, and without resting, tramped back with water to revive his exhausted comrades.

Arrived at Mount Welcome, they found the water there on the point of giving out, and weak as they all were, an instant start had to be made for the Geraldine mine, where a small settlement had been formed to work the galena lode discovered by Gregory. The prospect before them was most discouraging; to the mine the distance was one hundred and sixty miles, and to the highest point on the Murchison, where Gregory had found water, which would be their first stage, was ninety miles, but it had to be done. They started at midnight, and by means of forced marches, travelling day and night, reached Gregory's old camp on the river; having fortunately found a small supply of water at one place on the way. From this point they followed the river down, obtaining water from springs in the banks, and on the 20th November arrived at the mine, where they were warmly entertained. From thence they returned, some by sea and some by land, to Perth.

Austin's exploration had led to no profitable result. The large lake (Moore), that had so hampered Gregory, was found to be an arm or outlet of the still larger Cow-cowing, and that was about all. The upper Murchison had not turned out at all well, and the whole summary of the journal amounts to repet.i.tions of daily struggles with a barren and waterless district, under the fiery sun of the southern summer.

Austin thought that eastward of his limit the country would improve, but subsequent explorations have not borne this out. He had singularly hard fortune to contend against; after the serious loss he sustained in having his horses poisoned, an accident that the greatest care will not always prevent, he was pitted against some of the worst country in Australia--dry, impenetrably scrubby, and barren; and this, too, during the hottest part of the year. That he succeeded in bringing his party safely through such difficulties, was in itself a most wonderful achievement.

CHAPTER VIII.

A. C. Gregory's North Australian expedition in 1855-56, accompanied by Baron Von Mueller and Dr. Elsey--Disappointment in the length of 'the Victoria--Journey to the Westward--Discovery of Sturt's Creek--Its course followed south--Termination in a salt lake--Return to Victoria River --Start homeward, overland--The Albert identified--The Leichhardt christened--Return by the Burdekin and Suttor--Visit of Babbage to Lake Torrens--Expedition by Goyder--Deceived by mirage--Excitement in Adelaide--Freeling sent out--Discovers the error--Hack explores the Gawler Range--Discovers Lake Gairdner--Warburton in the same direction--Swinden and party west of Lake Torrens--Babbage in the Lake District--His long delay--Warburton sent to supersede him--Rival claims to discovery--Frank Gregory explores the Gascoyne in Western Australia --A. C. Gregory follows the Barcoo in search of Leichhardt--Discovery of a marked tree--Arrival in Adelaide--The early explorations of M'Dowall Stuart--Frank Gregory at Nickol Bay--Discovers the Ashburton--Fine pastoral country--Discovers the De Grey and Oakover Rivers--Turned back by the desert--Narrow escape.

In 1855, public interest was once more excited in the mysterious disappearance of Leichhardt; this brought forward the question of further exploration in the interior, and some generous offers were made by private individuals to provide money for the outfit of a party. The English Government, however, working through New South Wales, took the matter in hand and furnished the necessary funds.

The command was given to A. C. Gregory, who had with him the celebrated botanist, Dr. Mueller, and his brother H. C. Gregory. Mr. Elsey, surgeon and naturalist, Mr. Baines, artist, and the requisite number of men made the party up to a total of eighteen. Their live stock consisted of horses and sheep.

The plan of the expedition was to proceed north to the Victoria River, which from the report of Captain Stokes was then considered an important stream, and probably a means of easily gaining the interior.

On the 18th July, 1855, they left Sydney for Moreton Bay, in the barque MONARCH, attended by the schooner TOM TOUGH. At Moreton Bay they took on board the remainder of the party, with fifty horses and two hundred sheep, and after some accidents caused by the MONARCH running on a reef, reached Point Pearce at the mouth of the Victoria River, on the 24th September. Here the horses were landed, much weakened by their voyage, and Gregory, Dr. Mueller, and seven men proceeded to the upper part of the Victoria overland, leaving the schooner to work her way up the river with the sheep on board. The land party first made the Macadam Range, so named by Stokes, thence they went to the Fitzmaurice River, where their horses were attacked by alligators and three of them severely wounded; and on the 10th of October they reached the Victoria, and rejoined the remainder of the party. Unfortunately, troubles had now set in, the schooner was aground on a bank eight miles below the camp, and having sprung a leak a considerable quant.i.ty of stores were damaged; the sheep, too, had been foolishly kept penned up on board, and so many had died that when finally landed the number was reduced to about forty. All this considerably weakened Gregory's resources.

