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
In the scrub adjoining our camp we found a new and remarkably beautiful
shrub bearing a fruit, the stone of which was very similar to that of the
quandang (Fusanus acuminatus) although there was no resemblance either in
the form of the tree or of the flower. This shrub was not unlike the
weeping willow in its growth, and the fruit, which grew at the
extremities of the drooping branches, had the shape of a pear and a black
ring at the broad end. The crop then on the tree was unripe, and was
probably a second one; the flower was also budding, and we hoped to see
the full blossom on our return. Only three or four of these trees were
seen, and they were all on the hill near our encampment. Here likewise
grew a new shrubby species of Xerotes, with hard rush-like leaves, but
allied to X. gracilis.*
(*Footnote. X. effusa, Lindley manuscripts; acaulis, foliis linearibus
longissimis semiteretibus margine scabris dorso striatis: apice dentato
tabescente, panicula mascula effusa abbreviata, bracteis acuminatis
scariosis pedicello brevioribus.)
DARLING TRIBE AGAIN.
We proceeded on our journey as usual, but had not gone far when we heard
the voices of a vast body of blacks following our track, shouting
prodigiously, and raising war cries. It now became necessary for me to
determine whether I was to allow the party under my charge to be
perpetually subject to be cut off in detail by waiting until these
natives had again actually attacked and slain some of my people, or
whether it was not my duty, in a war which not my party, but these
savages, had virtually commenced, to anticipate the intended blow. I was
at length convinced that, unless I could check their progress in our rear
and prevent them from following us so closely, the party would be in
danger of being compelled to fight its way back against the whole savage
population, who would be assembled at that season of drought on the banks
of the large rivers. But in order to ascertain first whether this was the
hostile tribe I sent overseer Burnett with Piper and half the party into
the scrub which skirted our line of route. We were travelling along the
berg or outer bank of the river, a feature which not only afforded the
best defensive position but also guided me in tracing the river's course.
It was also in many parts the only ground clear of timber or bushes and
therefore the best for travelling upon. I directed the men to allow the
tribes to pass along our track towards me, as I intended to halt with the
carts after crossing the low hill. Piper recognised from this scrub the
same people he had seen at Benanee.
DISPERSION OF THE DARLING TRIBE BY THE PARTY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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