Australian Search PartyEden, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
History
Australian Search Party
Eden, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
Australia -- Discovery and exploration
Poor Dunmore was terribly cut up at the premature death of his
follower; Lizzie, having smothered her head with fluffy feathers from
some cockatoos that had been roasted for supper, employed herself in
chanting a most weird kind of dirge over the body, to which she beat a
species of accompaniment on the bottom of a pint pot; while Ferdinand,
by Dunmore's directions, had set to work to strip a sheet of bark off a
tea-tree, to act as a rude coffin. A great difficulty now presented
itself, for we had no tools whatever, and how could we dig a grave? In
such hard ground, knives would make no impression, and the body must be
buried deeply, or it would be rooted up by the dingoes, whose howl we
could plainly hear around us, as they bayed at the moon. We spread
ourselves out in different directions, in the hope of finding some rift
or recess that would answer the purpose, but in the imperfect light, we
failed to discover anything, so were compelled to wait for dawn. I do
not think any of us slept much. One of our little party suddenly
snatched away in so unforeseen a manner, gave us all food for
reflection--for which of us knew that the same fate would not befall
him to-morrow? When I dropped off into a slumber, it was so light and
broken, that I seemed to be conscious of Lizzie, continuing her
melancholy drone, and battering monotonously on the tin pannikin, nor
was I surprised when in the morning I ascertained that such had really
been her occupation all night; for the purpose of keeping the body from
harm, she avowed, but, I am inclined to think, much more from fear of
sleeping in the neighbourhood of a dead body, for the blacks are
dreadfully superstitious, and frightened to death of ghosts.
At daylight we were lucky enough to find a tree that had been blown
down in the late hurricane, leaving a hollow where its roots had been
torn out of the ground. In this natural grave we laid the poor
trooper, wrapped in his bark shell, and, having raised a pile of stones
upon the spot, of such dimensions as to preclude the probability of the
body being disturbed by dingoes, we went on our way, silent and
melancholy.
AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY--IV.
BY CHARLES H. EDEN.
OUR next day was a repetition of the last; camps in abundance, but no
blacks, and we had as yet seen no signs of the Townsville party. At
night we camped by the side of a large creek, and, after supper, were
lying down, with the intention of making up for the broken slumbers of
the previous night, when Ferdinand, who had moved higher up the stream
to get a private eel for himself and his lady, came back and shook
Dunmore, saying--
"Many big fellow fire sit down up creek."
We were on our feet in a moment, and, stealing quietly through the
bush, soon saw the glare, and on our nearer approach, could make out
many recumbent figures round the fire, and one man passing to and fro,
on guard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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