Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — CompleteSturt, Charles
History
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Complete
Sturt, Charles
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Sturt, Charles, 1795-1869
A little below the hills under which we had stopped, the country again
assumed a level. A line of cliffs, of from two to three hundred feet in
height, flanked the river, first on one side and then on the other,
varying in length from a quarter of a mile to a mile. They rose
perpendicularly from the water, and were of a bright yellow colour,
rendered still more vivid occasionally by the sun shining full upon them.
The summits of these cliffs were as even as if they had been built by an
architect; and from their very edge, the country back from the stream was
of an uniform level, and was partly plain, and partly clothed by brush.
The soil upon this plateau, or table land, was sandy, and it was as barren
and unproductive as the worst of the country we had passed through. On the
other hand, the alluvial flats on the river increased in size, and were
less subject to flood; and the river lost much of its sandy bed, and its
current was greatly diminished in strength.
NATIVE CHARACTER.
It blew so fresh, during the greater part of the day, from the westward,
that we had great difficulty in pulling against the breeze. The determined
N.W. course the river kept, made me doubt the correctness of the story of
the little old black; yet there was an openness of manner about him, and a
clearness of description, that did not appear like fabrication. He pointed
to the S.S.W. when he left us, as the direction in which he would again
join us, thus confirming, without any apparent intention, what he had
stated with regard to the southerly course the river was about to take.
Among the natives who were with him, there was another man of very
different manners and appearance. Our friend was small in stature, had
piercing grey eyes, and was as quick as lightning in his movements The
other was tall, and grey headed; anxious, yet unobtrusive; and confident,
without the least mixture of boldness. The study of the human character on
many occasions similar to this, during our intercourse with these people,
rude and uncivilized as they were, was not only pleasing, but instructive.
We found that the individuals of a tribe partook of one general character,
and that the whole of the tribe were either decidedly quiet, or as
decidedly disorderly. The whole of the blacks left us when we started,
but we had not gone very far, when the individual I have described brought
his family, consisting of about fifteen persons. We were going down a part
of the river in which there was a very slight fall. The natives were
posted under some blue-gum trees, upon the right bank, and there was a
broad shoal of sand immediately to our left. They walked over to this
shoal, to receive some little presents, but did not follow when we
continued our journey.
TAKE BEARINGS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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