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AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY

BY

CHARLES HENRY EDEN

FROM

ILLUSTRATED TRAVELS:

A RECORD OF

DISCOVERY, GEOGRAPHY, AND ADVENTURE.

EDITED BY

H.W. BATES,

ASSISTANT-SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.




AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY--I.

BY CHARLES H. EDEN.


IN a former narrative, published in the preceding volume of the
ILLUSTRATED TRAVELS, I gave an account of a terrible cyclone which
visited the north-eastern coast of Queensland in the autumn of 1866,
nearly destroying the small settlements of Cardwell and Townsville, and
doing an infinity of damage by uprooting heavy timber, blocking up the
bush roads, etc.  Amongst other calamities attendant on this visitation
was the loss of a small coasting schooner, named the 'Eva', bound from
Cleveland to Rockingham Bay, with cargo and passengers.  Only those who
have visited Australia can picture to themselves the full horror of a
captivity amongst the degraded blacks with whom this unexplored
district abounds; and a report of white men having been seen amongst
the wild tribes in the neighbourhood of the Herbert River induced the
inhabitants of Cardwell to institute a search party to rescue the crew
of the unhappy schooner, should they still be alive; or to gain some
certain clue to their fate, should they have perished.

In my former narrative I described our exploration of the Herbert
River, lying at the south end of Rockingham Channel, with its fruitless
issue; and I now take up the thread of my story from that point,
thinking it can hardly fail to be of interest to the reader, not only
as regards the wild nature of the country traversed, but also as
showing the anxiety manifested by the inhabitants of these remote
districts to clear up the fate of their unhappy brethren.  I may also
here mention, for the information of such of my readers as may not have
read the preceding portions of the narrative, that Cardwell is the name
of a small township situated on the shores of Rockingham Bay; and that
Townsville is a settlement some hundred miles further south, known also
as Cleveland Bay.


HOW WE EXPLORED GOULD AND GARDEN ISLANDS.

We were all much pleased at a piece of intelligence brought up by the
'Daylight', to the effect that a party of volunteers had been assembled
at Cleveland Bay, and intended coming up in a small steamer to the
south end of Hinchinbrook, to assist in the search for the missing
crew.  As it would be of the utmost importance that both parties should
co-operate, I sent my boat down to the mouth of the channel, with a
note to the leader of the expedition announcing our intention of
landing on the north end of the island and working towards the centre;
and requesting them to scour their end, and then push northward, when
we should most probably meet in the middle of the island.  The boat had
orders to wait at the bar until the arrival of the steamer, and then to
return with all speed.  In the meanwhile, the 'Daylight' was
discharging her cargo, and we were making preparations for what we well
knew would prove a most arduous undertaking; the sequel will show that
we did not overrate the difficulties before us.

At the risk of being tedious, I must explain to the reader some of the
peculiarities of Hinchinbrook Island.  Its length is a little short of
forty miles, and its shape a rude triangle, the apex of which is at the
south, and the north side forming the southern portion of Rockingham
Bay. Now this north side is by no means straight, but is curved out
into two or three bays of considerable extent, and in one of them stand
two islands named Gould and Garden Islands.  The latter of these was
our favourite resort for picnics, for the dense foliage afforded good
shade, and, when the tide was low, we were enabled to gather most
delicious oysters from some detached rocks.  Gould Island is
considerably larger; but, rising in a pyramid from the sea, and being
covered with loose boulders, it was most tedious climbing.  From the
township we could, with our glasses, see canoes constantly passing and
repassing between these two islands; and as the 'Daylight' had a
particularly heavy cargo this trip, and would not be clear for the next
two days, we made up our minds to search the islands, and drive the
blacks on to Hinchinbrook, so that one of our parties must stumble
across them when we swept it.  This may seem to the reader unnecessary
trouble, but most of our party were conversant with the habits of the
blacks and their limited method of reasoning; and we judged it probable
that the Herbert River gins would have at once acquainted the
Hinchinbrook blacks with our unceremonious visit, and warned them that
we should probably soon look them up also.  Now on the receipt of this
unwelcome intelligence, the first thing that would strike the blacks
would be the facilities for concealment afforded by Gould or Garden
Islands, more particularly had they any captives; and they would say to
themselves that we should certainly overlook these two out-of-the-way
little spots; and when we were busy on Hinchinbrook, they could easily
paddle themselves and their prisoners to some of the more distant chain
of islands, where they could lie by until all fear of pursuit was past.
Such was the opinion both of the troopers and of the experienced
bushmen; and as we were fully resolved to leave them no loophole for
escape, we jumped into our boat and pulled gently over to Garden Island.

It was about seven o'clock in the morning when we started, six
strong--four whites, and Cato, and Ferdinand--well armed, and with a
good supply of provisions.  The sun was already very hot, and the water
smooth as glass, save where the prow of the boat broke the still
surface into a tiny ripple, which continued plainly visible half a mile
astern.  I find it difficult to bring before the reader the thousand
curious objects that met us on our way.  The sullen crocodile basking
in the sun, sank noiselessly; a splash would be heard, and a four feet
albicore would fling himself madly into the air, striving vainly to
elude the ominous black triangle that cut the water like a knife close
in his rear.  Small chance for the poor fugitive, with the ravenous
shark following silent and inexorable.  We lay on our oars and watched
the result.  The hunted fish doubles, springs aloft, and dives down,
but all in vain; the black fin is not to be thrown off, double as he
may.  Anon the springs become more feeble, the pursuer's tail partly
appears as he pushes forward with redoubled vigour, a faint splash is
heard, the waters curl into an eddy, and the monster sinks noiselessly
to enjoy his breakfast in the cooler depths beneath.  And now we come
to a sand bank running out some miles or so into the bay, and on which
the water is less than three fathoms.  Here the surface is broken by
huge black objects, coming clumsily to the top, shooting out a jet of
spray, and again disappearing.  We let the boat glide gently along
until she rests motionless above the bank, and stooping over the side
with our faces close to the water, and sheltered by our hands, we can
peer down into the placid depths, and see the huge animals grazing on
the submarine vegetation with which their favourite feeding-place is
thickly overgrown. But what animal is he talking about? the reader will
ask.  It is the dugong ('Halicore Australis'), or sea-cow, from whence
is extracted an oil equal to the cod-liver as regards its medicinal
qualities, and far superior to it in one great essential, for instead
of a nauseous disagreeable flavour, it tastes quite pleasantly.  It
frequents the whole of the north-eastern coast of Australia, and when
the qualities of the oil first became known, it was eagerly sought
after by invalids who could not overcome their repugnance to the
cod-liver nastiness.  The fishermen, however, spoilt their own market,
for greed induced them to adulterate the new medicine with shark oil,
and all kinds of other abominations, so that the faculty were never
quite certain what they were pouring down the throats of their unhappy
patients. Thus the oil lost its good name, though I am convinced from
personal observation that fresh, pure dugong is quite equal, if not
superior, in nourishing qualities to cod-liver oil, and do not doubt
that a time will come when it will enter largely into the
Pharmacopoeia.  The animal itself is so peculiar, that a brief
description of it may not be here amiss.  Its favourite haunts are bays
into which streams empty themselves, and where the water is from two to
five fathoms in depth, feeding on the 'Algae' of the submerged banks,
for which purpose the upper lip is very large, thick, and as it turns
down suddenly at right angles with the head, it much resembles an
elephant's trunk shorn off at the mouth.  Its length averages from
eight to fourteen feet; there is no dorsal fin, and the tail is
horizontal; colour blue, and white beneath.  Its means of propulsion
are two paddles, with which it also crawls along the bottom, and
beneath which are situated the udders, with teats exactly like a cow's.
Its flesh is far from bad, resembling lean beef in appearance, though
hardly so good to the taste, and the skin can be manufactured into
gelatine.  I have often wondered that this most useful animal was not
oftener captured.  A fishing establishment with a good boat, a trained
crew, and proper appliances for extracting the oil, could not fail to
return a large profit to the proprietors, and every now and then they
could kill a whale, one or more of which could be frequently seen
disporting themselves in the waters of the bay.

[Illustration--BAY ON HINCHINBROOK ISLAND, WITH NATIVES.]

By ten o'clock we had reached Garden Island, and beached the boat on a
long sandy spit that stretched into the sea.  Leaving one man as
boat-keeper, we spread ourselves into line, and regularly beat the
little island from end to end, but without finding a single black; we
could, however, see their smoke-signals arising from Gould Island, and
observed several heavily-laden canoes making the best of their way
towards Hinchinbrook.  Our search having been unsuccessful, we hurried
down to the boat, with the intention of cutting the fugitives off, but
found to our disgust that the tide had fallen so low during our absence
that our united strength was insufficient to move the boat, so we were
perforce compelled to remain until the return of the water.  This did
not in reality so much signify, indeed, some of the party were rather
averse to our plan of intercepting the canoes, arguing that if closely
pressed, the blacks might make an end of their captives. However this
might be, there was no help for it, we were stuck fast until the
afternoon, so had to summon such philosophy as we possessed, and while
away the time as best we could.  The boat's sail, spread under the
shade of a tree, kept the intense heat a little at bay until after
dinner, and this most essential part of the day's programme have been
done ample justice to, and the pipes lighted and smoked out, we
wandered about the long space left bare by the tide, amusing ourselves
by collecting oysters, cowrie shells, and periwinkles.

The way we captured the two latter was by turning over the rocks, to
the under sides of which we found them adhering in great numbers,
sticking on like snails to a garden wall.  Some of the cowries were
very beautiful, particularly those of a deep brown colour approaching
to black.  This kind, however, were rather rare, and the lucky finder
of a large one excited some envy.  These beautiful little shells are of
all sizes, from half an inch to two inches in length.  When the stone
is first turned over, the fish is almost out of its home, and the
bright colour of the shell is hidden by a fleshy integument, but a few
seconds suffice for it to withdraw within doors, and then the mottled
pattern is seen in its full beauty.  The best way to get the shell
without injury to its gloss, is to keep the fish alive in a bucket of
salt water, until you reach home, and then to dig a hole a couple of
feet deep, and bury them.  In a month or so, they may be taken up, and
will be found quite clean, free from smell, and as bright in hue as
during life.  I have tried boiling them, heaping them in the sun, and
various other methods, but this is undoubtedly the best.

[Illustration--SATIN BOWER-BIRDS]

Should it ever fall to the lot of any of my readers to have to cook
periwinkles--and there are many worse things, when you are certain of
their freshness--let them remember that they should be boiled in 'salt
water'.  This is to give them toughness; if fresh water is used,
however expert the operator may be with his pin, he will fail to
extract more than a moiety of the curly delicacy.  These little facts,
though extraneous to our subject, are always worth knowing.

At one end of Garden Island, and distant from it about 200 yards,
stands a very singular rock, of a whitish hue, and when struck at a
certain angle by the sun, so much resembling the canvas of a vessel,
that it was named the "Sail Rock."  At low tide this could be reached
by wading, the water being little more than knee-deep.  Its base was
literally covered with oysters of the finest quality.  The mere task of
getting there was one of considerable difficulty, for the rock was as
slippery as glass, and whenever you got a fall--which happened on an
average every five minutes--bleeding hands and jagged knees bore
testimony to a couch of growing bivalves being anything but as soft as
a feather bed; also the oysters cling so fast that they might be taken
for component parts of the rock, and only a cold chisel and mallet will
induce them to relinquish their firm embrace.  Three or four of the
party had ventured out, and we had secured a large sackful, after which
we all retired to the tent, except one of our number, who, having a
lady-love in Cardwell with an inordinate affection for shell-fish,
lingered to fill a haversack for his 'inamorata'.  We were comfortably
smoking our pipes and watching with satisfaction the tide rising higher
and higher, when a faint "coo-eh" from the direction of the rock
reached us, followed by another and another and another, each one more
shrill than the last.

"By Jove, Wordsworth's in some trouble!" exclaimed one of our party,
and, snatching up our carbines, we hurried to the end of the island at
which stood the Sail Rock.  The tide had now risen considerably, and
the water between the rock and ourselves was over four feet deep, and
increasing in depth each moment.  We saw poor Wordsworth clinging on to
the slippery wall, as high up as the smooth mass afforded hand-hold.

"Come along, old fellow!" we shouted; "it's not up to your neck yet."

"He turned his head over his shoulder--even at the distance we were,
its pallor was quite visible--and slowly and cautiously releasing one
hand, he pointed to the water between himself and the island.

"By Jove!" cried the pilot, "he's bailed up by a shark, look at his
sprit-sail!" and following his finger we saw an enormous black fin
sailing gently to and fro, as regularly and methodically as a veteran
sentry paces the limits of his post.

"Stick tight, old man! we'll bring the boat," and leaving the pilot to
keep up a fusillade at the monster with the carbines, we darted back.
I shall never forget the efforts we made to launch the boat, but she
was immovable, and every moment the tide was rising, the little ripples
expending themselves in bubbly foam against the thirsty sand.  We
strained, we tugged, we prised with levers, but unavailingly, the boat
seemed as if she had taken root there and would not budge an inch.  A
happy thought struck me all of a sudden, as a reminiscence of a similar
case that I had seen in years gone by came back in full vigour.

"Give me a tomahawk," I said.

One was produced in a minute from under the stern-sheets.  Meanwhile I
had got out a couple of the oars.

"Now, Jim, you're the best axeman, off with them here!"

Half a dozen strokes to each, and the blades were severed from the
looms.

"Now boys, lay aft and lift her stern."

It was done, and one of the oars placed under as a roller.

"Now, launch together."

"Heave with a will."

"She's moving!"

"Again so.  Keep her going."

"Hurrah!" and a loud cheer broke forth, as, through the medium of the
friendly rollers, the heavy boat trundled into the water.

The pull was long, at least it seemed to us long, for we had to round
the sandy spit before we could head towards the rock, and nearly got on
shore in trying to make too close a shave.  We could hear the crack of
the pilot's carbine every few minutes, borne down to us by the
freshening breeze, and the agonising "coo-ehs" of poor Wordsworth,
whose ankles were already hidden by the advancing waters; added to
this, we had only two oars, and the wind, now pretty strong, was dead
in our teeth.  I was steering, and Jim was standing up in the bows with
his carbine for a shot, if the shark offered such an opportunity.  As
we neared the rock we could distinctly see the black fin within six
feet of the narrow ledge on which the poor fellow was standing, and
only when we approached to within a couple of boats' lengths, did the
ferocious brute sail sullenly out to sea, pursued by a harmless bullet
from Jim's rifle.  Poor Wordsworth dropped into the boat fainting from
terror, exhaustion, and loss of blood, for, although he was unconscious
of it all the time, in his convulsive grip, the sharp oyster-shells had
cut his hands to the very bone.  A good glass of grog and some hot
tea--the bushman's infallible remedy--soon brought him round, but the
scars on his hands and knees will accompany him to his grave.  He
afterwards described the glances that the shark threw at him as
perfectly diabolical, and confessed that he it not been for the cheery
hails of the pilot, he should most certainly have relinquished his
hold, and met with a death too horrible to contemplate.

It was now about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the boat being
launched, we resolved to reach Gould Island before dark.  The tent was
soon struck, the provisions stowed away, the priming of the carbines
looked to afresh, and in a few minutes we were sweeping across the
small belt of water that separated the two islands.  We approached the
shore with caution, for, as I mentioned before, the sides of Gould
Island are everywhere very steep, and hostile blacks, by simply
dislodging some of the loose masses of rock, could easily have smashed
the boat and its crew to pieces without exposing themselves to the
slightest danger.  Noiselessly, and with every faculty painfully alert,
we closed the land, sprang on to the rocks, and at once set about the
tedious task of breasting the hill. Hill climbing, under the vertical
sun of North Australia, is by no means an enjoyable undertaking, more
particularly when the loose shale and rock gives way at every stride,
bringing down an avalanche of rubbish on the heads of the rearmost of
the party.  Encumbered with our carbines, we made but slow progress,
and it was nearly six o'clock before we attained the summit, from
whence we saw several canoes making their way with full speed towards
Hinchinbrook.

"So far then, so good," we said; "we have made certain that none of the
rascals are lurking about the two islands, and we are sure to get them
now, when we sweep Hinchinbrook."

We had now done everything that was possible until the 'Daylight' had
finished unloading, and so spread ourselves out about the island to see
if the blacks had left any of their curious implements behind them.  We
were in no hurry to get back to the township, so purposed having supper
where we were, and pulling back in the cool of the evening, by the
light of the moon, which was just then in full glory.  We found plenty
of traces of the blacks, the embers of their fires even still glowing,
but they had carried off everything with them, and no trophies crowned
our search of Gould Island; and yet I am wrong, for I got one memento,
which I have by me still, and which is so curious to lovers of natural
history that I am tempted to describe it.  In rummaging about, I came
to a place strewed with old bones, shells, parrots' feathers, etc.,
close to which stood a platform of interwoven sticks.  I was terribly
puzzled at first to account for the presence of this miniature rag and
bone depot, and my astonishment culminated when Ferdinand informed me
that--

"Bird been make it that fellow; plenty d--d thief that fellow, steal
like it pipe, like it anything."

It then flashed across me that I had fallen in with the "run" of the
bower-bird, of which I had so often heard, and had so often sought for
without success.

The satin bower-bird ('Ptilonorhynchus holosericus') belongs to the
family of starlings, and though tolerably common in New South Wales, is
but a rare visitor to the hotter climate of Northern Queensland.  The
plumage of the adult male is of a glossy satin-like purple, appearing
almost black, whilst the females and the young are all of an
olive-greenish colour.  The peculiarity for which this bird is
generally known, is its habit of constructing a sort of arbour of dry
twigs, to act as a playground.  These bowers are usually made in some
secluded place in the bush--not infrequently under the shady boughs of
a large tree--and vary considerably in size, according to the number of
birds resorting to them, for they seem to be joint-stock affairs, and
are not limited to one pair. The bower itself is somewhat difficult to
describe, and a better idea can be formed from the engraving, or by
visiting the British Museum, where several are shown, than I can ever
hope to set before the reader in words. A number of sticks, most
artistically woven together, form the base, from the centre of which
the walls of the structure arise.  These walls are made of lighter
twigs, and considerable pains must be taken in their selection, for
they all have an inward curve, which in some "runs" cause the sides
almost to meet at the top.  The degree of forethought that these
self-taught architects possess is strikingly exemplified in the fact
that, whilst building the walls, any forks or inequalities are turned
'outwards', so as to offer no impediment to their free passage when
skylarking (if it is not an Irishism, using such an expression with
regard to a starling) and chasing each other through and through the
bower, to which innocent recreations, according to the testimony of
Messrs. Cato and Ferdinand, they devote the major part of their time.
Their love of finery and gaudy colours is also most remarkable.
Interwoven amongst the twigs of which the bower is composed, and
scattered about the ground in its vicinity, are found bleached bones,
broken oyster, snail, and cowrie shells, and not unfrequently, in the
more civilised districts, pieces of coloured rag, and fragments of
ribbon pilfered from some neighbouring station, for, in search of
attractive objects to decorate his playground, the bower-bird entirely
ignores the eighth commandment, and, I fear, justifies the somewhat
strong expression of "d--d thief" which Ferdinand bestowed on him.
Indeed, so well are his filching propensities known to the natives,
that they make a practice of searching the runs whenever any small
article of value is missing, and often succeed in recovering the lost
object.

