T. L. Mitchell

“ The rock consisted of red sandstone, the first I had seen to the northward of Liverpool range. On descending, which we did by a gentle slope, the scrub became gradually thin, and at length opened to a clear verdant surface, extending far to the north and west. It was now obvious that nothing could obstruct our progress into the regions beyond the great range. On the contrary, a beautiful open country lay at its base, reaching quite round it to the north-east. A fresh cooling breeze from the north-west fanned our faces as we beheld, for the first time, that fine country. ”

“ We were now in a land flowing with honey, for our friendly guides, with their new tomahawks, extracted it in abundance from the hollow branches of the trees, and it seemed that, in the proper season, they could find it almost everywhere. To such inexpert clowns, as they probably thought us, the honey and the bees were inaccessible, and indeed invisible, save only when the natives cut the former out, and brought it to us in little sheets of bark, thus displaying a degree of ingenuity and skill in supplying wants which we, with all our science, could not hope to attain. ”

“ The improvement was obvious, not alone in the quality of the grass, but in the birds, the woods, the clouds, and distant horizon, which all bespoke our approach to a more habitable region than that in which we had so long been wandering. We crossed some fine sloping hills and found on the Bogan a rich flat, somewhat resembling those tracts of black soil which are so much prized on some of the larger rivers of the colony. A hot wind blew from the north and now brought with it smoke and an overcast sky, which in the evening turned to nimbus clouds. ”

“ All the country beyond the river was in flames, and indeed, from the time of our arrival in these parts, the atmosphere had been so obscured by smoke that I could never obtain a distinct view of the horizon. The smoke darkened the air at night, so as to hide the stars, and thus prevented us from ascertaining our latitude. One spark might have set the whole country on our side in a blaze, and then no food would remain for the cattle, not to mention the danger to our stores and ammunition. ”

“ But the garden, to him who seeks a home in distant colonies, must ever be an object of peculiar interest; for there, while cultivating the trees, fruits and flowers of his native land, the recollection of early days, and of the country of his birth is awakened by the vivid colours of the simple flower which his industry has reared, and which he knows to be a native of the soil to which he himself owes his existence. ”

“ COURAGE AND HUMANITY OF ONE OF THE MEN.
Just then a good old packhorse, named Rattler, knocked up, and I reluctantly gave orders to leave him behind, when Whiting, the old guardsman, volunteered to remain with him, and bring him on after he had rested: this in the face of both hunger and danger I duly appreciated, and long remembered, to his advantage. We soon after came upon some surface water and refreshed the tired animals. Precisely at eight o'clock, as I had arranged with Mr. White, a rocket ascended from the camp, and to us was just perceptible, like a needle in the remote distance. ”

“ After an unusually hot night the morning broke amid thunderclouds which threatened, by another shower, to destroy our hopes of advancing this day and the next at least. Nevertheless, we lost no time in yoking the cattle and proceeding: for the heat and drought of the previous day had already formed a crust upon which the animals could travel. Meanwhile the thunder roared, and heavy showers were to be seen falling in two directions. One rain-cloud in the north-east, whence the wind blew strong, nearly overtook us; while another in the south-west exhausted itself on the Nundewar range. ”

“ It is not until the traveller has completed a journey of fifty miles, that he enjoys the sight, doubly cheering after crossing such a desert, of green, cultivated fields, and the dwellings of man. The broad waters of the Hawkesbury then come unexpectedly in view, flowing in the deepest, and apparently most inaccessible of these rock-bound valleys. He here soon discovers a practical proof of the advantages of convict labour to the inhabitants of such a country, in the facility with which he descends by a road cut in the rock, to the comfortable inn near the ferry. ”

“ The summit up which we forced our horses over very sharp rocks commanded a most extensive and magnificent view of hills, both eastward and westward. The country in the north, whence we had come, was nevertheless higher, although the horizon there was unbroken. Southward the general line of horizon was a low level on which the hills terminated, as if it had been the sea. There, I had no doubt, flowed the river Lachlan, and, probably, one of the highest of the hills was Mount Granard of Oxley. ”

“ They began to call loudly to their gins, who stood assembled under a large tree at some distance, and we plainly understood the invitation of the men to visit these females. But our party was much more disposed to fight than make love; and I have little doubt that by throwing a single spear the natives would have pleased them more than by all the civility they were evidently anxious to show us; so desirous were they, at that time, to avenge the late murders--when even the odour of corruption still hung like a pestilence about the articles recovered from the plundered camp. ”

“ Dunlop's range certainly was not high, but its undulating crest, vanishing far in the south-east, showed its connection with the high ground south of the Bogan; and a long line of smoke skirting its northern base afforded fair promise of some river or chain of ponds near which a native population could live. The course of the Darling was clearly marked out by its extensive plains and the darker line of large trees vanishing far in the west. ”

“ As we pulled up the river two natives appeared at a distance in one of the long reaches, fishing in two small canoes. On observing our boats they dashed the water up, paddling with their spears, and thus scudding with great rapidity to the right bank, where they left their canoes and instantly disappeared. These vessels were of the simplest construction; so slight indeed that it seemed to us singular how a man could float in one, for it was merely a sheet of bark, with a little clay at each end ”

“ I should here observe, that in a climate so dry as that of Australia, the selection of farmland depends solely on the direction of streams, for it is only in the beds of watercourses, that any ponds can be found during dry seasons. The formation of reservoirs has not yet been resorted to, although the accidental largeness of ponds left in such channels has frequently determined settlers in their choice of a homestead, when by a little labour, a pond equally good might have been made in other parts, which few would select from the want of water. ”

