Explorations in Australia: 1.-Explorations in search of Dr. Leichardt and party. 2.-From Perth to Adelaide, around the great Australian bight. 3.-From Champion Bay, across the desert to the telegraph and to Adelaide. With an appendix on the condition of Western Australia.Forrest, John Forrest, Baron
History
Explorations in Australia: 1.-Explorations in search of Dr. Leichardt and party. 2.-From Perth to Adelaide, around the great Australian bight. 3.-From Champion Bay, across the desert to the telegraph and to Adelaide. With an appendix on the condition of Western Australia.
Forrest, John Forrest, Baron
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration
loyally determined to stay with him to the last. One horse was killed for
food; dysentery broke out; the natives deserted them, but came back
starving and penitent, and were permitted to remain with the white men.
Then came the tragedy which makes this narrative so conspicuously
terrible, even in the annals of Australian exploration. Two of the black
men shot the overseer, Baxter, as he slept, and then ran away, perishing,
it is supposed, miserably in the desert. Eyre, when some distance from
the place where poor Baxter rested, looking after the horses, heard the
report of the gun and hurried back, arriving just in time to receive the
pathetic look of farewell from the murdered man, who had served him so
long and so faithfully.
Wylie, the black boy, who had been with Eyre in Adelaide, now alone
remained, and it is scarcely possible to imagine a more appalling
situation than that in which Eyre then found himself. The murderers had
carried away nearly the whole of the scanty stock of provisions, leaving
only forty pounds of flour, a little tea and sugar, and four gallons of
water. They had also taken the two available guns, and nearly all the
ammunition. The body of Baxter was wrapped in a blanket--they could not
even dig a grave in the barren rock. Left with his sole companion, Eyre
sadly resumed the march, their steps tracked by the two blacks, who
probably meditated further murders; but, with only cowardly instincts,
they dared not approach the intrepid man, who at length outstripped them,
and they were never heard of more. Still no water was found for 150
miles; then a slight supply, and the two men struggled on, daily becoming
weaker, living on horse-flesh, an occasional kangaroo, and the few fish
that were to be caught--for it must be remembered that at no time were
they far from the coast.
On the 2nd of June, nearly four months after they had bidden good-bye to
the cutter at Fowler's Bay, they stood on the cliffs, looking out over
the ocean, when they saw in the distance two objects which were soon
recognized as boats, and shortly afterwards, to their unbounded joy, they
discerned the masts of a vessel on the farther side of a small rocky
island. Animated by a new life, Eyre pushed on until he reached a point
whence he succeeded in hailing the ship, and a boat was sent off. The
vessel proved to be a French whaler, the Mississippi, commanded by an
Englishman, Captain Rossiter. The worn-out travellers stayed on board for
a fortnight, experiencing the utmost kindness, and with recruited
strength and food and clothing, they bade a grateful farewell to the
captain and crew, and resumed their journey.
For twenty-three days more Eyre and his attendant Wylie pursued their
way. Rain fell heavily, and the cold was intense; but at length, on the
27th of July, they reached Albany, in Western Australia, and the journey
was accomplished.
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