Enterprise and Adventure/Grey's Second Journey
GREY'S SECOND JOURNEY.
In 1839 Lieutenant Grey started on his second Australian exploring expedition, accompanied by three men of the previous party—a surgeon named Walker, a young friend named Smith, and six other persons, one of whom was an intelligent native. After a few days' coasting in Shark's Bay, they discovered a large river, which they named the Gascoyne, and which they found to open by two mouths, one of which was three quarters of a mile in breadth. They continued to explore the country, accurately surveying and marking down in charts the extensive shores of the bay, amidst many alarms and attacks from the natives.
At length they were compelled, by storms and shortness of supplies, to make for their depot on Bernier's Island. On reaching the coasts, they were found to present so many marks of the past storm that a terrible fear flashed across the mind of Mr. Grey. Having picked out two of his men to accompany him to the depot, which had been formed at some distance inland, staves of flour casks were soon seen scattered about, which told an ominous tale. When they reached the spot at which the depot had been made, so changed was it $hat some of the party doubted whether it was indeed the place; but on going ashore, they found some very remarkable rocks, on the top of which lay a flour cask, more than half empty, with the head knocked out, but not otherwise injured. This cask had been washed up at least twenty feet above high-water mark—a convincing evidence of the violence of the storms. The terrible truth was now laid open to them. Placed at a distance of nearly five hundred miles from Swan River, the nearest point of refuge, they possessed only about nine days' salt meat and sixty pounds of flour, and had nothing bub whale boats, rowed by oars, in which to contend against the sea on a stormy and unknown coast, where they were unable to land without being exposed to the attacks of armed natives. Grey then requested Mr. Smith to see the little flour that was left in the barrel and on the rocks carefully collected. Leaving them thus engaged, "I then," he says in his touching narrative, "turned back along the sea-shore towards the party, glad of the opportunity of being alone, as I could now commune freely with my own thoughts; and as the safety of the whole party now depended upon my forming a prompt and efficient plan of operations, and seeing it carried out with energy and perseverance." He finally resolved to attempt reaching Swan River without delay by the coasts; and after composing his thoughts by reading a portion of his Bible, he rejoined his party, and disclosed to them the unfortunate state of things. Blank dismay was visible in every face. Two men, in desperation, ran to the small store of food, and endeavoured to appropriate it; but their vigilant commander had observed them, and they were checked. None objected to pushing on for Swan River at once, and on the 22nd of March they set out in their boats. Storms raged almost incessantly. A spirit of despair seized on some of them; and on one occasion a man set the dangerous example of refusing to work any longer, as it seemed useless, but the firmness of the commander prevailed. As Grey one day stood at the steer-oar, he saw that there was a heavier surf than they had ever yet been in. They were swept along at a terrific rate, and yet it appeared as if each following wave must engulf them, so lofty were they, and so rapidly did they succeed each other. At length they reached the point where the waves broke; the breaker that they were on curled up in the air, lifting the boat with it; and when they had gained the summit, he looked down from a great height, not upon water, but upon a bare, sharp, black rock. For one second the boat hung upon the top of the wave; in the next, he felt the sensation of falling rapidly, then a tremendous shock and crash, which jerked him away amongst rocks and breakers, and for the few following seconds he heard nothing but the din of waves, whilst he was rolling about amongst men, and a torn boat, oars, and water-kegs, in such a manner that he could not collect his senses.