“ My ride, on that day, was along a ridge, which extended upwards of fifty miles, through a succession of deep ravines, where no objects met the eye except barren sandstone rocks, and stunted trees. With the banksia and xanthorrhoea always in sight, the idea of hopeless sterility is ever present to the mind, for these productions, in sandy soils at least, grow only where nothing else can vegetate. The horizon is flat, affording no relief to the eye from the dreary and inhospitable scene, which these solitudes present ”

“ The surface of the plains nearest the river is unlike any part of the earth's face that I have elsewhere seen. It is as clear of vegetation as a fallow field, but it has greater inequality of surface and is full of holes. The soil is just tenacious enough to crack, when the surface becomes so soft and loose that the few weeds which may have sprung up previous to desiccation seldom remain where they grow, being blown out by the slightest wind. ”

“ The spears appeared to have been thrown by some members of the fishing tribe who had been seen with those newly arrived natives from my camp, and who had probably by this time heard of what had taken place lower down the river. Thus the covetous disposition of these people drew us at length (notwithstanding all my gifts and endeavours to be on friendly terms) into a state of warfare.
We met frequently with instances of natives receiving from us all they could want on one day, yet approaching us on the next with the most unequivocal demonstrations of enmity and hostility. ”

“ We possessed nearly west over open ground skirted on the south by gentle eminences of red earth. There plains of soft naked soil were most distressing to the bullocks, and even to horses and men on foot; in the general direction of the river these plains extended to the horizon, but the southern boundary of small hills was a peculiar feature, not observed higher up. Though the base of these eminences consisted of fine blue clay, yet their tops were so sandy and soft that the carts sank deeper than on the plains. ”

“ The camp I had left, which was in other respects a fine position, could not possibly have served as a depot for the cattle. We were extremely fortunate however in the place to which the bounteous hand of providence had led us. Abundance of pasture; indeed such excellent grass as we had not seen in the whole journey, covered the fine open forest ground on the bank of the river! There were four kinds but the cattle appeared to relish most a strong species of anthisteria, or kangaroo grass. ”

“ The inconvenience of a want of plan for roads and streets is strikingly obvious at Bathurst. A vast tract had indeed been reserved as a township, but then, no streets having been laid out, allotments for building could neither be obtained by grant nor purchase. The site for the town was therefore only distinguished by a government house, jail, courthouse, postoffice, and barracks; while the population had collected in 60 or 80 houses built in an irregular manner on the Sydney side of the river, and at the distance of a mile from the intended site of the town. ”

“ On the way the ranges on our right, as they rose in view, afforded some relief to our eyes, so long accustomed to a horizon as flat as the ocean; and a gentle cooling breeze from the east felt very different from the parching west winds to which we had been exposed. This day and the one before were warm, and breathed most gratefully of spring. We recrossed a gravel bed of irregular fragments of quartz and flint at the base of some slight hills which reach from the range to the river. Between these undulations were soft plains the surface of which was cracked and full of holes ”

“ These natives were the finest looking men of their race which I had seen. The peculiar colour of their bodies, covered with pipe-clay, gave them an appearance of being dressed. They were in number about 100, all men or boys, the strongest carrying spears. None of the words of The Barber seemed at all intelligible to them, but on mentioning the Namoi they pointed to the south-west, which I knew was the direction in which that river was nearest to the camp. I recognised the gigantic pipe-clayed man who had presented his spear at me when we first reached the Gwydir much higher up. ”

“ In the course of the afternoon the wind from north-west increased to a gale, but the air was still warm, and the sun set in a clear sky, while the heavy clouds sank to the eastern horizon where sheet lightning played incessantly until after midnight. The air brought by that wind from the north-west was so dry as to occasion a most unpleasant heat and parched sensation in the skin of the face and hands, and several men complained of headache. ”

“ All over these plains the ground was so soft, being quite clear of roots or sward, that the cartwheels sunk very deep in it. The soil nevertheless appeared to be excellent, although it was naked like fallow land, for the roots of the umbelliferous plants which grew there had so little hold that they were easily set loose by the winds and lay about the surface. At dark five natives advanced along our track, shouting, but remaining at a distance. ”

“ The care of cattle, and particularly of horses on such journeys, requires great attention; to stand idle on a fine morning, unable to proceed, until by some fortunate chance, stray cattle or horses are discovered in a boundless forest, is like a calm on the line, irksome enough; but there is also the risk of losing the men sent in pursuit who, even after coming on the objects of their search, may be unable afterwards to find the camp, especially when there may be no watercourse to lead them to it. ”

“ During the operation he stared wildly around him, at the sheep and bullocks, horses, tents, etc. It was evident he had never seen, perhaps scarcely even ever heard of, such animals as he now saw, and certainly had never before seen a white man. I gave him a piece of bread which he did not taste, saying he should take it to Einer (his gin or wife) . He knew not a word of the low jargon usually taught the natives by our people; but he spoke incessantly in his own purer language, scarcely a word of which we understood, beyond you, two gins, fire, doctor (coradje) and to sleep. ”

“ He must perceive that these people cannot be so obtuse as not to anticipate in the advance of such a powerful race the extirpation of their own, in a country which barely affords to them the means of existence. Such must be the conclusion in their minds, although it is to be hoped that the results of our invasion may be different; and that if these savage people do not learn habits of industry, a breed of wild cattle may at least compensate them for the loss of the kangaroo and opossum. ”

“ After a fruitless ride of twelve more miles still further southward in pursuit of distant columns of smoke, we turned our horses' heads towards the camp on a bearing of North 56 degrees East, in which direction some summits appeared. We crossed much good whinstone land, and arrived at a small ridge where I ascended a hill consisting of a reddish granite or porphyry. From this height I again saw Harvey's and Croker's ranges and various hills to the southward, but I was disappointed in the view of the western horizon, which was confined to a very flat-topped woody range. ”