The monotony of their life was, however, rudely broken up at this encampment by the blacks. During their stay several natives had made their appearance, and had been kindly received and treated. No suspicions of treachery were aroused, and the explorers were just concluding their evening meal when Young caught sight of a body of armed men approaching, and gave the alarm in time for the whites to stand to their weapons.

Giles says in his journal that they were a "drilled and perfectly organized force," if so, they must have been a higher cla.s.s of natives than the usual type of blackfellows, whose proceedings, as a rule, have little organization about them. A discharge from the whites was in time to check them before any spears were thrown, otherwise, from the number of their a.s.sailants and the method of their attack, it was probable that the whole party would have been murdered.

On leaving this camp the caravan travelled through dense scrubs, with occasional hills and open patches; in fact, the country that has of necessity been so often described in these pages. They were fortunate enough to find some native wells on their route, and on the 4th of November arrived at an outside sheep station.

The result of this trip, satisfactory as it no doubt was to the leader, who thus saw his many gallant efforts at last crowned with success, had little or no other fruits to show, not even the negative one of proving that the desert they had pa.s.sed through was an absolutely waterless waste. The very water that saved their lives they were pa.s.sing by unheeded; and it was impossible for them to say whether similar formations did not exist on either hand of their line of march.

Like Warburton's, only without the suffering from starvation, it was a hasty flight on camels, through an unknown country, and, like his, barren of results beyond a thin line on the map of Australia.

Expeditions such as these must be looked at from two points of view; whilst admiring the fort.i.tude and resolution possessed by the leader who takes his party through such a waste in safety, we must regret that fuller information and more patient deductions had not been gained. The fact of having the means, in their camels, to venture on long dry stages with impunity, led them to disdain the careful manner in which Forrest felt his way across; but in the end that explorer had certainly the best idea of the country he had travelled over.

Giles now retraced his steps from Western Australia to the overland line, following a track to the north of Forrest's route. He went by way of the Murchison, and crossed over to the Ashburton, which river he followed up to the head. Then striking to the south of east he came on to his former track of 1873, at the Alfred and Marie Range; the range he had so vainly striven to reach when the unfortunate man Gibson, met his death. He finally arrived at the Peake station, on the telegraph line.

Few watercourses were crossed, the country was suffering from extreme drought, and no discoveries of any importance were made.

The journeys of the late explorers had greatly lessened the area of the country in which fresh discoveries could be looked for; true, the results had not been encouraging. The utter and complete want of a river system, even of the rudest kind, in the western half of the interior of Australia, was plainly shown. No continuous line of country could even be traced as corresponding on the routes of the different travellers, and unfortunately, where good country was found, the want of surface water held out no encouragement for the grazier to follow up the explorers'

footsteps. The reclamation of this country it was evident would have to be a work of time, and would be dependent greatly on the facility with which the underground supplies could be tapped. That these supplies exist, the pioneer work carried on, on the outskirts of the desert, has proved beyond a doubt; how far they will be carried into the interior remains to be seen.

CHAPTER XIII.

Further explorations around Lake Eyre--Lewis equipped by Sir Thomas Elder--He traces the lower course of the Diamantina--Expedition to Charlotte Bay under W. Hann--A survivor of the wreck of the Maria--Discovery of the Palmer--Gold prospects found--Arrival on the east coast--Dense scrub--Return--The Palmer rush--Hodgkinson sent out--Follows down the Diamantina--Discovery of the Mulligan--Mistaken for the Herbert--Private expedition--The Messrs. Prout--Buchanan--F. Scarr--The QUEENSLANDER expedition--A dry belt of country--Native rites--A good game bag--Arrival at the telegraph line--Alexander Forrest--The Leopold Range--Caught between the cliffs and the sea--Fine pastoral country found--Arrival at the Katherine--The Northern Territory and its future.

But although the country to the east of the telegraph line had up to the year 1874 received such a large share of attention, in fact, the princ.i.p.al share, there yet remained much unknown territory to investigate, and many geographical problems to determine. Chief amongst these was the definition of the many affluents of Lake Eyre.

The western district of Queensland was drained by rivers of great magnitude, that found their way through South Australia into the lake; but their many channels, and the direction and size of them had never been fully determined. To further this end, Sir Thomas Elder equipped Mr.

Lewis, who, it will be remembered, did such good service on Colonel Warburton's expedition, and under his leadership an expedition was undertaken which resulted in much valuable information being gained.

Starting from the overland telegraph line, Lewis skirted Lake Eyre to the north, and penetrated to Eyre's Creek, in Queensland territory, and traced that creek and the Diamantina into Lake Eyre; also confirming the opinion so often advanced that the waters of Cooper's Creek found their way into that receptacle, as well as the more westerly streams.

In Queensland the Government had decided upon further exploration of the northern promontory ending in Cape York. More than eight years had elapsed since the Jardines had made their dashing trip, and their report taken in conjunction with Kennedy's did not offer much inducement for anyone to follow up their footsteps; but as there was yet a tract of country at the base of the promontory comparatively unknown, a party was organised and placed under the leadership of Mr. William Hann, one of the pioneer squatters of the north of Queensland.