I find that I have been using the pronoun 'he' hitherto, whilst
describing this insatiable love of finery, but on reflection I cannot
but think that I am utterly wrong, and that when more is known of the
domestic arrangements of the bower-bird, it will be found that the lady
alone is responsible for this meretricious taste, and that the poor
'he', whom I have so unblushingly accused, is in reality gathering
berries and fruit for the little ones, guiltless of the slightest
inclination towards picking and stealing.

These birds live and thrive in confinement, and busy themselves
immensely in the construction of runs, but they never multiply whilst
captive. Indeed, the place and manner of their breeding is as yet a
mystery, for, so skilful are they in concealment, that even the
lynx-eyed blacks have failed to discover their next.

We found the descent to the boat incomparably preferable to the tedious
climb of two hours previous, and, thanks to the promise of a "nobbler
of rum each," Cato and Ferdinand transported my precious "run" in
safety to the stern-sheets; the sun having then sunk in crimson beauty
behind the coast-range, and the breeze having fallen to the faintest
whisper, we shoved off, and pulled leisurely over the calm bay to
Cardwell, arriving about ten o'clock, to hear the welcome news that the
'Daylight' would be ready for us on the following afternoon.


HOW WE EXPLORED HINCHINBROOK ISLAND.

The sun was just showing above the distant sea-line, and the bay was
lying motionless as a mirror, with a rosy hue thrown across its placid
surface, when I awoke on the following morning, stiff from the clamber
of the preceding day.  The short half-hour before the rays of the sun
have attained an unpleasant fierceness is most enjoyable in Australia,
particularly in a wild region such as Cardwell, where birds, beasts,
and fishes pursue their daily avocations, heedless of the presence of
man.  My house was situated at the extreme north end of the township,
and far apart from the nearest dwelling--so much so, in fact, that it
was only by a stretch of the imagination that I could say I was
included within the village boundary.  On the side farthest from the
settlement lay the virgin bush, whilst outside the garden at the back,
all was wild and rude as Nature had left it, except a small clearing I
had made for the growth of maize, sweet potatoes, etc.  Now this
clearing had many enemies, and of many species, ranging from feathered
and furred to biped.  The cockatoos came down in such clouds as almost
to whiten the ground, and made short work of the maize; the bandicoots
and the township pigs dug up and devoured the sweet potatoes, just as
they were becoming large enough for use--commend me to your
half-starved pig to find out in a moment where the juiciest and finest
esculent lies buried--and the chattering little opossums stripped the
peach-trees of their wealth, in which labour of love they were eagerly
assisted by the flying-foxes during the night, whilst any that had
escaped these nocturnal depredators became the spoil of two or three
idle boys, who loafed about all day, seeking mischief, and, as always
happens, succeeding in finding it, even in this sequestered region.
From this it will be seen that my efforts in the direction of husbandry
were attended with some difficulty, and, despite a real liking for the
animal world, I had imbibed a holy hatred of that particular section of
its society which insisted on devouring my substance under my very
nose, only retreating to the nearest tree until my back was turned, and
then resuming operations with unblushing effrontery.  By way of a mild
vengeance, I had got into the habit of coming out every morning
directly I awoke, with my gun, and easing off both barrels amongst the
cockatoos, wallabies, or whatever particular class of robbers happened
to be afield at the moment--a practice which served as a safety-valve
for my injured feelings, whilst at the same time it provided me with a
cockatoo pie, or a good bowl of kangaroo-tail soup.

Once, in my indignation at finding my palings broken down, and some
sugar-cane, that I had been most carefully rearing, rooted up and
destroyed, while the author of the mischief, a huge sow, innocent of
the restraining ring (I would have hung the ring of the 'Devastation's'
best bower-anchor to her snout, had I been allowed to follow out my
wishes), stood gloating over the havoc she had caused.  Then, in my
wrath, I had hastily loaded a carbine with a handful of salt, and
prematurely converted a portion of my enemy's flank into bacon; but
even this just act of retribution was not to be accomplished without
further loss to myself, for on receipt of my hint to move on, her
sowship dashed straight ahead, and brought down a whole panel of my
fence about her ears, owing to which the village cows, which I had
often observed throwing longing glances over the paling at my bananas,
doubtless apprised of their opportunity by the evil-minded and
malicious sow, took a mean advantage of the weakness of my defences,
and on the same night devoured everything in the garden that they
thought worthy of their attention.

Though I had now become hardened to the many injuries thus heaped upon
me, and had almost discontinued all attempts at cultivation, I still
retained the habit of stepping out into the verandah every morning with
my gun, but more with an eye to the pot than for any other reason.

Beautiful as the scene always was, it struck me that day as being of
unusual splendour.  The tall gum-trees, with their naked stems, and
curious hanging leaves that exasperate the heated traveller by throwing
the scantiest of shadows, glistened dew-beaded in the rising sun.  The
laughing jackass, perched upon a bare limb, was awaking the forest
echoes with his insane fits of laughter, alternating from a
good-humoured chuckle to the frenzied ravings of a despairing maniac.
Suddenly ceasing, he would dart down upon some hapless lizard, too
early astir for its own safety, and, with his writhing prey in his
bill, would fly to some other branch, and after swallowing his captive,
burst forth into a yell of self-gratulation even-more fiendish than
before.  The delicate little "paddy melon," a small species of
kangaroo, turned his gracefully-formed little head, beautiful as a
fawn's, and, startled at the strange figure in the verandah, stood
hesitatingly for a few seconds, and then, bending forward, bounded into
the scrub, the noise caused by the flapping of its tail being audible
long after the little animal itself was lost to sight.  The white
cockatoos, alarmed by the outcry of the sentry--for, like the English
rooks, they always tell off some of their number to keep a
look-out--who with sulphur-coloured crest, erect and outstretched neck,
kept up a constant cry of warning, rose from the maize patch, the
spotless white of their plumage glancing in the sun, and forming a
beautiful contrast to the pale straw-colour of the under portion of
their extended pinions.  With discordant screams they circle about, as
if a little undetermined, and then perch upon the topmost branches of
the tallest trees, where they screech, flap their wings, and engage in
a series of either imaginary combats, or affectionate caresses, until,
the coast being clear, they are again enabled to continue their repast.

A curious and indescribable wailing cry is heard in the air, singularly
depressing in its effect, and a string of some dozen black cockatoos
flit from tree to tree, the brilliant scarlet band on the tail of the
male flashing as he alternately expands and contracts it, to keep his
balance whilst extracting the sweets from the flowers of the
'Eucalypti'.  Few things present so great a contrast as the cries of
these two birds--of the same family, and so alike in everything but
colour--and yet both are disagreeable:  that of the white variety from
its piercing harshness, and that of the black from an indefinable
sensation of the approach of coming evil it carries with it--at least,
such is the effect it always has upon me.  On strolling to the paling
and looking into the clearing--for although my gun is in my hand, it is
loaded with ball cartridge, and I do not fire--the nimble little
bandicoot scuttled away towards his hollow log, looking so uncommonly
like a well-fattened rat, that I mentally wonder how I could ever have
had the courage to eat one, and a flight of rainbow-hued Blue Mountain
parrots, who have held their ground to the last, whirr up with a
prodigious flapping of wings, and, alighting on a gum-tree, can be seen
hanging about the blossoms, head downwards, sucking out the honey with
their uncouth beaks and awkward little tongues, which seem but badly
adapted to such a delicate task.  But I find I am digressing terribly,
and the gloomy winter days of England, which make the recollection of a
bright tropical morning so agreeable a task to contemplate, must be my
excuse.

After breakfast, I hurried down to the beach to see if Tom Frewin, the
skipper of the little cutter, 'Daylight', would be likely to keep his
promise, and have the vessel ready to start by noon.  I found him
busily engaged with his not over-numerous crew--for it consisted only
of a man and a boy, besides himself, though Mrs. Tom, who also lived in
the tiny craft, ought to be counted as no inconsiderable addition to
the vessel's complement, for she did the cooking, and on occasions
could take the tiller and steer as cunningly as the gallant Tom
himself.  I found him hard at work hurrying the cargo over the side,
assisted by the townspeople, who all showed the greatest anxiety that
no time should be lost in setting out for the relief of the shipwrecked
men.  Everything thus pointing to the probability of our getting away
that afternoon, the provision question had to be next considered, for
the party would be numerous, and the exact time our expedition would
take could scarcely be correctly estimated.  We knew Government would
refund us for any reasonable outlay, and so determined our search
should not be cut short by any scarcity of food, and our fears of
overshooting the mark and laying in more than we could consume, were
allayed by Mr. McB--, the store-keeper who generously offered to supply
us, and to take back, without charge, anything that remained at the
expiration of the trip.  All difficulties being thus disposed of, we
were left at liberty to make our own private arrangements, until one
o'clock, by which time the 'Daylight' would have laid in her water,
etc., and be ready to start.

But I must now say something of the party itself, which we were
compelled to limit to ten men, inclusive of the native police.  These
consisted of the pilot and his crew of two men, Mr. Dunmore, the
officer in command of the police, with the two troopers, Ferdinand and
Cato, three volunteers, and myself.  Where all were anxious and willing
to aid in the good task, it would have been invidious to select, and
the volunteers drew lots from a bag in which all were blanks but three,
the gainers of these lucky numbers becoming members of the party.

One other addition we had, and right yeoman's service she did, for it
was a 'she', reader as the sequel will prove.  About eighteen months
before, the troopers had visited Hinchinbrook Island, to recover stolen
property, and in one of the native camps had found an exceedingly
pretty gin of some fourteen summers.  The personal charms of this coy
nymph of the forest had proved too much for the susceptible heart of
Ferdinand, who, regarding her as his lawful prize, had borne her, irate
and struggling, to the boat, from whence she was in due course
transported to the police camp (mounted on the pommel of the saddle in
front of the adventurous swain), where, in a very short time she became
perfectly at home, and under the name of Lizzie, made Ferdinand a
remarkably pleasant wife.

Certainly the blacks are a curious race, the like of which was never
before seen under the sun.  For two days after Lizzie's arrival in
camp, she refused to speak or eat; for the next two days she ate
everything she could lay her hands on, but still kept an unbroken
silence; and for another two days, whenever she was not eating, she
"yabbered" so much and so fast that the other gins looked on aghast,
unable to get a word in edgewise, so continuous was the flow of
Hinchinbrook vituperation.  On the seventh day, as if by magic, she
brought her tirade to a close, went down to the creek with the other
gins to fetch water, cooked her husband's supper, appeared perfectly
reconciled to her change of life, and henceforth, from her sharpness,
the aptitude with which she picked up the broken English in which the
officers communicate with the troopers, and her great knowledge of the
surrounding country, she became a most useful acquisition to the camp,
and Dunmore used frequently to say that Lizzie was worth three extra
troopers.  One of the most extraordinary things about her--and she was
not unique, for all the Australian blacks are alike constituted in this
respect--was the facility with which she seemed to rupture all the
natural ties of kinship and affection.  Her own tribe--her father,
mother, sisters, all were apparently wiped from her mind as completely
as writing is removed from a slate by a sponge; or, if ever remembered,
it was never with any mark of regret.




AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY--II.

BY CHARLES H. EDEN.


BETWEEN one and two o'clock, the report of a little swivel gun, with
which the taffrail of the 'Daylight' was armed, echoed over the bay,
and announced to the party that all was in readiness.  In a very few
minutes we were all mustered on the beach, looking, I must confess,
remarkably like brigands, in our slouching and high-crowned Californian
hats, coatless, and with shirt-sleeves either tucked up or cut off
above the elbow, which, with the carbine that each man carried in his
hand, and the revolvers, knives, etc., stuck into the waist-belts, made
our 'tout ensemble' such, that I am convinced no honest citizen, with a
plethoric purse, who saw us thus for the first time, would have felt
quite at his ease in our company.  With a ringing cheer from the
townspeople assembled on the beach, under the shade of the big trees,
we shoved off, and, manned by willing hands, the cable rattled in, in a
fashion that must have astonished the old windlass, accustomed to the
leisurely proceedings that usually obtained on board the 'Daylight'.
The sail was soon clapped on, the little vessel heeled over to the
sea-breeze now setting in pretty stiffly, and ten minutes after
quitting the shore we were down in the hold, the captain and his lady
occupying the cabin.  Making our preparations for the night, which
consisted, I may mention, mainly of spreading out our blankets, whilst
the 'Daylight', with the Government whale-boat towing astern, was
beating up against the adverse wind for the north end of Hinchinbrook,
where we purposed anchoring for the night, and commencing our search on
the following morning.

What with a contrary wind and tide, it was not until past ten o'clock
that we glided into the little bay, and, shortening sail as noiselessly
as possible, let down the anchor by hand to avoid the rattling of the
chain through the hawsehole, which, in the stillness of the night,
would have certainly reached the keen ears of the blacks, were there
any in the neighbourhood, and caused them to shift their quarters.  The
little inlet or creek in which we now found ourselves, was entirely new
to us, and we were indebted to Lizzie for the discovery of such a quiet
retreat.  With straining eyes, our novel pilotess stood at the heel of
the bowsprit, extending an arm in the direction she wished the vessel
to go, and, her task completed, she wrapped her blanket round her
active little body, scarcely shrouded in the striped twill shirt that
constituted her sole attire, and, sinking down in the waterways under
the lee of the gunwale, was soon sound asleep--a sensible proceeding,
which, as soon as everything was secured, we hastened to imitate.

We had arranged our plans for the morrow in the following manner.
Before dawn, the whale-boat was to land all the party, including
Lizzie, with the exception of the pilot and his two men.  He was to
return to the 'Daylight' after having put us ashore, and, getting under
weigh as soon as the wind was strong enough, was to take her round to a
small inlet on the island, some distance down Rockingham Channel, and
there await either our arrival or further instructions.  Our expedition
was to join him there in two or three days at the farthest, perhaps
sooner; but, whatever happened, he was to remain with the cutter at the
rendezvous, and on no account, nor under any inducement, was he to quit
until he either saw or heard from us, however long the time might be.
During the daytime the whale-boat was to be kept hauled up alongside
the cutter, with the carbines belonging to the crew loaded and triced
up under the thwarts, ready for immediate service, and a bright
look-out was to be kept on the channel, in both directions. If the
natives attempted the smallest communication with the mainland, the
whale-boat was to give chase immediately, and either intercept and
capture the canoes, or compel them to return to Hinchinbrook Island.

Such was the rough plan we sketched out for the guidance of the
'Daylight'. With regard to ourselves, we could make no standing rule,
for the country was comparatively unknown to us, and we must,
Micawber-like, trust to something turning up and, in the pursuit of
this happy event, must follow whithersoever fortune and Miss Lizzie
thought fit to lead us.

At least an hour before dawn we were astir, and swallowing the scalding
tea that the man on watch had prepared:  this done, and a snack of
damper and cold meat eaten, we got quietly into the boat and were
pulled ashore. Until daylight, we were unable to make our way, for
paths there were none, and the ground was dangerous from the quantity
of stones, etc., so we were compelled to sit down quietly and smoke our
pipes until we could see to pick our way.  In the tropics there is but
little dawn; the sun springs up without heralding his approach by a
lengthened gradation from darkness to night, as obtains in more
temperate climes, and but little patience was requisite to enable us to
commence our search.  As many of our readers are doubtless aware that
in Australia no journey is ever undertaken on foot; that the real
bushman would think himself sunk to the depths of abject poverty, if he
had not at least 'one' horse of his own; and that a man will wander
about for a couple of hours looking for a horse to carry him half a
mile, when he might have gone to his destination and back half a dozen
times, in the interval wasted in searching for his steed.  Knowing
this, they will doubtless wonder why we did not bring our mounts with
us, and perform the journey comfortably, in place of the tedious method
we now adopted.  It must not for a moment be imagined that the great
assistance horses would have afforded us had not been duly weighted and
considered, and our reasons for leaving them behind were as
follows:--From the little we knew of Hinchinbrook, and from the
description Lizzie gave of the country, they would have been rather in
our way than otherwise.  The whole island is a mass of lofty volcanic
mountains; and the passes through the gorges so strewn with huge
boulders, debris, and shale, that we should have been compelled to lead
our nags, and thus they would have only proved an encumbrance.  This
was one reason, and apparently a very good one, but I doubt if it would
have had much effect upon our party, who could hardly contemplate any
undertaking without the agency of horseflesh, had not a more cogent
argument been forthcoming, to which they were compelled to give in
their adherence.

"The 'Daylight' is quite big enough to carry them all, for such a short
distance, if they're properly stowed," said Jack Clark, the roughrider,
who was a zealous advocate for the conveyance of his pet quadrupeds.

"Of course she can," said another; "and we shall get the work over as
quickly again."

"How will you land them?" I ventured to suggest; "for the cutter can
never go near enough to the shore to walk them out."

"She can't get within a quarter of a mile," said the pilot; for at this
time none of us knew of the little inlet, into which Lizzie so deftly
guided us.

"Pitch them overboard, of course," cried Jack; "they'll pretty soon
make for the land; and I'll send my mare Gossamer first; she'll give
them a lead, I'll bet.  Cunning old devil!"

The impetuosity of Jack was fast gaining converts, when Cato pulled
Dunmore quietly by the sleeve, and said--

"Marmy, baal you take 'em yarroman like 'it Hinchinbrook; my word,
plenty of alligator sit down along of water.  He been parter that
fellow like 'it damper."