An attempt to ascend the river in an india-rubber boat was a failure, the craft not being adapted to surmount the obstacles encountered in the shape of rocky bars. On the 24th of November, Gregory, with his brother, Dr. Mueller, and Wilson, followed the Victoria to the south, on horseback. The party reached lat.i.tude 161 south, finding the tributary sources of the river to flow from fine open plains, and level forest country, all well gra.s.sed. From this point they returned to camp.

On the 3rd January, 1856, another start was made, with a much larger party, consisting of eight men and thirty horses. On reaching their old point below the 16th parallel, a depot camp was formed, and accompanied by Dr. Mueller, his brother, and one man, Gregory advanced south. The head of the Victoria was found sooner than expected, and crossing the watershed, and following down some small creeks running south through the tableland, they reached a gra.s.sy plain in which these watercourses were lost; beyond, the country was sandy and barren. A westerly course was then kept, and on the 15th the head of a creek was reached, which turning at first northerly, afterwards kept a distinct S.W. course for about three hundred miles. The country pa.s.sed through for a large portion of the upper part was good available pastoral land, but as the lower part of the creek was reached a more desert formation took its place, and at last the creek terminated in extensive salt lakes. Beyond this point no continuation of the channel could be found, and Gregory too easily recognised the aspect of the desert country that had baffled him before.

The creek was named Sturt's Creek, and a prominent hill, parallel with the lowest salt lake was called Mount Mueller. The party then retraced their steps; the water on which they depended in Sturt's Creek drying up so rapidly as to render more extended exploration very hazardous. They rejoined their companions at the depot camp on the Victoria, and making a detour to the eastward, followed down the Wickham, a considerable tributary of the Victoria, to its junction with that river.

Arrangements were now made for the homeward journey by way of the Gulf of Carpentaria; the TOM TOUGH having been repaired and caulked, started for Timor, to obtain more provisions, and then return and meet the party at a rendezvous appointed on the Albert River. The land party consisted of the leader and his brother, Dr. Mueller, Elsey, and three men. They started on the 21st June.

Following up an eastern tributary of the Victoria, they crossed on to a creek running into the Roper, which was called the Elsey, and on this creek a camp was found, which suggested the idea that it had been occupied by whites. It consisted of the framework of a substantial-looking hut, of a different shape to that usually made by the natives; but no marked trees were found, nor anything more seen to confirm the supposition. Thence the party followed down the Roper for some distance, and then crossing the head waters of the Limmen Bight River, skirted the Gulf at some considerable way south of Leichhardt's track, crossing the same rivers that he did, only higher up on their courses. They struck the Nicholson far above where it had been so named by Leichhardt, and following it down reached the rendezvous at the Albert River (which is the outlet of the Nicholson), but the schooner had not arrived.

Gregory determined not to wait, but to proceed home overland. He buried a note at the foot of a marked tree for the information of the schooner people when they should arrive, and on the 3rd of September started. Two days' journey from the true Albert, they reached a stream which Leichhardt had erroneously taken for that river, and many of the errors in his map may be traced as being due to this cause.

This also has led to a good deal of confusion about the Plains of Promise so much vaunted by Captain Stokes, Leichhardt mistaking the level country on the river that bears his name for the spot. Gregory, who rightly identified the place, professes great disappointment with them compared to what he had been led to expect. Since then many conflicting opinions have been given as to their value. Settlement, however, as it generally does, decided the question; they have been found to be very suitable for cattle, but quite unadapted for sheep breeding. Stokes gave them a taking name, which probably led to a false estimate being entertained, as the country is in no way superior to the district to the eastward.