The object of the trip was in the main an examination of the country as far north as the 14th parallel, with a special view to its mineral and other resources; the discovery of gold so far north in Queensland having caused a hope to be entertained that its existence would continue along the promontory.

Hann had with him as geologist a Mr. Taylor, and as botanist, Dr. Tate, a survivor of the melancholy New Guinea expedition that left Sydney in the brig MARIA, only to suffer wreck on the Barrier Reef, where, in the sea and amongst the cannibals north of Rockingham Bay, most of the unfortunates left their bones. Apparently, his ardour for exploration had not been damped by his narrow escape.

One other member of the party, a Mr. Nation, was destined to meet a tragic death by starvation in the newly-settled district of the northern territory of South Australia. The party left Fossilbrook station, on Fossilbrook Creek, a tributary of the Lynd, which would be north of the starting point of the Jardines.

On leaving this creek they pa.s.sed over much rugged and broken country, the scene of Leichhardt's first trip, and a spot which presented many indications of being auriferous. Here they devoted some days unsuccessfully to prospecting, and on resuming their northern journey came to a large river, which was named the Tate. Four days afterwards another one was struck, which received the name of the Walsh.

From the Walsh the party crossed to the upper part of the Mitch.e.l.l River, and thence to a creek marked on Kennedy's map as "creek ninety yards wide," which was called the Palmer, and here Warner, the surveyor, found prospects of gold. Some further examination of the river resulted in likely-looking results being obtained, and the find is now a matter of history, verified by the discovery of one of the richest goldfields in Queensland on the waters of this river.

Above the Palmer, Hann came across a memorial of the trip of the Jardines in the tracks of some (or descendants) of the cattle, dropped by them, but he was unable to find them. This was on a creek which, he supposed, to be the one named by them the Kendall.

These animals had, no doubt, led a rather hara.s.sed life from the natives since they had last been seen by the whites.

On the 1st September, Hann reached his northern limit, the 14th parallel of lat.i.tude, and the next day commenced the ascent of the dividing range between eastern and western waters. A few days afterwards he sighted the sea, at Princess Charlotte's Bay.

From this point the party turned south, and soon came to a large river, which was named the Normanby, and here a slight skirmish occurred with the natives, with whom they had hitherto been on friendly terms. Whilst the men were collecting the horses in the morning, and not suspecting treachery, a body of blacks attempted to cut them off, each native being well armed with a bundle of spears. A few shots, however, at long distance were sufficient to disperse them, so that, fortunately, the affair ended without bloodshed.

On the 21st September, Hann came to the Endeavour, a river well-known in the history of Australia. Whilst entangled in the scrub on the upper reaches of this stream he had the misfortune to lose one of his best horses by poison, two others having also eaten of the weed.

At this point the party had terrible work to encounter; the old obstacles that had so r.e.t.a.r.ded Kennedy were met with--scrub impenetrable, and steep ravines. Tracks had to be cut through the vines, and the horses led on foot down perilous descents. This went on for days, and an attempt to reach the sea coast and continue their intended route south, ended in involving them in a perfect sea of scrub, and the final conclusion that advance for white men and horses was impossible. Hann had reluctantly to make up his mind to return to the west, and abandon the fresh ground to the south of him.

After many entanglements in the ranges, and the usual confusion arising from the tortuous courses of the rivers, the watershed was at last crossed, and on the 28th October they camped once more on the Palmer River. From here they returned over the country formerly traversed on the outward course, and exploring came to an end.

The work had been very hard, especially during the time the party had been impeded in the scrubs of the east coast, which fully bore out the reports of the survivors of Kennedy's expedition as to the terribly toilsome nature of the labour to be undergone in cutting a track through them. Hann was lucky in not having his party attacked by sickness during his detention in such a dangerous locality; they all returned in safety.

The gold discoveries on the Palmer, and the rush there which occurred soon after this expedition, led to a vast deal of exploration being done under the name of prospecting. Small parties were out in all directions on the rivers named and crossed by Hann and the heads of those named by Leichhardt, the Lynd and the Gilbert, were ransacked and searched in every direction.

In 1875, the Queensland Government decided to send out an expedition to decide upon the amount of pastoral country existing to the westward of the Diamantina River, and see if it extended to the boundary of the colony. It was placed under the command of W. O. Hodgkinson, who had already seen considerable experience as an explorer, having been one of the members of the Burke and Wills party, and also a member of M'Kinlay's expedition when he traversed the continent. The second in charge was a mining surveyor and mineralogist, Mr. E. A. Kayzer.

Although the expedition was organised as early as September, it was not thought politic to start so soon before the impending wet season, so the party were directed to muster at the Etheridge (goldfield), and occupy the time between then and the end of the year, in examining and reporting on the country between there and Cloncurry gold-field, on the Cloncurry River, which was to be the final point of departure.