"By Jove!  Cato's right," said Dunmore; "we forget about the alligators
and sharks.  I won't let the boys take their horses, and shall not take
my own. I lost one horse from an alligator last year, on the Pioneer
River, and Government wanted to make me pay for it, and I'll take care
I don't risk losing 'three'.  Bring Gossamer, if you like, Clark, but,
take my word for it, you'll never see her again."

This unexpected contingency; the prophesied fate of Gossamer, which was
as the apple of Jack's eye; and the point-blank and sensible refusal of
Dunmore to hazard the Government horses, completely turned the tables.
After a little inward grumbling, Jack consoled himself, saying--

"Well, at all events, I can 'think' of riding!"

And thus it came to pass that we landed on Hinchinbrook, with no means
of locomotion beyond those with which nature had endowed us.

And now, headed by Lizzie, and walking in single file and in silence,
we struck out for the interior of the island.  The path--if path it
could be called, for it consisted only of a dim track beaten by the
naked feet of the blacks--wound in and out among the long grass, which,
as we approached the foot of the mountain range, became exchanged for
boulders and loose shale, which rendered walking most tedious, and
played the very mischief with our boots.  Here even this track seemed,
to our eyes, to die out; but Lizzie led the way confidently, and
evidently with a thorough knowledge of what she was about.  We had now
been walking for more than three hours, and had apparently only got
half way up a kind of gorge in the mountains, which seemed to become
gradually narrower and narrower, and from all appearances afforded
every prospect of terminating in a 'cul-de-sac'. A watercourse must at
some period have run down this ravine, for the boulders were rounded;
but it was now quite dry.  As the sides of the mountains drew nearer,
our path led along this watercourse, and the walking became dreadfully
fatiguing.  The boulders were sometimes so close as to render walking
between impossible, and then it became necessary to clamber over them,
which, loaded as we were, was very painful.  If, on the other hand, we
attempted to journey on the 'top' of the boulders, they were not only
of unequal heights, but sometimes so wide apart, that a good spring was
requisite to get from one to the other.  Lizzie was the only one of the
party who appeared thoroughly at home; her light figure bounded from
rock to rock with the greatest ease and rapidity.  Even Cato and
Ferdinand, barefooted as they were, seemed to be a long way from
enjoying themselves, and for us wretched Europeans, with our thick
boots, that obtained scarcely any foothold, we slipped about from the
rounded shoulders of the rocks, in a way that was anything but pleasant.

Thus we scrambled along for another hour, at the expiration of which we
could only see a blank wall of mountain before us, up which it would
have been both impossible and useless to climb.  Wondering where the
deuce Lizzie was leading us, we blundered along until we arrived at the
base of the perpendicular cliff, and saw that by some convulsion of
nature the ravine now branched off at a right angle to the left, and
gradually widened out into a beautiful and gently declining stretch of
country, perfectly shut in by hills, and into which a pretty little bay
extended, with several canoes on its placid surface.  We were distant
from the beach about three miles, and could see clearly the smoke of
several fires; while with binocular glasses we could make out the
figures of the blacks fishing, and of the piccaninnies and gins romping
in the sand.

Lizzie was a sight to see, as she pointed triumphantly to the
unconscious savages, and, trembling with eagerness, tapped the butt of
Dunmore's carbine, as she whispered--

"Those fellow sit down there, brother belonging to me, plenty you shoot
'em, Marmy."

"You take us close up along of those fellow, Lizzie?" said Dunmore.

"Your Marmy, plenty close, you been shoot 'em all mine think," replied
our amiable little guide, who, enjoining the strictest silence, at once
put herself in motion, bidding us, by a sign, to follow her.

For more than an hour and a half we crept cautiously along, sometimes
crawling on all fours where the country was open, and frequently
stopping, while Lizzie went noiselessly forward and reconnoitred,
before beckoning to us to advance again.  The direction in which she
led us lay at the base of the hills, which on one side bounded the
little plain and its bay, and though we could form but a crude idea of
where we were going, owing to the thickness of the undergrowth, yet it
was sufficiently evident that the young lady was one of nature's
tacticians, and meditated a flank blow at her unfortunate relatives.
Proceeding, we came at last within a stone's throw of the beach, and
could hear the mimic waves rolling on the sand, at no great distance,
on our right hand.  Lizzie now pointed to a small belt of vine shrub
that lay in front of us, and indicated that immediately outside it were
the 'gunyahs', or huts; and, "plenty you shoot," she added showing her
white teeth as she grinned with glee at the thoughts of the cheerful
surprise she had prepared for her old companions.  We were not
thoroughly on the 'qui vive', for we thought this unknown bay would be
the very spot in which the blacks were likely to seclude any prisoners
from the 'Eva', and accordingly willingly followed the lithe figure of
our little guide, as she wound her way through the tangled brake, like
a black snake, and with a facility that we in vain attempted to
imitate.  The troopers--who had reduced their clothing to a minimum,
for their sole vestment consisted of a forage-cap and
cartridge-belt--wound along as noiselessly as Lizzie; but we poor
whites--with our flannel shirts and other complicated paraphernalia
that custom would not permit us to dispense with in the matter-of-fact
way they were laid aside by our sable allies--were getting into
continual trouble; now hitched up helplessly by a lawyer vine, whose
sharp prickles, like inverted fish-hooks, rent the skin; now crawling
unsuspiciously against a tree-ants' nest, an indiscretion that the
fierce little insects visited with immediate and most painful
punishment; or else, becoming aware, by unmistakable symptoms, that we
were trying to force a passage through a stinging tree-shrub.  Whenever
we thus came to grief, Lizzie would stop, turn round, and wave her arms
about like a semaphore, indicative of impatience, contempt mingled with
pity and warning.

Luckily for us, the belt of scrub was not of great extent; Lizzie had
already reached its edge, and was peering cautiously through, and we
were struggling along, each after his own fashion, when bang went a
carbine, the bullet of which we distinctly heard whistle over our
heads, and turning round we got a glimpse of Jack, the roughrider, hung
up in a vine, one of whose tendrils had fired off his weapon; and had
just time to hear him exclaim, "If I'd only been mounted, this wouldn't
have happened," before we broke cover, and all further concealment
being now unnecessary, rushed recklessly on to the encampment.

But we were too late to capture any of the men, for I need hardly tell
the reader that never had we intended to make use of the curt arguments
that Lizzie had relied upon for cutting off the abrupt exit of her
quondam friends; it would be quite time enough to commence a system of
reprisals when it was ascertained that the blacks had actually been
guilty of any atrocity.  At present it was mere surmise on our part,
and putting altogether on one side the natural reluctance to shed
blood, an aggressive policy would have been an unwise one, engendering,
as it infallibly would, a bad feeling against any other luckless
mariners whom the winds and the waves might in time to come cast upon
the inhospitable shores of Hinchinbrook Island.

The sudden report of Jack's carbine, which occasioned a momentary halt,
and the few seconds required to burst through the scrub, afforded
sufficient time for the male portion of the encampment to make their
escape at speed, in different directions, some taking to the water,
where they were picked up by the fishermen in the canoes; others diving
into the nearest cover, and being lost to sight without hope of
recovery.  The women and children followed the tactics usual on such
occasions, and flung themselves into a heap, similar in colour and
contour to that described in a previous chapter, when we searched the
Herbert River.  The same thing took place again exactly; we sat down in
a circle round them, waiting for the deafening "yabbering" to die away,
which "yabbering" burst forth in all its pristine discord, whenever one
of the party made the slightest movement. Time and patience, however,
had the desired effect, restoring tone to their not over sensitive
systems, and at the expiration of half an hour, we could distinguish
sharp, bead-like black eyes peering at us out of the mass, which had
now sunk into silence, but burst out again louder than ever, when
Lizzie made her appearance from one of the gunyahs--perhaps the
paternal roof, who knows?--where she had retired, swelling with
indignation, and as sulky as a whole team of mules.  Finding that no
one took any notice of her, and half an hour's reflection having, I
suppose, convinced her, that if she wanted to make a display before her
relations, now was the time, her ladyship came slowly up to the circle,
and commenced an attack on poor Dunmore, as she knew him best.  To
transcribe her words would be impossible, for she put in a native
sentence whenever she found herself at a loss for an English one, but
the burden of her plaint was this:--

"Plenty d--d fooly fellow, white fellow"--a string of Hinchinbrook
vernacular--"Baal you been shoot 'em like 'it dingo"--more
Hinchinbrook, but evidently, from the accompanying gestures, indicative
of intense disgust--"Baal mine take any more along of black fellow
camp"--half sobs--"Baal mine care suppose you fellow all go like 'it--"

And she summarily consigned us to the bottomless pit, as the only place
at all suited for such stupid idiots who could refrain from shooting
blacks when so grand an opportunity presented itself.  Her eyes flashed
fire as she delivered herself of her woes, and at the concluding
sentence she stamped her little foot, and flinging a short waddy she
held, with remarkable dexterity and no mean force, into the midst of
the sable mass, she turned round to depart with the dignity of a
tragedy queen, when Dunmore jumped up, caught her, and holding her
wrist, walked off a little way from us.

"You like 'it one fine fellow red shirt, Lizzie?  Mine give you one
with 'plenty long tail'.  Baal any other gin along of camp have shirt
like 'it you; and when piccaninny sit down" (for there was a prospect
of her presenting Ferdinand with a little pledge of affection), "mine
give that fellow two budgeree flour-bag shirts, suppose only you good
fellow girl Lizzie."

Evidently, Dunmore knew the way to the young lady's heart--we nicknamed
him "Faust" afterwards--for at the mention of the red shirt, with the
lengthy tails, her eyes lost their fierceness, and the allusion to the
piccaninny completed his victory, and changing at once from one extreme
to the other, as only a black or a child can, Miss Lizzie took her seat
in the circle, lighted her pipe, commenced nodding to, and chatting
most affably with, her relatives, and looking so kind, that it seemed
impossible to believe that an intense longing for bloodshed and cruelty
had so shortly before lurked in the breast of the pretty, smiling
little savage who was now beside us.

During the task of pacifying Lizzie, the "heap" had again sunk into
comparative silence, and only a confused murmur was audible from its
depths.  Allowing no time to be lost, Dunmore said to Lizzie--who was
puffing out huge mouthfuls of smoke, greatly to the astonishment of the
other gins, who looked as if they expected to see her suddenly blaze
up--

"Lizzie, you ask, suppose they been see any white fellow on island?
White fellow in plenty big canoe.  That fellow canoe been come like 'it
shore. You tell them, 'Baal white fellow hurt you, suppose you been
show, where brother belonging to him sit down.'  You tell them that,
Lizzie."

Lizzie proceeded with the greatest gravity, and evidently with an
overwhelming sense of self-importance, to put the required questions,
whilst we anxiously awaited her replies.

"Well, what they been say?" exclaimed Dunmore at last, when there was a
momentary break in the conversation.

I should imagine that the vernacular of the Hinchinbrook Islanders was
not pre-eminently adapted for the noble intricacies of diplomatic
intrigue.  In the first place it contains but few words, and none
representing any number higher than five, so that even the courtly
nobleman now presiding over Foreign Affairs, would find the smooth flow
of his amenities subjected to rude shocks; and as for expressing any
large number either in words or figures--say, for instance, the Alabama
indemnity of three millions--to do so, would tax to the utmost the
genius of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer.  Lizzie, in her first
flash of pride, as representing a plenipotentiary armed with
extraordinary powers, had commenced negotiations with the dignity and
slowness of speech adapted to so exalted a personage. But the shrill
chorus which emanated from the audience was decidedly antagonistic to
grave deliberation, and the anxious curiosity of the woman superseding
the self imposed role of the diplomatist, our envoy lost the pompous
tone she had first adopted, and a volley of queries and replies was
exchanged so rapidly, and with such appalling shrillness, that we
onlookers ran a great risk of being either deafened, or driven out of
our senses.  At the first slackening of the wordy warfare, Dunmore put
his questions, and then Lizzie said--

"Baal there been any white fellow along of here."

"You been sure, Lizzie, ask suppose they been see any big fellow canoe."

Again the same hideous noise now took place, but I will not tire my
readers with too minute a description of a scene with which they must
now be pretty conversant, suffice it to say, that what with the real or
pretended stupidity of the gins, and the imperfect English of our
interpreter, we were more puzzled at the conclusion of the debate than
we had been at its commencement.

"Had they seen a vessel?"

"Oh yes, big fellow, with wings like 'it bird."

"How long ago?"

"Plenty long time ago."

"One moon ago?"

"Yes, one moon ago."

"Sure it was one moon?"

"No, thought it must be one day ago, and plenty smoke sit down along of
big canoe."

Altogether the skein was too tangled for us to attempt to unravel it.
They had seen vessels evidently, both sailing ships and steamers, but
whether it was yesterday, or ten years back, there were no means of
ascertaining; but to make certain that we were not being deceived, we
instituted a strict overhaul of the gunyahs, in hopes of finding
something that might give us a clue to the fate of the missing men.
When we broke up our circle for this purpose, the component parts of
the "heap" assumed an upright posture, and it was remarkable to witness
the awe with which they regarded Lizzie.  At first they seemed afraid
to approach her, and stood some five yards distant, watching her whilst
she puffed out the smoke from her relighted pipe, and posed herself in
an attitude of becoming superiority, for she saw clearly enough that
the happy moment for making an impression had arrived. Gradually they
drew closer and closer, and at last, three of the eldest gins going
down on all fours, crept slowly up until close in front of her, when
they stopped, and buried their withered old faces in the sand at her
feet.  After enjoying their humiliation for a few seconds, she
condescended to speak to them, and very shortly they were all
chattering away on the most amicable terms.

Meanwhile the gunyahs or native huts, and the camp, had been thoroughly
searched, but without bringing to light anything European, except a few
bottles, and a pint pot which had been accidentally left behind by one
of the party on the occasion of Lizzie's abduction.  The gunyahs were
better constructed than usual, and consisted of saplings bent in an
arch and covered with tea-tree bark, a great improvement on all the
native dwellings we had hitherto seen, which were generally little
better than a rude screen against the wind.  But our time was precious,
for we carried but little provision; and we could not afford to loiter
about, even in so pleasant a spot as this little bay; so, after
dispatching a hasty dinner, we started off afresh, to the immense
relief of the gins, and got out of the valley by another pass, which
Lizzie showed us.  I must not forget to mention one ludicrous
circumstance, which convulsed us with laughter.  The gins showed such
curiosity about Lizzie's pipe, that she handed it round and made them
each take a puff.  Their expressions, when the pungent smoke caused
them either to sneeze, cough, or choke, were most laughable; and I have
no doubt that it is still a matter of wonder to them, and a fruitful
source of debate over the camp-fires, what pleasure the white man can
find in filling his mouth with smoke, apparently with no better object
than to puff it out again as soon as possible.  Our course now lay due
south, and the travelling was much the same as in the morning, that is
to say, as bad and as fatiguing as it well could be.  Lizzie said she
could take us to another bay, where there were sure to be more blacks;
and so we trudged patiently along under her guidance, with the sun
blazing down so fiercely that the carbine-barrels became quite heated.
Our new path was very similar to the last one, seeming to come to an
abrupt termination, but really shooting off at an angle, and leading
down to a bay, which opened out to our view about five o'clock, and did
not present nearly so pretty an appearance as the one we had just left,
for the ground seemed swampy, and the beach was a nasty muddy
mangrove-flat.  We were also disappointed in not finding any blacks;
but as there is nothing so bad that it has not some redeeming quality,
so this dreary-looking swamp had its advantages, for the trees were
loaded with Torres Straits' pigeons, and sea-crabs were abundant.  This
would enable us to lay in an extra day's provisions, and to extend our
search, if necessary, before visiting the 'Daylight', from which vessel
we were now separated by more than twenty miles of unknown country,
inclusive of a mountainous range.  We determined not to shoot any
pigeons that night, for they would only keep the less time; and having
lit our fire by the side of a small creek, we had supper, and were soon
sleeping the sleep of the weary, the watch having instructions to call
us at an early hour for the purpose of replenishing our larder before
the birds took their departure for the mainland.

A pint pot of tea swallowed--what a blessing it is that this glorious
beverage is so portable that abundance can always be carried--three of
us sallied forth with our carbines, from which we had extracted the
bullets and substituted shot, each taking a different direction, the
troopers guaranteeing a crab breakfast, and Lizzie cutting and peeling
wooden skewers to roast the game on; for in this climate nothing will
keep beyond a few hours, unless partially cooked.  I struck away
towards the left with the intention of making the mangroves as soon as
possible, where I knew I should find plenty of birds.  The walk of the
day previous had made me a little stiff; but I felt lightly clad,
without the heavy blanket, which I had left in camp; and, by way of
getting rid of the stiffness, I started off at a run and soon reached
my destination, where I sat down until there was sufficient daylight to
enable me to see the game.  As I rested on the root of a tree,
perfectly motionless, I saw something large moving among the mangroves;
but the dawn was as yet so uncertain that I could not distinguish
whether it was a human being or not.

"If that is a black fellow," I thought, "he's worth all the pigeons put
together, and I'll wait quietly to try and capture him," for the object
I saw was moving in the direction my companions had taken; and if it
were a native, he would be certain to return by the road he had come,
when he heard the firing.  Sitting still, waiting for anything or
anybody, when waited on yourself by hungry mosquitoes, may be agreeable
enough to Mr. Fenimore Cooper's typical Red Indian, but I can safely
say that it is anything but pleasant work to a thin-skinned Englishman.
Daylight had now fully come, and I was beginning to hesitate as to
whether I had not better bag some of the birds that were fluttering
over my head, and get out of the swamp as fast as I could, when I heard
the distant report of a gun, and said to myself, "Well, I'll give the
nondescript five minutes more, and if it doesn't turn up by then, I'll
blaze away at the pigeons."  Half the allotted time had barely elapsed,
when another report broke the stillness of the morning, and immediately
afterwards I heard a rustling among the mangrove-leaves, and a slight
crackling, as though some heavy weight were passing over the arched
roots.  I stayed quiet, almost breathless, as the noise came nearer and
nearer, and, turning my head, I peered through the bush behind which I
had taken up my quarters, and saw a fine-looking black gliding
cautiously from one to another of the interlaced mangroves.  He was
evidently quite unsuspicious of any danger in front, and kept all his
faculties concentrated on the direction in which he had heard the
carbine-shots, which now followed each other rapidly, as the two
gunners fired at the birds as fast as they could load.

