The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888Favenc, Ernest
History
The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888
Favenc, Ernest
Australia -- Discovery and exploration
Once more the two brothers and the black boy swam the river, and made a
third effort to reach Somerset. For two days they were detained on the
bank of a flooded creek, crossing it on its subsidence on the third day.
On the 28th February they were in better country, and a good stage was
made, and the next morning they encountered a tribe of blacks who greeted
them with cries of "Alico! Franco! Tobacco!" and other words. From these
natives they finally selected three as guides, and at noon the following
day reached the settlement.
As was but natural, their long journey had caused their father great
trouble and anxiety; he had done all in his power to help them at the
end, having cut a marked tree line almost across the promontory, and
instructed the blacks in the few English words they could remember to
greet the wanderers if they met with them, which last device succeeded
admirably.
It remains but to be said that the rest of the party and the remnant of
their stock were soon brought in to Somerset, where a cattle station was
formed. When we look at the difficulties through which they had forced
their way, and the unexpected misfortunes that beset them, one cannot
help feeling the greatest admiration for the two brothers in attaining
such success, not having lost a member of the party throughout the
journey, in spite of the numberless treacherous attacks of the natives to
which they were subjected, and the daily risks of illness, swimming
flooded rivers, and other perils. Above all regret must be felt that
their work was not better rewarded by the discovery of available pastoral
country, but that result it was not in their power to control. They had
at any rate the proud feeling of having done their duty, and that beset
by the same dangers that had environed poor Kennedy, they had lived to
tell the tale when he had laid down his life.
Whilst the Jardines were fighting their way through to Cape York, and
rendering such good service to geographical research, a labour which the
Royal Geographical Society afterwards acknowledged by electing the
brothers, Fellows of the Society, and awarding the Murchison grant to
each of them, the pioneer squatters were everywhere busy.
Mr. J. G. Macdonald started with a small party to visit the much lauded
Plains of Promise, and discover a better route for stock than the one
formerly taken by the explorers. By crossing the dividing range on to the
upper part of the Flinders, and following that river down, a much shorter
and more practicable route was made available for the army of cattle and
sheep now marching to the western pasture land, and the magnificent
country on the river named after the great navigator was brought
prominently into notice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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