After some minor excursions in the neighbourhood of the Cloncurry, Hodgkinson and party left that place in May, 1876, and proceeded across the dividing watershed to the Diamantina River, and followed that river down to below the boundary of the colony of Queensland and South Australia, where it received the name of the Everett, from Lewis.

This much of the progress of the North West Expedition, as it was called, included little country not already known, and, moreover, at this time the district was being settled on in all parts by the pioneer squatters, the tracks of whose cattle were now up and down the whole length of the river.

From the lower Diamantina, Hodgkinson made west towards the boundary of the colony, and beyond Eyre's Creek found a fine watercourse running through good pastoral country, which he branded with the name of the Mulligan River. Following this river up, and finding it alternately well and poorly watered, the party crossed from the head of it on to the Herbert, unwitting that they had done so, and followed that river on until they overtook Buchanan, Landsborough's old companion, who, with a mob of cattle, was re-stocking the Herbert.

As this country had been at one time stocked, and stations formed and abandoned, exploration may be considered to have ceased. The surveys of Messrs. Scarr and Jopp soon explained the mistake fallen into by Hodgkinson as to the ident.i.ty of Landsborough's Herbert and his own Mulligan. It will be remembered that in the central districts, the watersheds are so low and the size of the rivers so uncertain, that to find a watercourse dwindle away into nothing in one mile, and expand into a river the next is not at all surprising, so that to leave the head of a river and come on to another running in the same direction, it would appear quite feasible that it was the same river re-formed.

This was the last exploring expedition sent out by the Queensland Government; their colony being now nearly entirely known, and in fact the earlier squatters of the Herbert, before its abandonment in 1874, were settled some distance across into South Australian territory.

Unfortunately, the commercial depression of 1871 and 1872 led to the stations on the Herbert being thrown up, and the country, good as it was, lapsed into its original state of loneliness, and remained for many years quite unoccupied.

Although Queensland herself had little or no territory within her own borders left to explore, the energy and enterprise of her pioneers led to many private explorations being organized across the border into the colony of South Australia, or rather into the northern territory of that colony. Amongst those undertaken in the year 1878 may be instanced one which resulted in the loss of the entire party.

Induced by the favourable terms offered by the South Australian Government to pastoral lessees in the Northern Territory, two brothers named Prout started out with one man, looking for country across the Queensland border. They never returned, and it was not until they had been given up for months that some of their horses, and finally the bones of one of the brothers, were discovered by Mr. W. J. H. Carr Boyd.

It was evident, from the fragments of a diary recovered, that they had extended their researches far into South Australian territory, and met their death by thirst on their homeward way, probably from some of the waters they depended upon for their return having failed them.

In the same year Buchanan made an excursion to the overland line from the border of Queensland. Crossing from the Ranken--one of the main heads of the Georgina River, and so called after one of the pioneers of that district, J. C. L. Ranken--Buchanan on a westerly course, came to the head of a creek, running through fine open downs; following it down for some days he eventually lost its channel in flooded country, and striking across a belt of dry country arrived at Tennant's Creek station on the overland line. This creek, which received the name of Buchanan's Creek, was a most important discovery, affording in future a highway and stock route to the great pastoral district lying between the Queensland border and the overland line.

The next to attack this unknown strip was Frank Scarr, a Queensland surveyor. He tried to cross the line, to the south of Buchanan's track, but was prevented by the waterless belt of country existing there. During one of his excursions he found the horses of the ill-fated Prout Brothers, already alluded to.

Finding he could not reach the country he desired to, from the Queensland border, Scarr made north, and by means of Buchanan's Creek arrived at Tennant's Creek station; but owing to the dry season, did not extend his researches further.

In the same year, 1878, a project for an overland railway line, between Brisbane and Port Darwin, was inaugurated in the former city. The principle of building the line by means of land grants being one of the chief features of the scheme. Mr. Gresley Lukin, the then proprietor of the leading Brisbane newspaper, organised and equipped a party to explore a line of country, the object being to find out the nature and value of the land in the neighbourhood of the proposed line, and the geographical features of the unexplored portion.

The party left Blackall, then the furthest township to the westward in Queensland, the leader being Mr. E. Favenc, accompanied by Messrs. S. G.

Briggs (surveyor), G. R. Hedley, and a black boy.

From Blackall the party struck across the settled pastoral districts until they arrived at Cork station, on the Diamantina. From there they kept a north-westerly route through the then unexplored country lying between the Burke and Herbert Rivers. From the Herbert the Ranken was followed up for some distance, and the route was then to Buchanan's Creek, and down that creek to the last permanent water. From here the party struck north, and some permanent waters were discovered, amongst them being the Corella Lagoon, the finest lagoon in that district. Two lakes of large extent were also seen and named, but, although at the time of the explorer's visit they were extensive sheets of water, seven or eight miles in circ.u.mference, they were so shallow for a mile from their sh.o.r.es, that at that distance, they were only knee deep.

A singular feature of the lakes of this depressed region, was the fringe of dead trees that surrounded them. From the age of the trees, and even borders of all the lake beds seen, both dry and full, it was evident that this must have been the result of an excessive flood, which had inundated this district during some past year.