"Now," thought I, "if I can only cut you off so as to keep you between
me and them, I am pretty certain to capture you, my friend;" and,
judging my time, I rushed from behind my bush, and was within ten yards
of him before he saw me.  In his amazement he dropped the long
fish-spear with which he was armed, stood one moment undetermined, and
then made his way, with the greatest agility, from tree to tree, not
back towards my friends, as I had fondly hoped, but straight for the
bay.  I followed as fast as I could, but he went two paces to my one.
I confess I felt sorely tempted to handicap him with a charge of small
shot, lodged somewhere about the calves of those lean legs that were
carrying him over the roots with such provoking rapidity, and have
often wondered since why I refrained; but I did, and continued to
scuttle after him, now slipping down and barking my shins, now nearly
losing my carbine, and often compelled to sprawl on all fours.  He was
now forty or fifty yards ahead of me, and I was nearly giving up the
useless chase, when an unforeseen accident turned the tables in my
favour, and caused me to push on with redoubled vigour.  As we
approached the bay, the whole of the roots and lower portions of the
mangroves became thickly studded with oysters, whose shells, sharp as
razors, cut the bare feet of the fugitive; while, on the contrary, they
proved of assistance to me by preventing my thick boots from slipping
off the treacherous roots.  I now gained ground as fast as I had
previously lost it, and made certain of capturing my prisoner on
arriving at the end of the mangroves, through which I could already
catch glimpses of the sea.  Animated by the thoughts of bringing a
captive into camp, from whom we should probably gain valuable
information, I jumped from tree to tree in hot pursuit, and when the
bay opened out clearly, I was only a short distance in the rear.

"Now I've got you," I muttered, as the black fellow jumped on to the
last stool of roots, and as I was eagerly following, holding my breath
for a tussle; when, to my intense mortification, he plunged headlong
into the sea, leaving me disconsolate and out of wind, to get back as
best I could. I waited until his head reappeared, which was not until
he had put a good thirty yards between us, and, pointing my carbine,
shouted to him to return or I would fire.  It was quite useless.  He
went quietly out seaward, and at the last, when I turned unwillingly to
retrace my steps, I saw his black head bobbing about on the calm
surface.  When, after a series of involuntary feats on the mangrove
rope, I again stood on 'terra firma', all the pigeons had left; and I
was compelled to make my way back to camp, empty-handed, muddy, cut
about the shins, and with my boots almost in tatters.  "So much,"
thought I, "for trying to catch a black fellow single-handed."

My companions had shot plenty of pigeons, after roasting which we
started for the interior of the island, and without meeting with
anything beyond the ordinary routine of bad bush and mountain
travelling; certainly encountering nothing that would justify me in
inflicting a prolix description upon the reader--we arrived late on the
following evening at the rendezvous, found the 'Daylight' safely at
anchor, and thus completed one portion of our search, without having
obtained the faintest clue to an elucidation of the mystery of the
'Eva'.

The pilot reported that, to the best of his belief, no blacks had
succeeded in making their escape to the mainland; several canoes had
attempted to cross, but they had been seen and intercepted, though none
of their occupants had been captured.  One canoe he had taken
possession of, and now showed us, which was, I think, the most
primitive piece of naval architecture any of us had seen.  Canoe it
could hardly be called, for it was only a sheet of bark curled up by
the action of fire; the bow and stern formed by folding the
extremities, and passing a tree-nail, or, rather, a large skewer,
through the plaits.  When placed in the water, the portion amidships,
which represented the gunwale, was not four inches above the surface,
and so frail that no European could have got into it without a capsize,
though the black fellows are so naturally endued with the laws of
equilibrium that they can stand upright in these tiny craft, and even
spear and haul on board large fish.

We slept in the hold of the 'Daylight' that night, after making all
arrangements for a start at early dawn.  We trusted that the Cleveland
Bay party would have performed their portion of the task, and
thoroughly overhauled the southern part of the island, and fully
expected to fall in with them on the following day.

Our road lay through most abominable country--stony, precipitous, and
in places covered with dense vegetation.  The traces of blacks were
abundant, and we could travel but a short distance without falling in
with some of the numerous camping-places.  In many of these, the fires
were still smouldering, but the inhabitants had cleared out, most
probably warned by those whom the whale-boat had intercepted.  Each
camp was subjected to a rigid scrutiny, but without revealing anything
European, except fragments of bottles, to which we attached no
importance, for they were probably flung over-board by some passing
vessel, and carried ashore by the tide. These are highly valued by the
blacks, who do not use them for carrying water, but break them, and
scrape down their spears with the fragments.

To make a spear must be a work of many weeks' duration, when the
imperfect implements at the natives' disposal are taken into
consideration.  In the first place, his missile must be perfectly
straight, and of the hardest wood; and no bough, however large, would
fulfil these requirements, so it must be cut out bodily from the stem
of an iron-bark tree, and the nearer the heart he can manage to get,
the better will be his weapon.  His sole tool with which to attack a
giant iron-bark is a miserable tomahawk, or hatchet, made of stone, but
little superior to the rude Celtic flint axe-heads, that may be seen in
any antiquarian's collection.  These are of a very hard stone,
frequently of a greenish hue, and resembling jade; and, having been
rubbed smooth, are fitted with a handle on the same principle that a
blacksmith in England twists a hazel wand round a cold chisel.  The
head, and the portion of the handle which embraces it, then receive a
plentiful coating of bees'-wax, and the weapon is ready for use.  Fancy
having to chop out a solid piece of wood, nine feet long, and of
considerable depth, from a standing tree, with an instrument such as I
have described, which can never, by any possibility be brought to take
an edge! I have frequently examined the trees from which spears have
been thus excised, and the smallness of the chips testified to the
length of the tedious operation; indeed, it would be more correct to
say the segment had been bruised out than excised.  Having so far
achieved his task, there is still a great deal before the black can
boast of a complete spear, for the bar is several inches in diameter,
and has to be fitted down to less than one inch.  Of the use of wedges
he knows nothing, so is compelled to work away with the tomahawk, and
to call in the aid of fire; and when he has managed to reduce the spear
to something approaching its proper size, he gets a lot of
oyster-shells, and with them completes the scraping, and puts on the
finishing touches.  It may easily be imagined what a boon glass must be
to the savage, enabling him to do the latter part of the operation in a
tithe of the time.

I am afraid that it is often the habit with us Australians to either
destroy or carry away as curiosities, the weapons and other little
things that the blacks manufacture, utterly regardless of the loss we
thus inflict upon them; for without his weapons the wretched native is
not only defenceless against neighbouring tribes, who would not scruple
to attack him when unarmed, but he is also literally deprived of the
means of subsistence.  Without his spear, he is unable to transfix the
kangaroos and wallabies on which he so much depends for his daily food,
and, robbed of his boomerangs and nullah-nullahs, the wild duck can
pass him scatheless, and the cockatoo can scream defiance from the
lofty trees.  I know that this practice of returning laden with native
spoil is more frequently the result of thoughtlessness or curiosity
than anything else.  The implements appear so trumpery, that the
European thinks they can be of little use to anybody, but the bad blood
thus engendered between the aborigines and the settlers is greater than
would be easily credited.  Another reason, I would venture to submit,
in opposition to this custom is, that in the case of the blacks doing
any mischief, no method of punishing them can possibly be devised equal
in severity to the destruction of their weapons.  A tribe is rendered
more helpless and more innocuous by this than by shooting down half the
males, and I am sure that if they once found that only in case of
mischief was this punishment resorted to, we should hear infinitely
less of cattle-spearing and shepherd-murdering than at present obtains.
I mention this, not from any good-will towards the blacks, who have
been causes of much sorrow to me and mine, but because I am sure that a
discontinuance of this idle habit would tend to lessen the existing
causes of friction between the two races.

In one of the camps we found a blanket--not, O reader, made of the
finest wool, deftly woven at the looms of Witney, but a blanket of Dame
Nature's own contrivance, stripped by the aboriginal from the bark of
the Australian tea-tree ('Melaleuca squarrosa'), no small shrub, but a
noble fellow standing from 150 to 200 feet high, and generally found in
the neighbourhood of fresh water, or in the beds of creeks.  The bark
of this tree is of great thickness, and composed of a series of layers,
each of which can be easily separated from its neighbours, and, in
fact, much resembling a new book, just issued from the hot-press of the
binder.  From a portion of this--the inner skins, I imagine--the blacks
manage to make a flexible, though not over warm, covering for the
winter nights, or for the newly-born piccaninnies.  The whole of the
process I am not acquainted with, but from all I could gather from
Lizzie, the bark is stripped in a large sheet at the end of the rainy
season, the inner cuticle of several leaves carefully separated from
the remainder, and placed in fresh water, weighted with heavy stones to
retain it in its position. After the lapse of a certain time, known
only to the initiated, it is taken out, hung up to dry, and at a
peculiar stage, before all the moisture has evaporated, it is laid on a
flat rock, and cautiously beaten with smooth round stones, which
operation opens out the web sufficiently to make it quite pliant, after
which it is allowed to dry thoroughly, and is then ready for use.
These vegetable blankets are very strong, and must be a great
protection to the naked savages, but, despite the ease with which they
can be obtained, and the small time and labour occupied in their
preparation, but few of the gins have them, and none of the men.

We also found several fish-hooks of a most peculiar shape, and made out
of a curious material.  In shape they were like a circular key-ring,
with a segment of exactly one-third cut out.  One end was ground sharp,
and to the other was attached the line, cleverly spun from the tea-tree
bark.  Now, of all shapes to drive a Limerick hook-maker to despair,
none, one would think, could have been invented better than this, for
the odds are certainly ten to one against its penetrating any portion
of a fish, even though he should have gorged it.  The material of which
these quaint hooks are made is tortoise or turtle shell, for both
tortoises and turtles abound on this coast, the former frequenting the
fresh-water creeks and lagoons, and the latter the sea.  Whether they
were cut out of the solid, or whether a strip was soaked, bent, and
then dried in the sun until it became firmly set in the required shape,
I never could ascertain, but most probably the former plan was adopted.

The whole island seemed to teem with game, and had we been able to
fire, we should speedily have made a good bag, but this we dared not
do, so I made a mental resolve to return at some future time and make
amends for this enforced restraint.  At nearly every step, we put up
some bird or beast strange to European eyes.

I have no doubt it is known to most of my readers that Australia is
destitute of 'Ferae' proper, and that elephants, lions, tigers, etc.,
are unknown.  They will also know that the kangaroos are marsupial
animals; that is to say, the females have a peculiar pouch for their
young, which are born in a far less advanced state than the young of
other animals.  But perhaps it is not so generally known that, with two
or three exceptions, such as the dingo or native dog, the platypus, and
several species of bats, the 'whole' of the animals on the continent
are marsupial.  The brains of this species are very small, and they
sadly lack intelligence, in which respect they exhibit a wonderful
affinity to the aboriginals who live by their capture.

[ILLUSTRATION--GROUP OF KANGAROOS.]

Of kangaroos there are more than thirty different kinds, but the
English are now so well acquainted with this curious animal that it
needs no description.  There are two things about it, however, that I
may with propriety here point out--viz., the use of the pouch, and the
various ways in which the kangaroo is serviceable to the settler.  The
average size of the ordinary female kangaroo is about six feet,
counting from the nose to the tip of the tail; and, marvellous though
it may appear, the young kangaroo, at its birth, is but little over an
inch in length, having a vague kind of shape, certainly, but otherwise
soft, semi-transparent, and completely helpless.  Now the pouch comes
into use.  The little creature is conveyed there by the mother's lips,
and immediately attaches itself to one of the nipples, which are
retractile, and capable of being drawn out to a considerable length.
Thus constantly attached to its parent, it waxes bigger daily.  From
two to eight months of age it still continues an inhabitant of its
curious cradle, but now often protrudes its little head to take an
observation of the world at large, and to nibble the grass amongst
which its mother is feeding.  Sometimes it has a little run by itself,
but seeks the maternal bosom at the slightest intimation of danger. It
quits the pouch for good when it can crop the herbage freely; but even
now it will often poke its head into its early home and get a little
refreshment on the sly, even though a new-comer may have succeeded to
its place.




AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY--III.

BY CHARLES H. EDEN.


A FULL-GROWN "paddy melon," a small and beautiful species of kangaroo,
bearing the same resemblance to the "boomer" that a Cingalese
mouse-deer does to an elk, was once given to me as a pet, and we became
great friends. Whenever I went into the room and opened my shirt or
coat, the little fellow would bound in and coil himself snugly away for
hours, if permitted; thus showing, I think that he still retained a
recollection of the snug abode of his childhood.  Like most pets, he
came to an untimely end--in fact, met with the fate that ultimately
befalls all the members of his tribe who are domesticated and allowed
to run about the bush huts in Australia.  The fireplaces are large
recesses in the wall, and on the same level as the floor.  Wood only is
burnt, and large heaps of glowing ashes accumulate, for the fire never
really goes out, by night or day.  As long as it is blazing, the pet
kangaroo will keep his distance, but when it has sunk down to living
coals, his foolish curiosity is sure to impel him, sooner or later, to
jump right into the thick of it; and then--and here his want of brains
is painfully shown--instead of jumping out again at once, he commences
fighting and spurring the burning embers with his hind feet, and, as a
natural sequence, is either found half roasted, or so injured that his
death is inevitable.

The uses to which the settler puts this animal are many.  He has to
take the place of the stag when any hunting is going on (as the dingo
has to act for the fox); and most remarkably good sport an "old man" or
"boomer"--as the full-grown males are called--will afford; and most
kangaroo dogs bear witness, by cruel scars, how keen a gash he can
inflict with his sharp hind claw when brought to bay.  From ten to
twelve miles is by no means an unusual run, and when thoroughly
exhausted he makes a stand, either with his back against a tree, or in
the water.  In both of these positions he is no despicable adversary,
and will do much damage to a pack of hounds, by grasping them in his
short fore arms and ripping them open, if on land; or by seizing and
holding them under, if in the water.  Instances are on record of a
despairing kangaroo dashing through the dogs on the approach of a
dismounted hunter, and severely wounding him.  The common practice when
the animal is brought to bay is to ride up and pistol him.  But,
however he may be killed, his useful qualities have by no means
departed with his breath.  His skin, properly cured, will make good
door-mats, boots, saddle-cloths, stock-whips, gaiters, and numberless
other useful articles. His long and heavy tail is much valued for the
soup it yields; and the hams can be cured, and, thus preserved, find
many admirers.  The hind-quarters of a large "boomer" will run little
short of seventy pounds; and, with the tail, form the only parts
commonly eaten by Europeans.

The birds that we encountered were of every form and size; pigeons,
some coloured like parrots, others diminutive as sparrows, and of the
same sombre hue:  pheasants, quail, every kind of feathered fowl that
could gladden the heart of the sportsman, were found in abundance, and
amongst these the scrub turkey and its nest.  This latter bird is so
little known, that I am tempted to give a short account of it.

The Australian scrub turkey ('Tallegalla Lathami') is common in all the
thick jungles in the north of Queensland, and, though smaller than the
domestic bird, is sufficiently like it to be easily recognised, having
the same wattle, and neck denuded of feathers.  The most remarkable
feature about this turkey is its nest, which is composed of sand,
leaves, and sticks, piled up into a great mound three feet or so in
height, and ten or more in diameter.  This enormous mass is not the
unaided work of one pair, but of a whole colony, and the material is
got together by the bird grasping a quantity in its foot, and throwing
it behind him; the ground in the immediate vicinity of the mound is
thus entirely stripped of every blade of grass, or fallen leaf.  In
process of time, the heap partially decomposes, and when the female
judges that enough heat has been engendered to serve her purpose, she
proceeds to lay her eggs.  These are enormous when compared with the
size of the bird, and are not simply deposited and covered over, but
buried at a depth of eighteen or twenty inches, each egg nearly a foot
from its neighbour, and standing on end, with the larger half
uppermost.  Thus they remain until hatched, though how the bird manages
to plant them with such dexterity has, I believe, never been
ascertained; no one yet having been sufficiently lucky to witness the
proceeding.  Directly the little birds chip the shell, they run about
with the greatest agility, and their capture is exceedingly difficult.
A nest with freshly-laid eggs is a glorious find, for several dozen are
frequently extracted, and are most delicious eating.

The evening was fast approaching, when we camped for the night by the
side of a nice clear water-hole in a sequestered valley, and, after
bathing and having tea, we tried our luck at fishing, for these holes
are sometimes full of eels.  We prospered, and soon had several fine
fellows on the bank, from whence they were speedily transferred to the
hot ashes, and roasted in their integrity; they were thus spared the
skinning, to which, it is averred, custom has habituated them.
Ferdinand and Cato were collecting firewood for the night, for, in the
position we had selected, we were not afraid of making a good blaze,
and we were sitting and lounging round the fire, conjecturing what had
become of all the blacks, and how soon we should fall in with the other
party, when Lizzie--who had accompanied the troopers--came rushing
back, and said:--

"One fellow snake been bit 'em Cato; plenty that fellow go bong (dead)
by-and-by, mine believe."

We all jumped up, and sure enough, poor Cato came slowly towards us,
looking the ashy-grey colour to which fear turns the black, and
followed by Ferdinand, who dragged after him a large black snake, the
author of the mischief.