In attempting to land, the other boat was totally wrecked a few minutes afterwards. All that had passed was nothing compared with their present miseries, and the prospect of walking overland defencelessly, without water or food, to Perth. But there was no alternative, and the party set out. After travelling seventy miles, and while still one hundred and ninety from Perth, Mr. Grey saw the party reduced to such a state of exhaustion—a bird now and then, and similar trifles, being their chief resources—that, to save any of them, he conceived it right to push forward with the most active assistance. With four men and Kaiber, the native, he accordingly started. As they moved along, they moistened their mouths by sucking a few drops of dew from the shrubs and reeds; but even this miserable resource failed them almost immediately after sunrise. The men were so worn out from fatigue and want of food and water, that he could now get them but a few hundred yards at a time. Then some one of them would sit down, and beg him so earnestly to stop for a few minutes, that he could not refuse. When, however, he thus halted, the native in every instance expressed his indignation, telling him that it was sacrificing his safety as well as that of the others who were able to move; for that if they did not find water before night, the whole party would die. When they halted, the sun was intensely powerful, the groans and exclamations of some of the men were painful in the extreme; but the brave commander's feelings were still more agonized when he saw the poor creatures driven, by want of water, to one of the last sad and revolting sources of thirst. Unable to bear these distressing scenes any longer he ordered Kaiber to accompany him, and notwithstanding the heat and his own weariness, he left the others lying down in such slight shade as the stunted shrubs afforded; and throwing aside all his ammunition, papers, etc., started with him in search of water, carrying nothing but his double-barrelled gun.
After a vain search Grey wished to return to his party, but the native who accompanied him appeared to be restless and unwilling. He then became convinced that the man had strayed wilfully, wishing to desert the party, but not daring to do so without his master. On one occasion this native sat opposite to him on the ground, his keen savage eye watching the expression of the white man's countenance as each thought flitted across it. Grey saw that he was trying to read his feelings, and at length he thus broke silence:—"Mr. Grey, to-day we can walk, and may yet not die, but drink water; to-morrow you and I will be two dead men if we walk not now, for we shall then be weak and unable. The others sit down too much; they are weak, and cannot walk; if we remain with them we shall all die, but we two are still strong, let us walk. There lies the sea, to that the streams run. It is long since we have crossed a river, go quickly, and before the next sun gets up, we shall cross another running water." He paused for a minute, looking steadfastly at his master, and then added:—"You must leave the others; for I know not where they are, and we shall die in trying to find them."
Grey now knew that he was playing him false. "Do you see the sun, Kaiber, and where it now stands?" he replied to him. "Yes," was his answer. "Then, if you have not led me to the party before that sun falls behind the hills, I will shoot you; as it begins to sink, you die." He said these words, looking at him steadily in the face, and with the full intention of putting his threat into execution. The native saw this, and yet strove to appear unconcerned, and with a forced laugh said, "You are playing: from daylight until now, you and I have walked; we have wasted our strength now in looking for water for the others. But a short time, and we shall be dead; and you say, search for men whom I cannot find; you tell me look, and I know not where to look." Grey now lost all patience with him, and replied, "Kaiber, deceive as you will, you cannot deceive me; follow back our tracks instantly to the point from whence we started; if you do not find them, as the sun falls you die."
Being convinced of his determination, the man now moved gradually away, evidently intending to desert him, in which case, he could never again have hoped to rejoin the party. He, therefore, instantly cocked the remaining barrel of his gun, and presented it at him, telling him that if he moved further than a certain tree, which he pointed out, he would instantly shoot him. The decided manner in which he pronounced this had the desired effect.
Happily, in spite of all their sufferings, the whole of Mr. Grey's detachment of the party survived the journey, and reached Perth on the 21st of April. The governor could scarcely credit his sight, when he beheld the miserable object that stood before him. Immediate steps were taken to forward assistance to those who were still in the bush. "Having thus far," says Grey, "performed my duty, I retired to press a bed once more, having for nearly three consecutive months slept in the open air, on the ground, just at the spot where my day's hardship had terminated. So changed was I, that those of my friends, who had heard of my arrival and were coming to congratulate me, passed me in the street, whilst others to whom I went up, and held out my hand, drew back in horror, and said, 'I beg your pardon, who are you?'" Grey's forethought, in pushing forward with the strongest of his band, doubtless saved the lives of his fellow-sufferers. A party were immediately dispatched in search of the portion of the expedition left in charge of Dr. Walker the surgeon, who were at last all brought back, except Mr. Smith, who had died, when within ninety miles of Swan River, overcome by the fatigues and privations of their long wanderings.