Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2: With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South WalesMitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
History
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2: With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales
Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone), 1792-1855
The man whom I usually employed on these occasions was James Taylor who
had charge of the horses and who, on this unfortunate morning, was fated
to lose his life in that swampy river. Taylor, or Tally-ho, as the other
men called him, had been brought up in a hunting stable in England, and
was always desirous of going further than I was willing to allow him,
relying too much, as it now appeared, on his skill in swimming his horse,
which I had often before prevented him from doing. I had on this occasion
recalled him from different parts of the river, and determined to use the
boat and swim the cattle and horses to the other side, when Tally-ho
proposed to swim over on a horse in order to ascertain where the opposite
bank was most favourable for the cattle to get out. I agreed to his
crossing thus wherever he thought he could; and he rode towards a place
which I conceived was by no means the best, and accordingly said so to
him. I did not hear his reply, for he was just then riding into the
water, and I could no longer see him from where I stood on the edge of a
swampy hole. But scarcely a minute had elapsed when Burnett, going on
foot to the spot, called out for all the men who could dive, at the same
time exclaiming "the man's gone!" The horse came out with the bridle on
his neck just as I reached the water's edge, but of poor Tally-ho I saw
only the cap floating on the river. Four persons were immediately in the
water--Piper, his gin, and two whites--and at six or eight minutes at
most Piper brought the body up from the bottom. It was quite warm and
immediately almost all the means recommended in such cases were applied
by our medical attendant (Drysdale) who, having come from
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, had seen many cases of that description. For three
hours the animal heat was preserved by chafing the body, and during the
whole of that time the lungs were alternately inflated and compressed,
but all without success. With a sincerity of grief which must always
pervade the breasts of men losing one of their number under such
circumstances, we consigned the body of poor Taylor to a deep grave, the
doctor having previously laid it out between two large sheets of bark. I
was myself confounded with the most heart-felt sorrow when I turned from
the grave of poor Tally-ho, never to hear his bugle blast again.* It was
late before we commenced the passage of this fatal river which, although
apparently narrow, we could only cross in the same manner in which we had
passed the largest, namely, by swimming the cattle and horses, and
carrying every article of equipment across in the boat. We effected even
thus however the passage of the whole party before sunset; and then
encamped on the opposite bank.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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