If Australia is exempt from wild beasts, the number of venomous
reptiles with which it is cursed make it as dangerous to the traveller
as other tropical countries in which ferocious animals abound.  Hardly
a tree or a shrub can be found that does not contain or conceal some
stinging abomination.  The whole of these are not, of course, deadly,
but a tarantula bite, or a centipede sting, will cripple a strong man
for weeks, while a feeble constitution stands a fair chance of
succumbing.  But of all these pests, none can equal the snakes, which
not only swarm, but seem to have no fear of man, selecting dwellings by
choice for an abode.  These horrible reptiles are of all sizes, from
the large carpet snake of twenty feet, to the little rock viper of
scarcely half a dozen inches.  The great majority of these are
venomous, and are of too many different kinds for me to attempt their
enumeration here.  The most common with us were the brown, black, and
whip snakes, and the death-adder, all poisonous; and the carpet-snake,
harmless.  The brown and black snakes run from two to eight feet in
length, frequent the long grass, chiefly in the neighbourhood of
swamps, and from the snug way in which they coil up, and their
disinclination to move, are highly dangerous.  The latter is very
handsome, the back of a brilliant black, and the under portion of a
sea-shell pink. Their skin is sometimes used by bushmen as a cover to
their waistbelts, which are much beautified thereby.  The whip-snakes
are of all sizes and of all colours; in fact, under this name the
colonists include all the slender climbing snakes, so many of which
inhabit Australia.  In my opinion, these are the worst; for they come
boldly into your room in search of warmth, and may be found stowed away
in a boot, or under the pillow, or in any place where they are least
expected.  Last and worst of our venomous snakes comes the death, or
deaf, adder, for it is called indiscriminately by both names, and amply
justifies either prefix.  The hideous reptile is very thick and stumpy
in proportion to its length, which rarely exceeds two feet, whilst its
circumference may be put down at one-fifth of its total measurement.
The tail is terminated by a small curved spike, which is commonly
regarded as the sting; but though when touched it doubles up, and
strikes with this horn, as well as bites, I do not think the tail does
any material damage, but this opinion one would find it difficult to
make a bushman credit.  I once saw a man take a death-adder up--quite
unintentionally, you may be sure--between two shingles, and it
immediately struck backwards with both head and tail, the two
extremities luckily meeting above his hand.  From the sluggish habits
of this reptile, it is popularly accounted deaf, and it seems quite
unalarmed even by the report of a gun.  You may walk over it a dozen
times, as it lies basking in the sun, usually in the most frequented
part of the road, and it will take not the slightest notice, but if
touched, however gently, it bites at once.

When I first went to Cardwell, I was talking about death-adders, and
the naive remark made by one of the inhabitants amused and at the same
time rather terrified me, for the perfect knowledge he exhibited of the
reptiles showed plainly how common they were there.

"Nasty things," he said, "but Lord, they won't hurt you.  Best not try
to get one alive into a bottle, though.  I tried that little game on,
with a pickle-jar and a stick, but I couldn't get him in, and he
doubled up and very nearly bit me; his tail just grazed my hand as it
was."

I thanked my informant, and assured him from the bottom of my heart,
that whenever I 'did' try to coax a death-adder into a bottle, I would
benefit by his experience and use the greatest caution.

The eye of this snake is remarkable for its vivid yellow, crossed by a
black longitudinal pupil.  The colour of the body is a mixture of dull
hues, and the abdomen pinkish; the head broad, thick, flattened, and
its 'tout ensemble' hideously repulsive.  But I am digressing, and
leaving poor Cato still uncared for.

The snake, which was a very large one, had been laid hold of by the boy
in the imperfect light, and had instantly bitten him in the wrist, on
which the punctures of the fangs were plainly visible.  A handkerchief
was at once tied round the wounded limb, with a small pebble so placed
as to compress the brachial artery inside the forearm, and with the
iron ramrod from a carbine as a lever, we screwed this rough tourniquet
up until the circulation was in great measure cut off.  Luckily Dunmore
had a pocket-knife with him, for the sheath-knives we carried were but
rude instruments for surgery, and with the small blade he slashed the
bitten part freely, while Lizzie, applying her lips to the wound, did
her best to draw out the subtle venom.  Some of us carried flasks,
containing various spirits, and the contents of these were at once
mixed--brandy, rum, hollands, all indiscriminately--in a quart pot, and
tossed off by the sufferer, without the slightest visible effect.  Had
the spirit taken the smallest hold upon him, we should have felt hope,
for if a man suffering from snake-bite can be made intoxicated, he is
safe.  But the poison neutralised the potent draught, and poor Cato
showed no indication of having swallowed anything stronger than water.
With the superstition inherent in the blacks, he had made up his mind
to die, and his broken English, as he moaned out, "Plenty soon this
fellow go bong," was painful in the extreme.

"It's no use," said Dunmore.  "I know these fellows better than any of
you, and Cato will never recover.  I had a boy down on the Mary River,
who was knocked down with low fever.  Half a pennyweight of quinine
would have put him to rights, but he had made up his mind to die, and
when once they have done that, all the drugs in a doctor's shop won't
do them any good."

Everything we could think of was proposed, but speedily rejected as
useless.

"Pour a charge of powder on the wound," said Jack Clarke, "and then
fire it, that will take the part out clean enough;" but we agreed that
it would be putting the boy to unnecessary pain, for the poison must be
already in the system and beyond the reach of local remedy; and the
patient had become drowsy, and repeatedly begged to be left alone and
allowed to go to sleep.

"We must walk him about," said Dunmore, "it is the only chance, and
painful as it is, I must have it done.  Remember, I'm responsible for
the boy, and no means must be left untried."

I had withdrawn a little from the group, and as I stood some distance
off, outside the circle of light thrown by the fire, I could not help
thinking what a scene for the painter's brush was here presented.  The
dark outline of the lofty gums looked black and forbidding as funeral
plumes, against the leaden sky.  The rugged range starting up in the
rear, cast a threatening gloom over the little valley in which we were
encamped, and the distant thunder of a falling torrent could, with
little effort, be interpreted as a dull voice of warning from the
mountain.  The fitful glare of the fire, now sinking, now rising as a
fresh brand was added, threw a ruddy glare over the actors in this
strange scene; showing the hopeless face of the poor patient, the
undemonstrative countenances of his sable companions, and the anxious
air apparent in the white men, more particularly in Dunmore, as he
knelt over his follower, and tried to inspirit a little hope by
dwelling on the chances of recovery.  The fantastic dresses, and the
wildness of the spot, all combined to add a weird aspect to the group;
and recalled forcibly to the mind those scenes of Pyrenean robber-life,
so faithfully portrayed by the magic pencil of Salvator Rosa.

But drowsiness was fast closing the eyes of poor Cato, and, as the last
chance, we compelled him to walk about, despite his piteous prayers for
repose.  It soon became evident that our labour was thrown away, for he
dropped heavily down from between the two men who were supporting him,
and no power could induce him to rise.  A heavy stertorous sleep
overwhelmed him, his breath came gradually slower and slower, and about
two hours from the time of the accident, poor Cato passed away,
peacefully and without pain.

Can no antidote be discovered for this virulent poison?  Empirics are
common who profess to cure snake-bites, but I doubt if they ever really
succeed.  It is beyond all question that in the early days of
Australia, and whilst this beautiful continent was held by Great
Britain as nothing more than a useful place for the safe custody of her
criminal classes, a convict named Underwood discovered a remedy for
snake-bite, and in many cases treated it successfully.  The story has
by no means died out in the colonies, of the good old laws of brutal
terrorism, under which, when a bitten man was brought to Underwood, the
latter proceeded to apply his remedy, stimulated by the pleasing threat
of a severe flogging, should his treatment be of no avail.  He appears
to have been a man of great firmness of purpose, for he never could be
betrayed into divulging his secret, though many unworthy means were
resorted to for that end.  The utmost that he would acknowledge was
that the antidote was common, and that Australians trampled it
under-foot every day of their lives.  The way he became acquainted with
the remedy was by accidentally witnessing a fight between a snake and
an iguana.  The latter was frequently bitten, and in every case ran to
a certain plant and ate it before renewing the contest, in which it was
ultimately victorious, leaving the serpent dead upon the plain.
Underwood demanded his pardon and liberty as the price of his precious
knowledge, and I believe a mixed commission of military men and
civilians deliberated on the case at Sydney, and decided not to grant
the convict's request.  In due time he died, and with him perished his
invaluable secret. It is to be presumed the commission knew what they
were about, but undoubtedly their adverse decision has been a real
misfortune to all those whose lives are passed in a country inhabited
by venomous reptiles.  We are much indebted to Doctor Fagren for the
exhaustive researches he has made into the action of snake-poison and
its remedy--the result of which the reader can find in his elaborately
got-up volume, entitled "The Thanatophidia of India"--and on looking
over the concise directions given by him for immediate use in the event
of such an accident, I do not see that we could possibly have done more
than we did, considering the limited material we had at our command.
Perhaps, had it been a white man, with a strong constitution, he would
have pulled through; for the settled conviction that he was doomed,
doubtless accelerated the death of the black boy; but the action of the
poison is so rapid, that most cases terminate fatally.  Two instances I
know of, in which the patient recovered.  The first was an Irish
labourer, who whilst reaping took up a snake, which bit him in the
finger.  He walked at once to the fence, put his hand on a post, and
severed the wounded member with his sickle.  Irishman-like, he forgot
to move the sound fingers out of the way, and two of them shared the
fate of their injured companion.  Paddy walked into the nearest
township, had his wounds dressed, and felt no inconvenience from the
venom.  Under the soubriquet of "Three-fingered Tim," this individual
may frequently be met with at Sydney, and, for a glass of grog, will be
delighted to recount the whole affair, with the richest of Milesian
brogues.  The second case was that of a woman.  She was going from the
hut to the fireplace, when she trod on a snake, which bit her just
below the joint of the little toe; for, like Coleridge's Christabel--

  "Her blue-veined feet unsandall'd were."

She was in a terrible position; her husband, and the other man for whom
she acted as hut-keeper, had both gone out with their flocks some hours
previously, and there was nobody about but a poor half-witted lad, who
hung about the place doing odd jobs.  She was a resolute woman, and
made up her mind how to act, in far less time than it takes me to set
it down on paper. Coo-ehing for the lad, she went into the hut, and
came out again with a sharp tomahawk and an axe.

"Take this," she said, handing the latter to the boy, "and strike hard
on the back of it when I tell you."

Thus speaking, she placed her foot on a log of wood, adjusted the keen
edge of the tomahawk so that when struck it would sever the toe and the
portion of the foot containing the bite, and, holding the handle of the
tomahawk steady as a rock, with firm determination gave the words--

"Now, Jim, strike!"

It needed three blows from the back of the axe to complete the
operation, for the poor lad grew frightened at the sight of the blood;
but the undaunted woman encouraged him, nerved him to a fresh trial,
and guided the tomahawk as coolly as if she were cutting up a piece of
beef, until the shocking task was completed.  With Jim's assistance,
she then bound up the foot to arrest the bleeding, and, accompanied by
him, rode ten miles into the township, and, need I say, in due course
recovered.

In these instances the reader will see that the measures taken were
both prompt, and such as would require more nerve than is possessed by
the ordinary run of mortals.  In the above cases, also, the bitten part
was capable of being removed; but for a bite on the wrist, had such an
extreme measure as immediate dismemberment been performed, the cure
would have been as fatal as the disease.

Poor Dunmore was terribly cut up at the premature death of his
follower; Lizzie, having smothered her head with fluffy feathers from
some cockatoos that had been roasted for supper, employed herself in
chanting a most weird kind of dirge over the body, to which she beat a
species of accompaniment on the bottom of a pint pot; while Ferdinand,
by Dunmore's directions, had set to work to strip a sheet of bark off a
tea-tree, to act as a rude coffin.  A great difficulty now presented
itself, for we had no tools whatever, and how could we dig a grave?  In
such hard ground, knives would make no impression, and the body must be
buried deeply, or it would be rooted up by the dingoes, whose howl we
could plainly hear around us, as they bayed at the moon.  We spread
ourselves out in different directions, in the hope of finding some rift
or recess that would answer the purpose, but in the imperfect light, we
failed to discover anything, so were compelled to wait for dawn.  I do
not think any of us slept much.  One of our little party suddenly
snatched away in so unforeseen a manner, gave us all food for
reflection--for which of us knew that the same fate would not befall
him to-morrow?  When I dropped off into a slumber, it was so light and
broken, that I seemed to be conscious of Lizzie, continuing her
melancholy drone, and battering monotonously on the tin pannikin, nor
was I surprised when in the morning I ascertained that such had really
been her occupation all night; for the purpose of keeping the body from
harm, she avowed, but, I am inclined to think, much more from fear of
sleeping in the neighbourhood of a dead body, for the blacks are
dreadfully superstitious, and frightened to death of ghosts.

At daylight we were lucky enough to find a tree that had been blown
down in the late hurricane, leaving a hollow where its roots had been
torn out of the ground.  In this natural grave we laid the poor
trooper, wrapped in his bark shell, and, having raised a pile of stones
upon the spot, of such dimensions as to preclude the probability of the
body being disturbed by dingoes, we went on our way, silent and
melancholy.




AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY--IV.

BY CHARLES H. EDEN.


OUR next day was a repetition of the last; camps in abundance, but no
blacks, and we had as yet seen no signs of the Townsville party.  At
night we camped by the side of a large creek, and, after supper, were
lying down, with the intention of making up for the broken slumbers of
the previous night, when Ferdinand, who had moved higher up the stream
to get a private eel for himself and his lady, came back and shook
Dunmore, saying--

"Many big fellow fire sit down up creek."

We were on our feet in a moment, and, stealing quietly through the
bush, soon saw the glare, and on our nearer approach, could make out
many recumbent figures round the fire, and one man passing to and fro,
on guard.

"By Jove!  it's the Cleveland Bay mob," said Dunmore; "we must take
care they don't fire into us.  Lie down, or get behind trees, all you
fellows, and I'll hail them."

"Holloa there!" he cried, when we had all "planted" (in Australian
parlance signifying "concealed") ourselves.  "Don't fire, we're
Cardwellites!"

In a moment the sentry's rifle was at his shoulder, pointed in the
direction whence the voice came; but it was my old friend Abiram Hills,
ex-mayor of Bowen, a thorough bushman, and possessed of great nerve,
whose turn it then happened to be to keep watch over his slumbering
companions. As quickly as it had been raised, his rifle fell into the
hollow of his arm, and shouting out, "Get up, you fellows, here are the
Rockingham Bayers!" he rushed forward, and in a moment was shaking
hands with Dunmore, while the sleepers, uncertain whether it was an
alarm, stood rubbing their eyes, and handling their carbines so
ominously as they peered into the darkness, that we deemed it the best
policy to remain under cover until their faculties had grasped the fact
that we were not enemies, and as such to be slain incontinently.

It is a startling thing to be hailed suddenly in the silence of the
bush, and had a less experienced sentry than Abiram been on guard, he
would most likely have fired.  We had also before our eyes the case of
a party who not long before had gone out to chastise the blacks, and
having split into two divisions, opened a brisk fire upon each other
when they drew near again, luckily without effect.  Some of these
warriors we knew to be amongst ourselves, so it behoved us to exercise
caution.

Our greeting was most cordial, and we were soon all assembled round the
fire--now blazing up with fresh fuel--smoking the pipe of peace, which
we moistened with a modicum of grog from the well-filled flasks of the
Cleveland Bayers, and comparing notes, previous to making our plans for
the morrow.  Like ourselves, they had found plenty of camps, but not a
living creature in them; and they were as perplexed as we were as to
what had become of their occupants.  On their way up from Townsville,
they had seen smoke-signals thrown up from the mangroves at the mouth
of the Herbert River, and these were answered both from the range
behind Cardwell, and from Hinchinbrook, so it was evident there were
blacks on the island, though most likely concealed in some of the
hidden valleys, which, from the volcanic nature of the country, were so
plentiful, and so difficult to find.

Lizzie was now brought forward, and subjected to a most rigid
cross-examination, with which I will not trouble the reader.  She said
that they must have crossed over to the main-land, for every place had
now been searched.  We were in despair, when Abiram Hills said--

"Baal bora ground been sit down along of Hinchinbrook, Lizzie?"

A "bora ground" is a particular place to which the blacks are in the
habit of resorting at certain seasons of the year, to hold
"corroborries" or dances, and also to perform divers mysterious rites
on the young people of both sexes attaining the marriageable age.  What
these solemnities really are, is but little known, and they seem to
differ widely in each tribe.  In some, the young girls have a couple of
front teeth knocked out; in others they lose a joint of the little
finger; and at that time the hideous lumps with which the men embellish
their bodies must be raised.  These curious ornaments are formed by
cutting gashes in the flesh three-quarters of an inch long, and
stuffing the wound with mud, which prevents the edges from adhering,
and when the skin grows over, leaves a lump like an almond.  The
number, proximity, and pattern of these adornments are according to the
peculiar tastes of the family, and vary considerably, but the breast,
back, shoulders, and arms are usually pretty thickly sown, giving the
appearance of a number of fresh graves, placed close together in a
black soil field.

[ILLUSTRATION--"NATIVE AUSTRALIAN."]

Abiram's question was one of those lucky inspirations that sometimes
strike one, changing, as by magic, obscurity into distinctness, and
pouring in a flood of light where no ray could be seen before.

"My word!"--cried Lizzie, her whole face lighting up with eagerness and
joy--"my word, close up mine been forget.  Mine know one fellow bora
ground, plenty black fellow sit down there, mine believe.  My word,
plenty d--d fooly me!"

We could see from the girl's face that we were now on the right scent,
and having ascertained that she could take us to the "bora ground" by
the following evening, we finished our pipes, and lay down to sleep,
thankful for what promised a possible solution of the mystery.

The Cleveland Bay party consisted of seven white men and two black
boys, so we now mustered a strong force.  Lizzie would hardly allow us
time to swallow our breakfast, so impatient was she to be under weigh;
and one wretched man, lingering for a moment later than the rest of us,
over a slice of beef and damper, found himself the object of general
attention, when our little guide stamped her foot, and, trembling with
indignation, said--

"Plenty big bingey (belly) that fellow.  Baal he been fill 'em like 'it
sundown!"

The travelling was worse than ever now; up and down steep ravines in
which the tangled scrub grew so thickly that progress was almost
impossible, and we were compelled to wade along the bed of the creek;
now tripping over a sharp ledge of rock, now floundering up to the
waistbelt in a treacherous hole; past the base of a beautiful
waterfall, where the action of the torrent had worn a hollow basin in
the rock, in which it sparkled, cool, transparent, and prismatic, in
the rays of the burning sun, and where the view, so unlike the
generality of Australian scenery, was perfectly bewitching; on, through
more scrub, through swamps, and over stiff mountains, wet, draggled,
moody, and cross, crawling along after the little black figure in
front, that held steadily on its way, as though hunger and fatigue were
to it things unknown.

At length, about three o'clock in the afternoon, we found ourselves in
a sort of natural funnel in the rock, the end of which grew narrower
and narrower as it wound about in curious curves.

