Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia: From Moreton Bay to Port Essington, a distance of upwards of 3000 miles, during the years 1844-1845Leichhardt, Ludwig
History
Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia: From Moreton Bay to Port Essington, a distance of upwards of 3000 miles, during the years 1844-1845
Leichhardt, Ludwig
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration
A strong wind blew from the southward, which made the night air
distressingly cold; it seemed as if the wind blew through our bodies.
Under all the circumstances that had happened, we passed an anxious
night, in a state of most painful suspense as to the fate of our still
surviving companions. Mr. Roper had received two or three spear wounds in
the scalp of his head; one spear had passed through his left arm, another
into his cheek below the jugal bone, and penetrated the orbit, and
injured the optic nerve, and another in his loins, besides a heavy blow
on the shoulder. Mr. Calvert had received several severe blows from a
waddi; one on the nose which had crushed the nasal bones; one on the
elbow, and another on the back of his hand; besides which, a barbed spear
had entered his groin; and another into his knee. As may be readily
imagined, both suffered great pain, and were scarcely able to move. The
spear that terminated poor Gilbert's existence, had entered the chest,
between the clavicle and the neck; but made so small a wound, that, for
some time, I was unable to detect it. From the direction of the wound, he
had probably received the spear when stooping to leave his tent.
The dawning of the next morning, the 29th, was gladly welcomed, and I
proceeded to examine and dress the wounds of my companions, more
carefully than I had been able to do in the darkness of the night.
Very early in the morning we heard the cooees of the natiyes, who seemed
wailing, as if one of their number was either killed or severely wounded:
for we found stains of blood on their tracks. They disappeared, however,
very soon, for, on reconnoitring about the place, I saw nothing of them.
I interred the body of our ill-fated companion in the afternoon, and read
the funeral service of the English Church over him. A large fire was
afterwards made over the grave, to prevent the natives from detecting and
disinterring the body. Our cattle and horses fortunately had not been
molested.
The cold wind from the southward continued the whole day; at night it
fell calm, and continued so until the morning of the 30th June, when a
strong easterly wind set in, which afterwards veered round to the north
and north-west.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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