On the morning Gregory left the Leichhardt his party was attacked by the blacks, who were, however, easily repulsed, the leading native being shot in the short struggle. The Flinders was crossed on the 9th of September, but Gregory did not think that it gave promise of draining a very large extent of country. Instead, therefore, of following it up, and thereby lessening his journey, and discovering the beautiful pastoral downs that this most important river flows through, he wandered away to the north, and followed up the Gilbert River, thus duplicating, only further to the south, the eccentric course of Leichhardt. The dividing watershed was crossed on the basaltic plateau at the head of the Burdekin, and this stream was traced to the Suttor junction, where Leichhardt first struck it. They travelled on up the Suttor, and also up the Belyando, connecting with Major Mitch.e.l.l's track. Their course then lay through the country traversed by Leichhardt on both his expeditions, watered by the Mackenzie and the Comet, and on the 22nd November the party reached a station on the Dawson owned by Messrs. Fitz and Connor.

This successful conclusion to such an extensive expedition as he had undertaken, stamped Gregory as possessing the highest qualifications for an explorer. His travels embraced journeys extending over a distance of nearly five thousand miles, and he was absent in all sixteen months. His equipment certainly was of the very best, but a series of unfortunate accidents, which could not have been prevented, left him nearly as short as some of his brother explorers had been. One thing about this journey of Gregory's has always been regretted--the short and scanty record which he published, it being little more than a list of dates, and the distances daily travelled. However we may lament this reticence from a man of Gregory's ability and reputation, it is a pity that his example in this respect had not been followed by some of the explorers of the last two decades.

During Gregory's absence Australia bad lost her renowned explorer Sir Thomas Mitch.e.l.l. He died on the 15th October, near Sydney. He had served on the staff of the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War, and in addition to his energy and activity in the field, was a well read and accomplished scholar.

The unsolved puzzle of the extent, direction, and boundaries of Lake Torrens still occupied the attention and exercised the minds of the South Australian colonists. It seemed almost like a region of enchantment, so conflicting were the accounts brought in by different parties, and so contradictory the statements made.

In 1851, two squatters in search of a run, Messrs. Oakden and Hulkes, pushed out to the western side of Lake Torrens, and according to their account found a most favourable land. They discovered a lake of fresh water, surrounded with good country; and the natives told them of other lakes to the north-west; also 'introducing descriptions of strange animals, whose appearance could have only been equalled by that of the JIMBRA, or apes, of Western Australia, which ruthless animals, according to blackfellows' legend, devoured the survivors of Leichhardt's party, as they straggled into the confines of that colony. Their horses giving in, Oakden and Hulkes returned; but although they applied for a squatting license for the country they had visited, it was not then settled or stocked. In 1856 Mr. Babbage made some explorations on the field to the north, traversed by Eyre and Frome. He penetrated to the plains which were supposed to occupy the central portion of the horseshoe; but, more successful than his predecessors, he found permanent water in a gum creek, and saw some fair-sized sheets of water, one of which he named Blanche Water, or Lake Blanche.

Some excursions to the south-east led to the discovery of some more fresh water and well-gra.s.sed pastoral country, and the natives directed him to a crossing-place in that portion of Lake Torrens that had been sighted in 1845, by Messrs. Poole and Browne, of Captain Sturt's party. Babbage, however, failed to find the place, and lost his horse in the attempt to cross.

In 1857, a Mr. Campbell made an excursion to the west of Lake Torrens, and discovered a creek with fresh water in it, which he called the Elizabeth. He finally came to Lake Torrens which he found in the same condition as other explorers had done--surrounded by barren country.

In April of the same year, a survey in the country where Babbage had been exploring was conducted by Deputy Surveyor-General Goyder, and he certainly got into the land of enchantment. A few miles north of Blanche Water he found many springs bubbling out of the ground, around a fine lagoon, and north was an isolated hill, which he named Weathered Hill.

From the summit of this hill he had a fine specimen of the effect produced by refraction. To the north, or thereabouts, he saw a belt of gigantic gum-trees show out, beyond which appeared a sheet of water with elevated lands on the far side, while to the east was another large lake; all this, however, was but the glamourie of the desert. The gigantic gum trees dwindled down to stunted bushes, and the rising ground to broken clods of earth.

But the greatest surprise was reserved for the time Goyder actually reached Lake Torrens, for he found the water quite fresh. He described it as stretching from fifteen to twenty miles to the north-west, with a water horizon; an extensive bay forming to the southward, while to the north a bluff headland and perpendicular cliffs were clearly discerned with a telescope. From the appearance of the flood-marks, Goyder came to the conclusion that there was little or no rise and fall in the lake, inferring therefrom that its size would absorb the flood waters without showing any variation of level.