"Close up now," said Lizzie, "water sit down along of other side; baal
black fellow get away."

We halted for a few minutes to get breath, and to steady ourselves, and
then, keeping close together, stepped out of the gloomy passage into
the broad daylight.  It was a beautiful sight.  The "bora ground" had
been selected in a miniature bay, of about three acres in extent,
closed in by perpendicular rocks, and attainable only by boat, or by
the passage through which we had just arrived.  In this secluded spot a
quantity of coca-nut palms were growing, waifs, carried there by the
ocean from the distant South Sea Islands, fructifying and multiplying
on the hospitable shore, and shielded from the tomahawk of the native,
on account of the shelter they afforded his mysterious retreat.  Under
the palms stood several conical huts, or lodges, of considerable
dimensions, used, I presume, on state occasions for the deliberations
of the elder warriors.  But the thing most pleasing to our eyes, was
the sight of some two hundred natives, of both sexes, and all ages, who
now started to their feet, with wild cries of alarm, and motions
expressive of the utmost terror, at this sudden invasion of their
retreat by the dreaded white man.

Some of the blacks flew to arms at once, and stood with poised spears
in a menacing attitude, whilst the gins and piccaninnies cowered
together on the beach.  We had our carbines in hand, cocked, and
prepared to defend ourselves in the event of hostilities, which we
earnestly hoped to avoid. Lizzie, who had at last begun to understand
that slaughter was not our object, and who had been reconciled to our
tame proceedings by the promise of much finery, now advanced towards
the threatening natives and made a speech in their own language, to the
effect that we wished to do them no harm, beyond ascertaining whether
there were any whites among them, though, if we found murder had been
committed, we should discover the perpetrators, hold them answerable,
and punish them.  Rewards were offered for any information that would
lead to a knowledge of the real fate of the shipwrecked crew, and an
exaggerated estimate of our strength, and the capability of our
firearms, was given by our interpreter, on her own account, and was
perfectly intelligible to us from the signs and gesticulations she
made, and the scorn with which she pointed to the rude weapons of her
country-men; for the intrepid little girl had marched fearlessly up to
the group of warriors.

After delivering her speech, Lizzie withdrew to us, and we waited,
rather anxiously, the turn that affairs would take; for a peaceful
solution would be far preferable to a fight, in which, though we must
ultimately be the victors, yet success would only be achieved at
considerable loss of life, probably on both sides.

Whilst matters rested thus, and the blacks were holding an animated
discussion, one of the troopers espied a solitary dingo on the rocks
overlooking the "bora ground," and distant from us about fifty yards.
Lizzie at once said--

"Suppose you shoot 'em that fellow dingo, plenty that frighten black
fellow."

"By Jove, Lizzie, what a good idea!" we said.  "Who's the best shot;
for it will be fatal to miss?"

"Let your boy fire," said Abiram, "it will astonish them much more if
they see it done by a black; and let Lizzie warn them of what is going
to take place."

"You believe you shoot 'em that fellow dingo?" asked Dunmore of
Ferdinand.

"Your (yes), marmy, mine believe."

"Plenty big glass of rum, suppose you shoot 'em bony (dead)," added
Abiram.

The trooper's eyes glistened, and he licked his lips as if the spirit
were already won.

Meanwhile Lizzie had told her countrymen to watch the dog, and they
would see him killed, and the blacks stood straining their eyes at the
doomed dingo, who, with pricked ears and drooping tail, stood
motionless against the sky-line, intently surveying the unusual scene
beneath, and wondering probably how soon he should get the relics of
the roasted fish, whose fragrant odour had assailed his nostrils, and
drawn him into his present position.

It was a moment of intense suspense while the trooper raised his
carbine--slowly and deliberately; no hurry, not even the quiver of a
muscle, for his mind was on the rum, and he recked little of the moral
influence of a successful shot;--we drew a long breath of relief as the
weapon flashed forth, and the dog, making a convulsive bound forward,
fell stone dead at the foot of the rocks, where it was instantly
surrounded by the awestruck savages, who carefully examined the body,
and thrust their fingers into the bullet-hole, for  the ball had passed
clean through the animal, just behind the shoulder-blade.

The trooper first loaded his empty barrel, and then twitching Abiram by
the sleeve, whispered, "You give 'em rum now.  Plenty you make him
strong, mine believe."  His task was accomplished, and that the reward
should immediately follow was with him a natural consequence.

Ferdinand's shot and Lizzie's eloquence had, however, rid us of all
further trouble.  The blacks laid down their arms, and expressed
themselves quite willing to assist us in any way.  They vehemently
denied having seen any white men, but acknowledged that some had been
heard of on the Macalister River, and thought they were detained by the
tribes inhabiting its banks. They were cognizant of our expedition up
the Herbert, and knew that we were searching Hinchinbrook, but never
thought we should have found them in their present position.

It was now evident that further search on Hinchinbrook was useless.
There was no reason to doubt the truth of what they told us, for Lizzie
would have gathered information had there been any outrage, or some
small piece of rag or blanket would have betrayed them.  That the
unfortunate men might be on the Macalister was not improbable, and
thither we must bend our steps, as the last resource.  If we were
unsuccessful then, we could only conclude that the vessel had foundered
at sea, and we should have the melancholy satisfaction of knowing that
we had done everything in our power to rescue the sufferers.

We camped for the night at one extremity of the little bay, while the
natives occupied the other, in which there was a well sunk, where we
supplied ourselves with fresh water.  We soon became on friendly terms
with our wild neighbours, but took care never to linger amongst them
singly, and always had our weapons ready for immediate use.

In the evening Lizzie came over from the blacks' camp, where she had
been holding a great palaver, and asked us if we should like to see a
"corroborrie," or dance; and much pleased at getting a glimpse of the
native customs, and glad of anything to break the monotony of our
lives, we followed her to the group of palms, and there took up our
positions to watch the proceedings.  A tremendous fire was soon flaming
on the beach, near it the gins and piccaninnies assembled, with bits of
stick, clubs, and calabashes, on which to beat time.  Some thirty of
the men then stood up, armed with spears, tomahawks, nullah-nullahs
(war-clubs), and boomerangs, and commenced a series of ludicrous
antics, to a most melancholy dirge chanted by the women, a kind of rude
time being observed.  Gradually, however, they grew excited, and worked
themselves up by going through a sort of mock fight; and when at the
last the women danced round them with torches, all howling and
shrieking at the top of their voices, and banging the calabashes with
kangaroo bones or anything that would add to the noise, the whole scene
reminded one of the infernal regions broken loose.  This lasted an
hour, at the end of which time we withdrew, after expressing ourselves
highly gratified, and the whole camp was shortly buried in repose.  We
kept double sentries, but we might all have gone to sleep, for there
was no symptom of treachery.  At daylight we had breakfast; gave the
warriors and gins a few trifling things we could spare, such as knives,
two or three blankets--for we hoped to reach the township that
night--and, wonder of wonders to the savages, some matches (nearly all
of which they expended in verifying the fact that they would go off),
and then took our departure from the "bora ground," guided by a native,
who showed a very short way, unknown to Lizzie, by which we arrived at
the 'Daylight' early in the afternoon, to find that the latter had been
joined by the 'Black Prince', the steamer that had brought up the
Cleveland Bay party.  We quitted in our little craft for Cardwell, and
the Townsville men went south in their steamer, intending to get some
shooting at the Palm Islands before going home for good.  Eleven
o'clock that evening saw us at our township, fully determined to carry
out the work thoroughly by searching the Macalister River, an account
of which I hope to give in a future chapter.




AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY--V.

BY CHAS H. EDEN.


HOW WE EXPLORED THE MACALISTER RIVER.

The reader who has been good enough to follow me so far, will see that
hitherto our efforts had been unattended with the slightest success,
and that the fate of the missing schooner and her living freight still
remained buried in the deepest mystery.  To say that we were not
disheartened by our numerous disappointments would be untrue, for we
well knew that each closing day rendered our chances of affording
relief to the survivors more and more difficult; so much so, in fact,
that at the council assembled to discuss the matter in the large
dining-room of the hotel, several voices urged the expediency of
abandoning any further attempts.  Much valuable time, they remarked,
had been already expended by men to whom time represented money, nay
more--the means of living.  Their own avocations imperiously demanded
their presence, and although they were the last men in the world to
desert their fellow-beings in extremity, still, in a country where
every man lived by the sweat of his own brow, self-interest could not
be entirely sacrificed.

[ILLUSTRATION--AUSTRALIANS IN CAMP.]

Even we, who were most anxious to organise another expedition, could
not but acknowledge that the searchers had much justice on their side;
but when we were discussing matters in rather a despondent tone, a new
ally came to the front in the person of Jack Clarke, the horse-breaker.

"Where do you propose going next?" he asked Dunmore.

"We must search the ranges at the back of the township first, and
another party must go up the Macalister River," was the reply.

"Need both parties start at the same time?"

"The chances of success would, of course, be greater if they did,"
replied the officer, "but still it is not absolutely necessary."

"Well," said Jack, "suppose you take the pilot boat, and go up the
river, which will take much longer to explore than the ranges; and, at
the end of a week, we shall have got our own affairs pretty straight,
and will beat all the country at the back, and join you on the
Macalister.  What do you think of that, mates?" he added, turning to
the company.  "Won't that suit us all?"

"Capitally!" was echoed from every side, and after sundry drinks the
party broke up; Dunmore and I hastening to make immediate preparations
for our new trip.

The Macalister River was at this time most imperfectly known; for,
lying to the extreme north of Rockingham Bay, its fertile banks had
hitherto attracted little or no attention; the great sugar industry
being then comparatively in its infancy in Queensland.  A dangerous bar
at its mouth, over which heavy rollers were always breaking, made
pleasure-seekers rather shy of attempting its entry, more particularly
as the muddy mangrove flats held out small hope of aught save
mosquitoes and blacks.  Since then the sugar-cane has become one of the
chief sources of wealth to the colony, and, in the search for land
adapted to its growth, the Macalister was not likely to remain long in
obscurity.  Along its beautiful banks were discovered many thousands of
acres of magnificent black soil country, without a stick of timber to
impede the plough, over which a furrow, miles in length, could have
been turned without an inch of deviation being necessary.

Where the wretched bark 'gunyah' of the native stood, is now found the
well-finished house of the planter; and where the savage pastimes of
the 'bora' ground once obtained, and the smoke from cannibal fires
curled slowly upwards to the blue vault of heaven, is heard the
cheerful ring of the blacksmith's hammer, the crack of the
bullock-whip, as the team moves slowly onward beneath the weight of
seven-feet canes, and the measured throb of machinery from the factory,
where the crushed plant is yielding up its sweets between the
inexorable iron crushers.  In this, our newest world, improvements when
once set afoot, proceed with marvellous celerity, and a turn of
Fortune's wheel may in a single year convert a howling wilderness into
a flourishing township.  But I find myself digressing again, and
resisting rambling thoughts, must revert to our preparations for the
morrow.

[Illustrations  KANGAROO. and ORNITHORHYNCHUS PARADOXUS.]

The meeting at which we had just been present, took place on the
morning following our return from the search on Hinchinbrook Island;
and not only was another day indispensable for the arrangements that
were necessary, but we also felt that one more night of comfortable
rest would render us better able to encounter the fatigues of the
coming expedition.  Only bushmen and explorers can appreciate the
intense enjoyment of a night of unbroken rest between the sheets, after
knocking about for a length of time, catching sleep by snatches, and
never knowing the luxury of undressing.  Turning in like a trooper's
horse, "all standing," as the nautical phrase is, may be an expeditious
method of courting the sleepy god, but it certainly is not the best for
shaking off fatigue.  Bound up in the garments you have carried all
day, the muscles are unable to relax to their full, the circulation of
the blood is impeded, and your slumber, though deep, is not refreshing;
more particularly when--as had happened to us on this last trip--our
boots were so soaked that we were afraid to take them off, lest we
should find it impossible to struggle into them in the morning.
Dunmore's camp was also some distance from the township, and he had to
visit it to find out how matters had gone on in his absence, to get
another trooper in the place of poor Cato, and to replenish his
exhausted wardrobe and ammunition.

But I will not occupy the reader with all these minor details, nor with
the numberless little trifles that it devolves upon the leader of such
an expedition to remember, suffice it to say that by noon on the
following day, all our preparations were completed, and we shoved off
from the beach in high spirits, the party consisting this time of nine,
viz., Dunmore, the pilot, two boatmen, Lizzie, three troopers, and
myself, about as many as the boat could carry comfortably.  A
rendezvous had been arranged on a known portion of the river; the other
expedition was to start in seven days; and, according to our programme,
if all went well, we should meet on the tenth, or on the eleventh day
at furthest.

The sea-breeze was blowing steadily, cresting the tiny waves which
sparkled in the hot sun as they broke into foam, and under its grateful
coolness we glided comfortably along, with a flowing sheet.  The bar at
the mouth of the Macalister was eighteen miles distant, and we hoped to
cross it about sunset, when the breeze would have dropped, and the
passage through the surf would be readily distinguishable; but our
plans were completely upset by one of the troopers espying smoke
issuing from the scrub on a small creek, that entered the bay about
half-way between the town and the Macalister.

"We had better have a look in here," said Dunmore, "there is no knowing
where we may stumble on some information."

Accordingly, the helm was put up, and we ran into the mouth of the
inlet, with the wind right aft.  Beaching the boat on the soft sand, we
sprang out, and advanced cautiously in the direction of the smoke, but,
after several minutes of scrambling, we reached the fire only to find
it deserted, its original proprietors having seen our sudden alteration
of course, and sought the safety of the dense bush, where further
search would have been useless.

"Now that we are on shore," said Dunmore, "let us make a billy full of
tea; it won't take long.  Here, you boys, get 'em like 'it waddy to
make 'em fire."

The troopers and Lizzie dispersed in quest of fuel; Ferdinand walking
up the bank of the creek, where he was soon lost to sight.  A loud
coo-eh from that direction soon brought us to the spot from whence it
issued, and we found the boy staring at several pieces of timber
sticking out of the sand.

"Big fellow canoe been sit down here," he said, on our approach, and
examining the protruding stumps, we soon saw enough to convince us that
the boy was right, and that we were in the presence of a vessel,
wrecked, or abandoned, Heaven only knows how many years ago.  With our
hands, with pint pots, with a spade we had brought with us--mindful of
the difficulty we had experienced in finding a resting-place for poor
Cato--with every utensil, in fact, that ingenuity could devise, we set
to work clearing away the sand that had accumulated round the old ribs.
Suddenly, the tin rim of one of the pots gave back a ringing sound, as
if it had struck against metal, and in less than a minute, a much
rusted cannon-shot was exposed to view, and passed round from hand to
hand.  It was of small size, weighing, perhaps, five pounds, though its
dimensions were evidently much decreased by the wasting action of damp.

"By Jove!" said Dunmore, "perhaps she was a Spanish galleon, and we
shall come across her treasure.  Won't that be a find, eh, old fellow?"

"She's more likely a pirate," I answered, as visions of the old
buccaneers floated through my brain; and Edgar Poe's fanciful story of
the "Gold Beetle" occurring to me, I sung out, "Whatever you do, keep
any parchment you stumble across," and abandoned myself to thoughts of
untold wealth, whilst I wielded a quart pot with the energy born of
mental excitement.

"My word! that been big fellow sit down like 'it here," cried
Ferdinand, who, lying on one side, had his bare arm buried at full
length in the sand. "I feel him, Marmy, plenty cold."

We rushed to the boy's assistance, and speedily scraped away the
shingle, until an old-fashioned gun was exposed to view; it was coated
and scaly with rust to such an extent, that we were unable to form any
idea as to its age or nationality.  It would most probably have been a
twelve or eighteen-pounder howitzer, for it was about four feet in
length, and disproportionately large in girth; but one of the
trunnions, and the button at the breech, were broken off, the portion
that had lain undermost had entirely disappeared, and the remainder was
so honeycombed, that beyond ascertaining that it was a piece of
ordnance, we could elicit nothing from this curious relic of a bygone
generation.

Further search brought to light several more round-shot, but in the
same state as the first, and we noticed that in several places the
timbers were burnt, most probably by the natives, or the crew
themselves, for the sake of the copper bolts.

What a number of melancholy recollections are awakened by the discovery
of a forgotten memorial of the past, such as this nameless wreck; and
if those old timbers could have spoken, what a strange record of hopes
unfulfilled, and high adventure unachieved, would have been disinterred
from the dark storehouse of the past!  That the vessel came in her
present position by accident, could hardly be supposed.  More probably,
having struck on the Barrier Reef, or on some of the hidden coral
shelves with which this sea abounds, she had been taken into this
secluded creek for repairs.  Cook, the great circumnavigator, careened
his ship at a spot not far distant from this; but we were unanimously
of opinion that this vessel must have become embedded long prior to his
time.  Not only was the framework some distance from the present bed of
the creek, but it was raised considerably above the water level.  That
the eastern coast of Australia is slowly rising from the waves is well
known, for in the neighbourhood of Brisbane valuable reclamations have
been made within the memory of living men; but at least two centuries
must have elapsed to account for the altitude attained by this old
craft.  Our regret was great at getting no more certain information,
but although we persevered in digging until sundown, no casket of
jewels, no bags of specie, and no mysterious parchments rewarded us;
and with the darkness we were compelled to abandon our search, rather
angry at having wasted several valuable hours to such little purpose.

As it would have been madness attempting to cross the bar before
daylight, we hauled the boat up on the beach, and made ourselves
comfortable for the night.  About one o'clock, the trooper who was on
watch, awakened us with the news that there was a light out at sea.  We
thought at first it could only be some blacks in their canoes, spearing
fish by torchlight, but it gradually drew nearer and nearer, until at
last we could distinguish the distant sound of voices, and the faint
rattle of the iron cable as it flew out through the hawse-hole.

"Some coasting craft, I suppose," said Dunmore.

"Most probably, but we shall find out in the morning;" and we were soon
again in the land of dreams.

