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
he seemed to require some minutes to recal the recollection. He had come
from the station of Mr.----, where he was employed as stockman. Came out
from England about six years ago with a brother. When asked if his
brother was with him, he said "No." To my next question, as to the rest
of his relatives, a tear was the only reply, and I pushed my inquiries no
further.
16TH DECEMBER.--I left the camp, accompanied by Mr. Kennedy, and, in
looking for my old route, we soon arrived at cattle stations. The lagoon
was full, and the first station we saw was on the opposite bank; but
having crossed some miles higher, we arrived at one, where the master and
some men were busy in the stockyard, and there we were hospitably
received. It was then about 2 P.M., and tea mixed with milk was set
before us, with a quart pot full of fine salt, and some hard-boiled eggs.
Having put into my tea a table-spoonful of the salt, mistaking it for
sugar, and there being no sugar, I had two strong reasons for not taking
much tea. Fortunately for me, however, I did eat one of the hard-boiled
eggs, for from that hour I was doomed to fast two days. There I bade Mr.
Kennedy farewell, leaving him in charge of the party, and proceeded along
a cart-track homewards, followed by John Douglas, and a led horse. Before
we could arrive at the station where I intended to halt, night overtook
us on a plain, with very heavy rain, and total darkness. The cart-track
was no longer visible, and, after groping on some way without it, we were
obliged to alight and sit in the mud, without the shelter of even a tree,
until day-break. Daylight exhibited the station not above two miles off,
but that did not avail us much; for, on awaking the inmates, and asking
them for some breakfast, the hut-keeper shook his head, and said he had
no provisions to spare. Once more I struck away from these "abodes of
civilized men," to look for my old track, which had been traced along the
base of the Nundawar Range, where the bold outlines of Mounts Lindesay
and Forbes hung dimly, like shadows of the past, amongst clouds lighted
by beams from the rising sun. After having been long in unknown regions,
time and distance seem of little consequence when we return to those
previously known; and thus the whole day soon passed in looking for my
former track. But I sought it in vain; and was glad at night to turn
towards the banks of the Nammoy, in search of a cattle-station. Since I
had first explored that country to which my wheel-tracks marked and led
the way, station after station had been taken up by squatters, not by
following any line of route, but rather according to the course of the
river, for the sake of water; and in such cases, the beaten track from
station to station, no matter how crooked, becomes the road. Thus it is,
in the fortuitous occupation of Australia, that order and arrangement may
precede, and be followed only by "CHAOS come again." I arrived about
sunset, at Mr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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