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
When Brown and Charley rejoined us, the former appeared so much alarmed
and agitated, that I thought they had met some natives, and had received
some injury, although they said they had not. My imagination was working
on the possibility of an attack of the natives, and I consequently laid
myself down without taking my boots and trowsers off, to be ready at a
moment's notice, and rose several times in the course of the night to see
that the watches were strictly kept. In the morning watch, John Murphy
roused me by saying that he saw a native: I felt certain now that an
attack was about to be made upon us. I, therefore, immediately gave the
alarm, and every one had his gun ready, when it was discovered that our
own Brown was the man whom John had mistaken for a strange native. He had
left his couch without being observed, and, when he returned, it was too
dark to recognize him; he was, however, very near losing his life, or at
least being shot at, for his wild yells "tis me! tis me!" which he
uttered when he became aware of his dangerous position, were not
understood, but only increased our belief that they were the war-cry of
attacking natives.
The creek, on a water-hole of which we encamped in lat. 16 degrees 54
minutes 50 seconds, was doubtless one of the heads of the broad
salt-water creek we crossed, and which I called "Turner's Creek," after
Cowper Turner, Esq. of Sydney:
Sept. 3.--We travelled about nine miles west by north, through an open
tea-tree forest skirting the heads of those scrubby creeks which went
down to the salt water, the dark mangrove line of which we had seen
yesterday. But we crossed four good sized dry creeks, lined with drooping
tea-trees and white-gum trees. Their banks and flats were covered with
groves of Pandanus, whose stately crowns were adorned with red-fruited
cones: the seed-vessels contained in their stringy texture a rich mellow
pear-like substance, which however was hot, and made our lips and tongues
very sore. We encamped on some water-holes, with excellent water, in a
fifth creek, which lower down contained some fine reaches of brackish
water covered with wild geese (Anseranas melanoleuca, GOULD.) and black
ducks. As Charley was watching some geese, an emu walked up to him, which
he shot; he succeeded besides in getting two geese, which were in most
excellent condition, and weighed better than five pounds each.
A well beaten foot-path of the natives led up a broad salt-water creek,
to the northward of the creek on which we were encamped, and which joined
it lower down. Charley, when going after the horses, saw a camping place
of the natives with spears and the usual utensils: but the inhabitants
had either not yet returned from their hunting and fishing excursions, or
had left it, frightened by the frequent discharge of our guns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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