Before daylight we had finished breakfast, and by the time the sun
rose, were in the whale-boat, pulling towards the new arrival.  She was
a dirty, weather-beaten, nondescript-looking little craft, half fore
and aft schooner, half dandy-rigged cutter, and the look-out on board
was evidently not very vigilant, for we had almost arrived alongside,
before a black head showed over the gunwale, and, frightened at seeing
a boat-load of armed men in such an unexpected spot, poured out a flood
of shrieking jargon that would have aroused the Seven Sleepers, and
which speedily awoke from their slumbers the remainder of the crew.
There seemed to be only two white men, one of whom introduced himself
as the captain, and asked us, in French, to come on board.  The vessel
was the 'Gabrielle d'Estonville', of New Caledonia, commanded by
Captain Jean Labonne, and had put into Rockingham Bay for water, during
a 'beche-de-mer' expedition.  Anything to equal the filth of the fair
'Gabrielle', I never saw.  Her crew consisted of another Frenchman
besides the captain, and of seven or eight Kanakas, two of whom had
their wives on board.  As perhaps this extraordinary trade is but
little known to the reader who has not resided in China, I will briefly
narrate how it is carried out.

From the neighbourhood of Torres Straits to about the Tropic of
Capricorn, extends, at a distance of fifty to a hundred miles from the
shore, an enormous bed of coral, named the Barrier Reef.  There, untold
millions of minute insects are still noiselessly pursuing their toil,
and raising fresh structures from the depths of the ocean.  Neither is
this jagged belt--though deadly to the rash mariner--without its uses.
In the first place, a clear channel is always found between it and the
mainland, in which no sea of any formidable dimensions can ever rise,
and now that modern surveys have accurately indicated where danger is
to be found, this quiet channel is of the greatest use to the vessels
frequenting that portion of the ocean, for they avoid the whole swell
of the broad Pacific, which now thunders against and breaks harmlessly
on the huge coral wall, instead of wasting its fury on the coast
itself.  In the second place on the Barrier Reef is found the
'Holothuria', from which the 'beche-de-mer' is prepared. It is a kind
of sea-slug, averaging from one to over two feet in length, and four to
ten inches in girth.  In appearance, these sea-cucumbers are more
repulsive, looking like flabby black or green sausages, and squirting
out a stream of salt water when pressed.  But despite their disgusting
appearance, they are a most valuable cargo, from the high price they
fetch in the Chinese market, where they are a much-esteemed delicacy.
The vessel that goes in quest of 'beche-de-mer' takes several expert
divers--usually Kanakas, or South Sea Islanders--and having arrived at
the ground they propose fishing, a sort of head-quarters is established
on some convenient island, where vegetables are planted, to stave off
the scurvy that would otherwise soon attack the adventurers.  This done
the little vessel proceeds to the edge of the reef, and begins work in
earnest.

The sea-slug is found buried amidst the triturated sand, worn away by
the constant play of the waves, and only the experienced and keen-eyed
Kanakas can detect its whereabouts, by the  fitful waving of the long
feathery tentacles surrounding the mouth of the fish, which immerses
its body in the sand.  The vessel being anchored, her boat is got out,
and pulled to the smooth water within the reef, the divers keeping a
keen scrutiny on the milk-white floor for any indication of their prey.
Suddenly, the man in the bows holds up his hand, as a sign to desist
from pulling.  He drops quietly into the clear water, and the length of
time that elapses before his black head reappears, is enough to make a
bystander nervous.  Often the diver has to encounter his dread enemy
the shark, and if cool and collected, generally comes off victorious in
the contest.  The South Sea Islanders have a thorough knowledge of the
habits of this salt-water pirate, and know that by keeping underneath
him, they cannot be touched, and they will fearlessly stab the intruder
with their knives, and avail themselves of his momentary departure to
regain the boat.  I have known one instance of a native jumping into
the water to distract the attention of a shark that was swimming guard
over his friend, and both escaped unhurt; but still, despite their
utmost skill, accidents do often occur.  In shallow water the
'beche-de-mer' is caught with a five-pronged instrument, resembling an
eel-spear.  The animals are split open, boiled, pressed flat, and dried
in the sun, and after a sufficient number have been taken, they are
carried to the island rendezvous and there smoked with dry wood, which
last process converts the slug into genuine 'beche-de-mer', fit for the
market, and for the palates of Celestial epicures.  I tried to cook
some, but after boiling it for a couple of hours in a quart pot, it
came out like a dirty piece of indian-rubber, and so tough that no
teeth could penetrate it.

Captain Labonne welcomed us very cordially--the sight of a strange face
must have been a godsend--and most hospitably asked us to share his
breakfast, but as it consisted only of dried fish, which smelt most
abominably, we declined, and he was very grateful for a couple of pots
of sardines which we gave him out of our slender stock.  The
'Gabrielle' was on her way to Cardwell for fresh provisions and water,
and after the dangers to be avoided had been pointed out by the pilot,
we bade adieu to Jean Labonne and his queer crew, though not before one
of our party had succeeded in jotting down the features of a Kanaka
diver, his wife and child.




AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY--VI.

BY CHARLES H. EDEN.


WE now pulled for the mouth of the Macalister River, and on sighting
the bar shortly before eight o'clock, were glad to find but little surf
running.  On our way we passed several water-snakes, one of which
seemed of large size, but we were too distant to form any accurate
estimate of its length.  It was not altogether without misgivings that
we encountered the ridge of sand that extended completely across the
entrance of the river. Only one of our party had ever crossed it
before, and it was known to be very dangerous.  The calm water rolled
itself up in smooth walls, which sailed majestically along until the
upper portion broke into a line of white, and soon the entire mass
rushed onward in a sheet of foam.

The great danger in crossing a bar is, that the helmsman either loses
his head and permits the boat to present her broadside to the surf, or
that the steering power is not sufficient to keep her head straight.
Neither of these misfortunes befell us in entering the Macalister, for,
from the hour we had selected, the sea was at its quietest, and we got
over without shipping a thimbleful of water.  We found a broad expanse
studded with dense mangrove flats, and it was with difficulty we
ascertained which was the main channel.  We pulled on until about noon,
by which time the mud swamps had disappeared, and we were fairly in the
river, which much resembled the Herbert, of which I have already given
a description, except that it was smaller, and that the vegetation was
more luxurious.  On landing, we lit a fire, and cooked our dinner,
consisting of ducks and moor-fowl that we had shot on our way up.  I
never remember seeing water-fowl in such profusion as here.  The ducks
and geese were literally in tens of thousands, and the
beautifully-plumaged moor-fowl quite blackened the mangrove bushes as
we passed.

The scenery was perfectly lovely.  Tall palms shot up in every
direction; wild bananas spread forth their broad leaves, amidst which
were seen the bunches of fruit; and the larger trees--fig, Leichhardt
plum, etc.--threw their branches across the river, and there
interlacing, formed a leafy canopy such as we imagined was unknown in
Australia.  Some of the young palms we cut down for the sake of the
head, which is very pleasant eating.  Stripping off the leaves, you
come to a shoot twenty inches or two feet in length, the interior of
which consists of a white substance resembling an office ruler in
thickness, and which tastes something like a chestnut, but is much more
milky and sweet.  The fruit of the wild banana has a most delicious
flavour, but is so full of small seeds that it is impossible to swallow
it.  The huge fig trees, with which the banks of most of the northern
rivers abound, have the peculiarity that the fruit is found growing on
the trunk, and not at the extremity of the smaller boughs.  On an
enormous stem, and at a distance of only a few feet from its base, are
seen bunches of figs, and these, though of smaller size than the
European fruit, are very palatable, if they can be selected free from
insects. Usually, the ants have been first afield, and have taken up
their abode in the very heart of the fig, forming a most undesirable
mouthful for the unwary stranger.  The wild plums are very good, but to
attain perfection, should be buried for some days previous to eating.
I trust these details will not prove tedious to my readers, but I know
from experience the benefit arising from even a slight knowledge of
wild fruits and herbs, which have often quenched thirst and assuaged
hunger when other food was wanting, and rendered endurable what would
otherwise have been a painful journey.

We camped that night where darkness overtook us, close to a thick scrub
which lined the bank of the river, and we paid for our stupidity in not
selecting a more open spot, for myriads of mosquitoes put sleep out of
the question.  The truth was that this belt of scrub had lined the
river for several miles past, and we hoped at every turn to come to a
break, but night set in whilst we were still between the leafy walls.

Daylight came at last, and we pushed onward.  An hour took us into a
beautiful black-soil plain of great extent, without a stick of timber,
and well watered, not only by the Macalister, which meandered through
its centre, but by several large lagoons, overgrown with the lovely
white lotus, and crowded with waterfowl.  The existence of such a
planter's paradise was totally unsuspected, and we all gazed
spell-bound on this splendid tract of country, possessing every
requisite for successful cultivation, and a water road for the produce.
Dunmore was a true prophet when he exclaimed--

"Before a year is past this will be settled upon."

A fine sugar plantation now stands on "Bellenden Plains," with superb
cane growing in unwonted luxuriance, and horses and cattle have taken
the place of the kangaroos, that we on this first visit found grazing
there in troops.  In the distance could be seen the coast range behind
Cardwell, which seemed to recede inland as it trended towards our
position, and sweeping round, approached the sea again farther north,
forming a natural boundary to a vast space of available country.  A
silver line shone out on the mountains, and with our glasses we could
make out that it must be a waterfall of very large dimensions.  We at
once agreed that it must be the source of the very river we were on,
the Macalister, but, as the sequel will show, we found so many streams,
that most probably we were mistaken in our judgment.  We resolved to
make this charming spot our head-quarters for the present, as we had
everything to be desired--water, game, etc.--close at hand, and, from
the absence of timber, no blacks would be able to steal upon us
unperceived.

Leaving the pilot and one man in charge of the boat, we trudged along
through the high grass, which reached to our middles, and was dripping
with moisture from a shower that had fallen during the night; and,
after a tedious walk, reached the edge of the scrub.  It was thicker
than anything we had encountered before, the density of the foliage
totally excluding the sun, and giving rise to a dank humid odour that
struck a chill to the heart directly you entered.  We wound along the
path, or rather track, that the blacks had made, with the greatest
difficulty.  It was all very well for the troopers, who had stripped,
but our clothes hitched up on a thorn at every other step.  One of our
most provoking enemies was the lawyer vine, a kind of rattan enclosed
in a rough husk, covered with thousands of crooked prickles.  These,
with their outer covering, are about an inch and a quarter in diameter,
and extend to an enormous distance, running up to the tops of lofty
trees, and from thence either descending or pushing onward, or
festooning themselves from stem to stem in graceful curves of
indescribable beauty.  From the joints of the parent shoot are thrown
out little slender tendrils, no thicker than a wire, but of great
length, and as dangerously armed as their larger relation.  These
miserable little wretches seem always on the watch to claw hold of
something, and if you are unhappy enough to be caught, and attempt to
disengage yourself by struggling, fresh tendrils appear always to lurk
in ambush, ready to assist their companion, who already holds you in
his grasp.  I have measured the length of one of these canes, and found
it over 250 paces; and this is not the maximum to which they attain,
for I have been assured by men employed in cutting a telegraph road
through the scrub that they had found some over 300 yards long.  They
seem to retain the same circumference throughout their whole length,
and, as the bushman puts everything to some use, the lawyer is divested
of his husk, and takes the place of wire in fencing, being rove through
the holes bored in the posts as though they were ropes. It is almost
needless to add that this cane derives its 'soubriquet' of "lawyer"
from the difficulty experienced in getting free if once caught in its
toils.

Another of the torments to which the traveller is subjected in the
North Australian scrubs, is the stinging-tree ('Urtica gigas'), which
is very abundant, and ranges in size from a large shrub of thirty feet
in height to a small plant measuring only a few inches.  Its leaf is
large and peculiar, from being covered with a short silvery hair,
which, when shaken, emits a fine pungent dust, most irritating to the
skin and nostrils.  If touched, it causes most acute pain, which is
felt for months afterwards--a dull gnawing pain, accompanied by a
burning sensation, particularly in the shoulder, and under the arm,
where small lumps often arise.  Even when the sting has quite died
away, the unwary bushman is forcibly reminded of his indiscretion each
time that the affected part is brought into contact with water.  The
fruit is of a pink, fleshy colour, hanging in clusters, and looks so
inviting that a stranger is irresistibly tempted to pluck it; but
seldom more than once, for though the raspberry-like berries are
harmless in themselves, some contact with the leaves is almost
unavoidable.  The blacks are said to eat the fruit; but for this I
cannot vouch, though I have tasted one or two at odd times, and found
them very pleasant.  The worst of this nettle is the tendency it
exhibits to shoot up wherever a clearing has been effected.  In passing
through the dray tracks cut through the scrub, great caution was
necessary to avoid the young plants that cropped up even in a few
weeks.  I have never known a case of its being fatal to human beings;
but I have seen people subjected by it to great suffering, notably a
scientific gentleman, who plucked off a branch and carried it some
distance as a curiosity, wondering the while what was causing the pain
and numbness in his arm.  Horses I have been die in agony from the
sting, the wounded parts becoming paralysed; but strange to say, it
does not seem to injure cattle, who dash through scrubs full of it
without receiving any damage.  This curious anomaly is well known to
all bushmen.

For a couple of hours we followed the tortuous windings of the track,
without we white men having the faintest conception where we were
going, though the troopers and Lizzie declared that we were pushing
straight through.  At length a ray of sunlight became visible, and in a
few minutes we emerged from the sombre depths of the jungle, and found
ourselves on the banks of a splendid river, the Mackay.  Traces of
blacks were seen in every direction, the white sand being covered with
their foot-prints.  Abandoned gungales were plentiful on the opposite
bank, which was clear of scrub, and whilst we were eating the damper
and beef with which each of the party was provided, Lizzie espied a
thin column of smoke at no great distance.

We approached it as cautiously as possible, taking advantage of every
shrub that offered a cover, and finally, lying down and worming our way
through the grass on all fours, a mode of progression that is in itself
particularly fatiguing and objectionable, but not without excitement,
for we never knew the moment when we might chance to put our hands on a
dormant snake, or find ourselves sprawling over a nest of bulldog ants.
We were successful in completely surprising the camp, which consisted
entirely of gins and piccaninnies, all the males, as usual, being out
hunting.  The gins spoke quite a different language from that of the
Hinchinbrook and Herbert River people, and Lizzie was a long time
before she could make them understand.  They seemed to know nothing of
any white men, nor, I may say, of anything else in particular.  They
were ignorant where the Mackay rose, or where it debouched, and could
give us no information regarding the waterfall we saw on the distant
range, what river it supplied, or what kind of country was between us
and the hills.  Altogether they were a most unsatisfactory lot; and
having rummaged their camp without finding any suspicious articles, and
threatened them with wholesale destruction if they gave warning of our
approach to any other tribe, by either smoke signals or messengers, we
departed, much disgusted.

On arriving at the edge of a small copse, at a short distance from the
camp, we found the arsenal of the male portion of the tribe.  Why they
had stacked their arms so far away from the gungales we never could
make out; but there they were, consisting of the usual spears and
shields, and, in addition, several of the enormous swords used by these
natives, of which we had often heard, but that few of our party, except
Dunmore, had ever seen. These curious weapons are made of the heaviest
iron-bark wood, are about five feet in length, by as many inches in
breadth, and about an inch thick in the centre--rather more than less,
and both edges scraped down to as sharp an edge as the material will
receive.  They are slightly curved; but the most wonderful part about
them is the handle, which is so small that a European can with
difficulty squeeze three fingers into it.  The mystery is, how do they
use them? for Goliath of Gath could never have wielded an instrument as
heavy as this with one hand.  It is supposed that the warrior raises
the cumbrous weapon on his shield, and having got within sword's length
of his enemy, lets it drop on his head.  This portion of a black's
frame is undeniably hard; but such a blow would crush it like an
egg-shell; and as he may be credited with sufficient sense to know
this, it seems difficult to understand why he should stand still and
allow such a disagreeable operation to be performed.  Whether or not
the use of these weapons has been discovered since I left Australia, I
am unable to say; but certainly up to that time we who lived in their
neighbourhood were unable to appreciate the varied excellencies they
doubtless possess.

We pursued our way up the Mackay River in hopes of finding some
termination to the thick scrub on the opposite bank, so that we might
return to our boat without having to thread its intricate mazes again;
and in this we were successful, finding a break in the jungle an hour
before sunset, which at once admitted us to the plain, through the
centre of which ran the Macalister, and in due course we reached our
camp, where, after having a glorious "bogey" (the Australian term for
bathing) in the river, and overhauling each other well, to see that no
ticks were adhering to our skins, we had supper, and turned in, having
done little good, except finding a road to the Mackay less tedious than
the one we had taken in the morning.  The ticks that I mentioned just
now, are little insects no bigger than a pin's head when they first
fasten on to you, but soon become swollen with blood until larger than
a pea.  They do no harm to a man besides the unpleasant feeling they
occasion, but they almost invariably kill a dog. Nearly all our dogs
fell victims sooner or later to either the alligator or the tick.


HOW WE EXPLORED THE MACKAY RIVER.

We now determined to carry with us enough tea, sugar, and flour to last
for a week, and to work up towards the unknown country at the head of
the Mackay, leaving the boat in its present position, under the charge
of two men.  We intended to push towards the range whence both the
Macalister and the Mackay rivers drew their supply; and as the former
stream in its windings over the open plain approached within a mile of
its large neighbour, we resolved to move the boat a little further up
before starting on our new expedition.  By occasionally lightening her,
and dragging her over the shallows, this was accomplished in a couple
of hours, and we finally halted at a bend in the river where the bank
was high enough to shield the boat from all observation, whilst the
scrub bordering the Mackay, standing at less than a quarter of a mile
distant, the men left behind could easily see if any considerable body
of blacks moved between the two streams, and could take the bearings of
all smoke arising from fires in the direction of the coast, so that we
might visit them hereafter, if deemed necessary.  The fact of two
rivers, each containing a constant supply of water, being found in such
close proximity to each other, caused much remark, for none of us had
ever observed a similar instance in Australia, which is as a rule very
deficient in permanent rivers.

