Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848)Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
History
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848)
Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Queensland -- Discovery and exploration
1ST JANUARY, 1846.--A strong wind from N.E. blew during the day, and was
very high at 11 A. M. The party were chiefly employed breaking in the
young bullocks. At noon, nimbus, and some rain, tantalised us with the
hope of a change; but the sky drew up into clouds of cumulus by the
evening. The vegetation of the Bogan now recalled former labours: the
ATRIPLEX SEMIBACCATA of Brown was a common straggling plant.
2D JANUARY.--The young cattle still occasioned delay. The morning was
cloudy and promised rain; but a N.W. wind broke through the clouds, which
resolved themselves into cirrostratus, and we had heat again. Besides the
SALSOLA AUSTRALIS, we found a HALGANIA with lilac flowers, probably
distinct from the species hitherto described, which are natives of the
south-west coast.
3D JANUARY.--This morning the young cattle were yoked up with the old;
and, after considerable delay, the party proceeded to some ponds in the
Bogan about five miles lower down. We were now nearly opposite to the
scene of Mr. Cunningham's disasters: I had recognised, amongst the first
hills I saw when on the Goobang Creek, the hill which I had named Mount
Juson, at his request, after the maiden name of his mother. The little
pyramid of bushes was no longer there, but the name of Cunningham was so
identified with the botanical history of almost all the shrubs in the
very peculiar scenery of that part of the country, that no other monument
seemed necessary. Other recollections recalled Cunningham to my mind; his
barbarous murder, and the uncertainty which still hung over the actual
circumstances attending it. The shrubs told indeed of Cunningham; of both
brothers, both now dead; but neither the shrubs named by the one, nor the
gloomy CASUARINOE trees that had witnessed the bloody deed, could tell
more. There the ACACIA PENDULA, first discovered and described by Allan,
could only
"Like a weeping mourner stooping stand, For ever silent, and for ever
sad."
4TH JANUARY.--The early cooler part of the morning was taken up with the
young cattle. It was now but too obvious that this means of conveyance
was likely to retard the journey to an extent that no pecuniary saving
would compensate, as compared with light carts and horses. I proceeded
forward in search of a deserted stockyard, called Tabbaratong, where some
water was said still to remain. We found some mud and water only;
although some that was excellent was found about two miles lower down the
Bogan, late in the evening.
We had crossed the neutral ground between the savage and the squatter.
The advanced posts of an army are not better kept, and humiliating proofs
that the white man had given way, were visible in the remains of dairies
burnt down, stockyards in ruins, untrodden roads. We hoped to find within
the territory of the native, ponds of clear water, unsoiled by cattle,
and a surface on which we might track our own stray animals, without
their being confused by the traces of others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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