Enterprise and Adventure/Major Mitchell and the Bushranger
MAJOR MITCHELL AND THE BUSHRANGER.
The expedition of Major Mitchell into the interior of Australia has a curious origin. About thirty-five years since, the authorities at Sydney captured in the bush a runaway convict, named George Clarke, but known by the sobriquet of the Barber, a man of singular appearance, who had lived a long time in the interior among the natives, and had adopted their customs. He went naked like them, was painted black, had his body deeply scarified, and was usually attended by two aboriginal women. Thus disguised as a native, he had organized a very daring system of cattle stealing on Liverpool Plains, which had increased to an alarming extent before he was taken. This man, probably to direct attention in some degree from his crime, informed the authorities, who at that time knew little of the country, that he had discovered a very important river in the interior which the natives, he said, called the Kirdur. He gave very circumstantial details of his travels to the north-west along the bank of this river, by
following which also in a south-west direction he stated that he had twice reached the sea-shore. He then described the tribes inhabiting the banks of the river, and gave the names of their chiefs, adding that he had first crossed vast plains called Balyran, and, on approaching the sea, had seen a burning mountain named Courada. As he also described, with great apparent accuracy, the courses of the known streams of the northern interior, which united, as he stated, the Nammoy, a river first mentioned by him, his story had, on the whole, enough of consistency in it to gain attention. Indeed, the readiness with which the sanguine minds of explorers naturally receive anything like information, the story of the escaped convert was even considered trustworthy, and Major Mitchell received orders to proceed in search of the great river Kirdur.
He started from Sydney on the 24th of November, 1831, having a distance of three hundred miles northward to travel before he quitted the precincts of civilized life. The party consisted of nine men, chosen from among the convicts, besides Mr. White, the second in command, and Mr. Finch, who had volunteered his services, and was ordered to follow with additional stores. The horses, oxen, and provision carts divided the cares of the men. On the 5th of December the party ascended the Liverpool range, which divides the colony from the unexplored country beyond. A wide expanse of open, level country extended in a northerly direction as far as human vision could reach, and, being clear of trees, presented a remarkable contrast to the settled districts of the colony. The abundant herbage of these plains indicated a rich soil, and herds of cattle browsing at a distance added pastoral beauty to a scene which had recently been a desert. Five-and-twenty miles beyond the border of the colony, our traveller found a comfortable stone house, with a good garden, occupied by an old stockman and his wife. When Major Mitchell had advanced some way into the interior, he descried a peak, the name of which, he learned from his native guide, was Tangulda. This appeared to be an interesting discovery, since the way to the great river, according to the bushranger's story, was northeast by north from a mountain called Tangulda. The natives were also acquainted with the river Nammoy, which indeed afterwards proved to be the Peel River, below its junction with some other considerable streams. At a little distance from this river, and eighty or a hundred miles from the borders of the colony, the natives pointed out the remains of a house and of a very large stock-yard, which had belonged, they said, to George the Barber. The bones of bullocks were strewed round in large quantities, plainly showing the nature of the barber's business, and the object of his alliance with the natives. They appeared, at length, to be upon the true tack.
It was not found practicable to follow all the bushranger's directions. Chains of mountains intercepted their course. The enlarged appearance of the Nammoy induced the travellers to launch upon it in various boats for the purpose of descending the stream; but the number of sunken trees in the river, and the frail character of the boats, soon brought this kind of travelling to an end. Their next trouble arose from their native guide deserting the expedition, probably afraid of the wilder tribes of the interior. But Major Mitchell continued his excursions in search of rivers till one day, to his great delight, he came upon a noble piece of water, which might have realised all that he had imagined of the Kirdur. It was from a bank seventy feet high that he found himself overlooking a river as broad as the Thames, on which the waves, perfectly free from broken timber, danced at full liberty; but to his great disappointment, he could perceive that this broad reach terminated a little way down in a rocky dyke. This, in, deed, was the common disappointment of explorers in that country of the bush, so much of which has since become better known.
The surveys of rivers and plains successfully accomplished by Mitchell, were of the highest importance. Only one melancholy event threw a gloom over the results of his energy and enterprise. At sunset, one day in April, his indefatigable companion Cunningham was found to be missing. As he was in the habit, however, of wandering from his companions in search of plants, his absence did not at first excite alarm. On the following day, parties sent in various directions failed to discover any traces of him; and as the expedition was suffering from want of water, the misery of his situation, bewildered in a burning waste, was acutely felt by all. It was not till the fifth day of the search that traces of Mr. Cunningham were fallen in with, and in two days more his movements and those of his horse were followed through a distance of seventy miles. These were examined again and again, and the inferences founded on them were that Cunningham having wandered some time in the wood he had killed his dog, probably to quench his thirst with its blood; and that he then abandoned his horse, which rambled many miles before it expired. Mr. Cunningham appears to have made for the river Bogan, and to have passed close to one of the parties which went in quest of him on the 21st. He continued his weary march near the dry bed of the river, having thus got a-head of his companions, who remained searching for him; and his footsteps were distinctly traced to the small muddy pool where he first quenched his thirst. His lamentable end was subsequently learned from the natives. It appears that he met with a party of them, who gave him food, and led him to their huts. But as he was very uneasy, and rose often in the night, their suspicions were awakened, and they speared him. Of the four men concerned in this murder three were afterwards captured, of whom two made their escape. Some relics of Mr. Cunningham were found, and his bones interred by the police sent into the interior to investigate the circumstances of his death, which, unhappily, is not without a recent parallel in the annals of Australian enterprise.