We now turned our attention to getting sufficient provisions cooked to
last the exploring party for three days, as we were determined to
employ the utmost vigilance, and show as little smoke as possible, for
nothing creates such suspicion amongst the aboriginals as seeing fresh
fires constantly lighted, unless accompanied by the smoke signals,
which I have described in a former chapter.  As we were utterly
ignorant of the code they employed, we resolved only to light our fires
at night, and not even then unless we found some sequestered spot where
the flame would be unseen.  Some of us at once started for a large
lagoon that we had passed in the morning, and creeping up through the
long grass, found its surface quite covered with water-fowl of every
description, from the black swan to the beautiful pigmy goose.  A
volley, fired at a concerted signal, strewed the surface of the lake
with the dead and wounded, and we were compelled to stand idly on the
bank until the wind wafted the game ashore, for at the report of the
guns two or three heavy splashes and as many dusky forms gliding into
the water betokened that we had disturbed alligators, either having a
nap, or lying in wait for kangaroos and wallaby coming down to drink.
More than one house now stands on the margin of this lagoon, but their
inhabitants are still afraid to bathe in the broad sheet of water
spread so invitingly before them.

Having secured our game, we returned to the boat, and after plucking
and splitting open the birds, some were roasted over the fire for
immediate use, but by far the greater number were boiled in a pot,
which was portion of the boat's furniture when on an expedition.  One
of the troopers had with a tomahawk stripped off a sheet of bark, and
on this was manufactured a gigantic damper.  For the information of
such of my readers as may be unacquainted with Australia, I must
explain that damper is unleavened bread, well kneaded and baked in the
ashes.  But simple though such a rough form of loaf may seem from the
above description, it is in reality a very difficult thing to turn out
a thoroughly good damper, and only practice will enable the new-comer
to obtain the sleight of hand necessary for the production of a
first-rate specimen.  In form a damper resembles a flat cheese of two
or three inches thick, and from one to two feet in diameter. Great care
and much practice are requisite to form this shape so that no cracks
shall appear, and when this is done the work is by no means over, for
the exact heat of the fire must be judged by the cook, otherwise he
will either burn up his dough, or it will come out a crude, sodden,
uneatable mass.  A good wood fire that has been burning several days,
and has gained a quantity of ashes, is the best; but wood is plentiful
enough in the bush, and if you only know the right kind to use, you
find no difficulty in soon providing yourself with a glorious heap of
glowing embers.  Scraping away a hole in the centre of the fire a
little larger than the disc, you gently drop it in with your hands,
strew it over with enough powdery white ash to prevent the embers
coming into actual contact with the dough, and then cover the whole
with the glowing coals.  Only practice can enable the bushman to judge
the exact depth of this layer, which, of course, differs in every case,
according to the size of the damper.  It is left in this fiery bed
until small cracks appear on the covering caused by the steam forcing
its way out.  This is a sign that it is nearly done, confirmation of
which is sought by introducing a knife-blade through the ashes, and
sounding the crust.  If this gives back a hard sound, the damper may be
considered cooked, and is then withdrawn, stood carefully 'on its
edge'--never forget this--and is ready to eat when cool.

As there was nothing very particular to do that afternoon, we watched
the troopers spearing fish, in which they were most skilful.  There is
in some of the Australian rivers a splendid fish, called the
'Barrimundi', which not only much resembles the salmon in appearance,
but, like it, requires running water and access to the sea.  Many a
time I have vainly tried to lure them from their watery depths, but no
bait would tempt them that I could ever hit on, though I have little
doubt that a fly or artificial minnow would prove killing.  We could
see them in the Macalister, lying with their heads pointed up stream,
and seemingly motionless but for the slight waving of the tail that
retained them in their places.  Having cut several slender switches,
not thicker than a tobacco-pipe stem, and sharpened one end with a
knife, the trooper Ferdinand, who was by far the most expert among his
brethren, grasped this apparently inoffensive little weapon between the
thumb and middle finger, whilst the blunt end rested against the ball
of the forefinger.  Stooping down, he approached to within four or five
yards of the fish, which were only a few inches from the surface, and
suddenly jerking his switch forward, it entered the water almost
horizontally, and rarely failed to transfix a 'Barri mundi', which,
darting forward, was soon hampered by the weapon catching in the weeds,
and became the prey of its sharp-eyed captor, who had never lost sight
of it in its endeavour to escape.  This fish is excellent eating, and
averages from eight to thirty pounds in weight.

As Dunmore and I were strolling along a small lagoon overgrown with
water-lilies, he pointed out to me a pretty graceful little bird, about
the size of a jack-snipe, but with longer legs, and most extraordinary
claws. I am ashamed to say I shot this poor little fellow, to examine
him, and found that each toe measured at least three inches from the
leg to the extremity of the claw.  This is to enable the bird to run
along safely over the floating leaves of the lotus, on which plant it
seems to get its living.  I had never seen one before; and the simple
manner in which Nature had adapted it to its peculiar line of life
struck me as both curious and beautiful.  What this little bird's
scientific name is I never heard, but we colonists call it the "Lotus
bird."

As there was a remote chance of the party left with the boats coming in
contact with the blacks, it was deemed advisable to leave them a
trooper, who would more readily recognise their whereabouts than the
white men; therefore a boy known by the not euphonious sobriquet of
"Killjoy," was selected to remain with the pilot and his two boatmen,
and after dividing the big meat damper in five equal portions, the
exploring party, consisting of Dunmore, Ferdinand, Larry, Lizzie and
myself, struck out for the opening in the scrub on the Mackay river.
We descended into the sandy bed, and crossed to the opposite side,
which was much more open country, consisting of park-like land, lightly
timbered, but the soil not nearly so rich as the fertile plain through
which wound the Macalister.  It would be tedious to weary my readers
with a minute account of our doings each day; enough to say that we
passed through new country of every description, crossing from side to
side of the Mackay, to cut off its many bends, and that our progress
was but slow, the distant ranges seeming hardly nearer on the third day
than they were at starting.  We were disappointed in not meeting with
any blacks, though their traces were plentiful; and we had commenced to
fear that the tribe we had surprised five days before had given warning
of our approach, when Ferdinand reported smoke a couple of miles on our
right.  It was about mid-day when this was seen; and having made a
hurried meal off the damper, which I may here state answered its
purpose admirably, we crept towards the fire with the utmost caution.
Our route took us away from the river, and on arriving at the edge of a
small belt of scrub, we could make out that the fire was by the side of
a water-hole, but the two hundred yards between it and ourselves was so
open, that surprising the camp seemed almost impossible.  The hour was
in our favour, for the blacks were lying about listlessly, resting
themselves after the fatigues of procuring the food of which they had
just made a meal.  They numbered about twenty of both sexes, and were
evidently quite unconscious of our proximity.  Detaching the two
troopers to make a detour, and cut them off from the scrub in that
direction, Dunmore, Lizzie, and I remained perfectly motionless for
above an hour, and then, judging that the boys must have reached their
position, we advanced towards the camp swiftly but silently. We got
over a third of the distance before the blacks saw us, and then ensured
a general scrimmage.  The women and children jumped into the lagoon,
and the men, snatching up their weapons, threw a volley of spears with
such force and precision that, had we been twenty yards closer, it
would have gone hard with both my companions and myself.  As it was,
the missiles nearly all fell short, seeing which the warriors dropped
their arms and took to their heels, running directly for the spot where
Ferdinand and Larry lay in ambush.  Both Dunmore and myself fired our
carbines over the heads of the retreating Myalls (wild blacks), which
completed their panic, and one of them, rushing recklessly forward, was
captured by the troopers, and brought by them in triumph to the camp,
amidst the yells and jabbering of the gins and piccaninnies.

After half an hour or so, seeing that no harm was intended to them, the
women came out of the water, and we were very much pleased to find that
they readily understood Lizzie.  On being addressed by her, the
warrior, who had hitherto maintained a sullen and defiant attitude,
became conversational, and readily replied to all the questions put to
him by Dunmore.  Unlike most of the blacks, he appeared to be very
little frightened at the situation in which he found himself, and
seemed instinctively to know that all danger was past.  On being
questioned regarding the shipwrecked crew, he denied all knowledge of
any vessel having been lost, but said at once that a white man had
lived with this tribe for many moons, though he was dead now.  This
rather astonished us, and we asked if any relics were still in the
camp, upon which one of the gins produced an old sheath-knife, worn
down nearly to nothing by constant sharpening; half a dozen horn
buttons, one of them still sewn to a fragment of moleskin; and an empty
tin match-box.  We asked how long the white man had been dead, and were
told that he died three moons before, of fever, and that we could see
his grave if we liked, for it was within a day's journey. There was an
openness about this tribe, and a frankness in their answers, that made
us certain that all we heard was the truth, and as they had evidently
befriended this poor wanderer, we were anxious to repay them in some
measure, and strengthen the kindly feelings they felt for the white
men, so we told Lizzie to assure them that our visit was only to search
for our lost brethren; that we should like to visit the grave, if one
of them would guide us; and that in return for their services we would
give them a new knife and a tomahawk.

As they were profoundly ignorant of the use of fire-arms, and we wished
to impress upon them the irresistible power of the white man, it was
agreed that we should ask them to guide us to the nearest place
frequented by kangaroos, and pick off two or three of these animals in
their presence, if possible.  They were very curious to know the
meaning of our "lightning sticks," and we repaired, escorted by nearly
the whole tribe, to a neighbouring water-hole, where we could remain
concealed, and get an easy shot at any game coming down to drink.  We
were not kept long waiting, for within half an hour a couple of
wallabies came hopping leisurely along, and were very cleverly dropped
in their tracks, one by Dunmore, the other by Larry.  Our hosts were in
ecstasies, and seemed very grateful that a similar fate had not
befallen some of their number in the morning; but we made Lizzie
explain to them clearly that our object was not to hurt our black
friends, unless they were wicked--ill-treating white men, or spearing
cattle.  A couple of noble emus now came stalking slowly towards the
water, and, passing within forty yards of our hiding-place, both fell
victims to the breechloaders of Dunmore and myself.

This beautiful bird inhabits the open country throughout Australia,
where at one time it was very common, but is now rarely seen in the
settled districts.  However, in the north emus may be found in plenty;
and I do not think there is the slightest fear of their becoming
extinct, as some writers suggest.  All my readers must have seen this
bird at the Zoological Gardens, and remarked its likeness to the
ostrich, both in form and habits; but the prisoner portrays but poorly
the free majestic gait of the wild inhabitant of the plains.  The
colour of the adult bird is a greyish brown, the feathers are very
loose and hairy, whilst the height of a fine male is often nearly seven
feet.  The usual mode of capturing these birds is to ride them down,
using dogs trained for the purpose to pull them to the ground.  The
dogs should be taught to reserve their attack until the emu is
thoroughly tired out, and then to spring upon the neck; but an unwary
puppy will bitterly rue his temerity should he come within reach of the
powerful legs, which deal kicks fiercely around, and of sufficient
power to disable any assailant.  The ostrich always kicks forward, in
which he differs from the emu, whose blow is delivered sideways and
backwards, like a cow.  This bird is very good eating, if you know the
part to select; the legs proving tough and unpalatable, while the back
is nearly as tender as fowl.  But to the bushman the most valuable
thing about the emu is its oil, which is looked upon as a sovereign
remedy for bruises or sprains when rubbed into the affected part either
pure or mixed with turpentine.  This useful oil is of a light yellow
colour, and from its not readily congealing or becoming glutinous, it
is in much request for cleaning the locks of fire-arms.  It chiefly
resides in the skin, but also collects in great quantities near the
rump.  The usual mode of obtaining it is to pluck out all the feathers,
cut the skin into small pieces, and boil them in a common pot; but a
still simpler plan, though less productive, is to hang the skin before
a fire, and catch the oil as it drips down.  A full-sized bird will
yield from six to seven quarts.  The food of the emu consists of grass
and various fruits. It emits a deep drumming sound from its throat, but
no other cry, that I ever heard.  Its nest is only a shallow hole
scraped in the ground, and in this hollow the eggs, which vary in
number, are laid.  Dr. Bennett remarks that "There is always an odd
number, some nests having been discovered with nine, others with
eleven, and others again with thirteen."  When fresh they are of a
beautiful green colour, and are in much request for mounting in silver
as drinking cups; but after a little while the colour changes to a
dirty brownish green.  One peculiarity about the next is, that the
parent bird never goes straight up to it, but walks round and round in
a narrowing circle, of which the nest is the centre.  I once caught
seven little emus, only just out of the shell; but shutting them up for
the night in an empty room, I was horrified the next morning to find
that they had all been killed by rats.  The young ones have four broad
longitudinal stripes down the back, which disappear as they grow up.
The emu is easily domesticated, and on many cattle and sheep stations
tame specimens are funning about the paddocks.  To my mind they are an
intolerable nuisance, always doing some mischief--either frightening
the horses, or stealing things from the workmen.  I saw one cured of
his thievish propensities for a long time.  He always loafed about the
kitchen when dinner was being served, and if the cook turned his back
for a moment, his long neck was thrust through the window, and anything
within reach--from an onion to a salt-spoon--disappeared with
marvellous celerity.  But my friend caught a tartar when he bolted two
scalding potatoes, steaming from the pot.  He rushed round and round
the little paddock, and at last dropped down as if dead, from pain and
fatigue.  Poor wretch, he must have suffered dreadfully; and I am sure
we all pitied him, except the cook, whose patience he had quite worn
out.

Out sable allies were gratified beyond measure when we presented them
with the game, and a great feast took place that evening.  We neglected
no opportunity of gaining information about both the shipwrecked crew
and the unknown white man, whose grave we were to visit on the
following morning. Through Lizzie we questioned different individuals
separately, but they all agreed that such an event as the loss of a
vessel and the arrival of her crew amongst the blacks, could not
possibly have happened without their hearing something of it.  From
their imperfect knowledge of time, and their difficulty in expressing
any number higher than five, we could not form the slightest idea how
long the white man had lived among them; but they pointed to the ranges
behind the township of Cardwell as indicating the place where he first
joined them.

We camped at the opposite end of the water-hole, not thinking it
judicious to remain too close to our allies, and kept a strict watch
during the night; but we might all have enjoyed a good sleep in perfect
safety, for the blacks were far too busy stuffing themselves with emu
meat to think of treachery.  Before sunrise we started, guided by our
late captive and two of his companions.  After a tedious walk, we
arrived at an open plain, on which the grass was trodden down in every
direction, in some places worn quite away by the feet of the
natives--for this was the great "bora ground" of the coast tribes,
where the mystic ceremonies mentioned in a former chapter took place.
Traversing the sacred plain, our thoughts busy in conjecturing the
weird scenes that the posts had witnessed, we came to a little creek
whose clear stream babbled cheerfully among the rocks, and soon saw a
giant fig-tree, which our guides indicated as being the spot we sought.
As we approached we perceived a greyish-looking form on a large limb
about ten feet from the ground, and a closer inspection revealed to us
that it was unmistakably the body of a white man, rolled up in tea-tree
bark, and kept in its position by fastenings of split cane.  We could
not examine the corpse very minutely, for it was too offensive; but
from the portions of the face that still remained, and the long blonde
locks and red beard, we satisfied ourselves that the poor wanderer was
not one of the 'Eva's' crew; indeed, we judged that his death must have
taken place some time before the loss of that vessel.  We were much
pleased to observe the respect with which the natives had treated the
remains, and as they think that exposure either on a platform or in a
tree is the most honourable way in which a corpse can be disposed of,
we left the body as we found it, and returned to the camp, where we
passed the night.

Our damper was now at an end, and we had no flour with us, so made up
our minds to return to the boat.  On talking the matter over, it seemed
quite clear that the shipwrecked men had never been thrown on this part
of the coast, and that any further exploration would only be lost time.
On the following morning we presented the tribe with our knives, and
some matches, and taking a friendly leave of them, started for the
Macalister, accompanied by two of the warriors.  We reached the boat on
the sixth day, found the pilot and his party well, and having dismissed
the blacks, with the present of a tomahawk and a blanket, we started at
once for the place lower down the river, which had been agreed upon
with Jack Clark as a rendezvous.  When we arrived at this spot on the
following day, the horsemen had not turned up, so we amused ourselves
as best we could, fishing, shooting, and eating damper thickly
plastered over with honey, for Larry had found a "sugar bag."

The way the trooper performed this feat was not a little ingenious.
Having noticed several bees about, he caught one, and with a little
gum, attached to it a piece of down from a large owl that somebody had
shot.  Releasing the insect, it flew directly towards its nest, the
unaccustomed burden with which it was laden serving not only to make it
easily visible, but also impeding its flight sufficiently to admit of
the boy following it.  The next was at the top of a large blue gum
tree, about three feet in diameter, and sending up a smooth column for
fifty feet without a branch or twig. Most people would have given up
all thoughts of a honey feed for the day; not so Mr. Larry, whose
movements we followed with considerable curiosity. Divesting himself of
his clothing, he repaired to an adjoining scrub, and with his tomahawk
cut out a piece of lawyer cane twenty feet in length. Having stripped
this of its husk, he wove it into a hoop round the tree of just
sufficient size to admit his body.  Slinging his tomahawk and a
fishing-line round his neck, he got inside the hoop, and allowing it to
rest against the small of his back, he pressed hard against the tree
with his knees and feet.  This raised him several inches, when with a
dexterous jerk he moved the portion of the hoop furthest away from him
a good foot up the stem, and thus--somewhat on the same principle that
boys climb a chimney, for the hoop represented the chimney--he worked
himself upward, and in much less time than I have taken to describe it,
was astride on the lowest branch, and chopping vigorously at the hollow
which contained the golden store.  The use of the fishing-line now
became apparent, for we bent on to its end a small tin billy (round
can), used for making tea, and by hauling this up and filling it, Larry
soon supplied us with honey enough to fill our bucket and the boat's
baler.  As perhaps my readers may be tempted to wonder why the bees did
not attack the naked hide of the robber who was thus rudely despoiling
them, I must state that the wild Australian bee is stingless.  It is a
harmless little insect, not much larger than the common house-fly, and
though it produces abundance of honey and wax, it has not been
subjected to domestication, and from its diminutive proportions and its
habit of building on very high trees, probably never will be.  The
English bee has been most successfully introduced into Queensland; and
many of the farms in the neighbourhood of Brisbane make a good thing
out of their honey and wax.

A meeting was held the next day, at which it was agreed that all
further search would be useless, and, indeed, I am certain that every
possible measure had been attempted for the discovery of the missing
men.  There seems every reason to think that the ill-fated 'Eva' was
sunk in the cyclone.  Most likely she went down in deep water, and all
on board her were drowned.  Such was the supposition that received most
favour at the time, and with it we must rest content until the great
day when all secrets are revealed.









End of Project Gutenberg's Australian Search Party, by Charles Henry Eden