Excerpts from Due North
The Lust for Gold Makes Men Bold, p. 272
The convict ‘Wildman’. A fool’s tale of gold.
Fremantle Dec 11/63
My Dear Barlee,
A convict has made the following statement to me this morning; namely that in January 1856 he left Rotterdam as Chief Mate of the Maria Augusta, a ship of 1200 tons Register bound to Java, that this ship lost her rudder and was oblige to put into some bay on the Northwest Coast of this colony to cut timber to repair the rudder that he was at anchor in this bay for a period of 12 days; that in about 21⁄2 hours of one those days he picked up 8lbs weight of nuggets, which he subsequently sold to a Mr Johnson a bullion merchant of Liverpool for £416; that he was alone when he found them, and never communicated the discovery to any soul breathing, always intending to charter a small vessel to go to the spot again; that he has left with his wife some memoranda on the subject, but he has none whatever in his possession now, that he will not at present divulge to me, or to any person the latitude and longitude of this Bay, but he would divulge to yourself or to His Excellency should the latter charter as vessel to convey him to the spot. The longitude however is less than 129 east, and therefore it is within the limits of this Colony. That he expects to be punished severely if he fails to find more nuggets in this and simply to obtain a remission of his sentence 15 years penal servitude passed in 1861 if he succeeds” The above is the substance of what he has stated to me privately in my office. I never saw the man before today. I do not now tell you his name nor shall I mention one syllable on the subject to any soul until I hear from you. I am by no means prepared to express an opinion as to the bona fide nature of this mans statements. I very carefully entangled him on many points in common with it, and in some respects his manner and replies were such as to give an appearance of the bona fide to his story.
He is a young man, a foreigner, and described as a seaman in the Prison lists. He appears to me to be capable of the secrecy which he alleges that he observed, in withholding from the knowledge of his messmates his possession of the nuggets. He wishes a small vessel to be chartered and himself to be sent down as a prisoner to shew the spot. I think there is sufficient plausibility and probability in his statement to make it expedient that it should be privately submitted for the consideration of His Excellency, which has induced me to write this privately to you. I have not mentioned the subject to any soul nor do I intend to as I know how easily the most absurd and extravagant expectations are built up in these matters.
Very sincerely Yours H.M. Lefroy
Roebuck Bay Expedition 1864-65, p. 389
The natives made an attack on the camp to-day. Particulars are:- At 3 p.m. I went away from the camp with one man for the purpose of getting some necessary pieces of timber for the boat. While in the act of cutting down a tree, I saw a kangaroo, fired at it, and broke one of its legs; I then run after it to catch it, and in doing so run through a group of natives, who were watching me from behind some low trees. Of course I allowed the kangaroo to escape, finding myself amongst at least 40 natives, and each one of them had one or more spears. I then went back to the camp. The natives came after me as far as the flat in which our depot is situate, where they had a consultation. After some time, about 16 of them left the rest and went behind the camp, as if for the plains. I saw what the result of their manoeuvring would be, so made my arrangements. Now the natives in front advanced in the direction of the well. I told them to lay down their spears, but they would not; so I would not allow them to go to the well, which is hardly 12 yards from the camp; besides I had sent two men to watch the natives that went behind the camp, and these men told me the natives were coming up as fast as they could. I ordered the natives in front to go away, but they would not, until I told one of the men to fire, which he did, and wounded one in the leg with a bullet, still they would not go. I then fired, and it had the desired effect of making them go in double quick time, shooting and hallooing, all the time throwing sand in the air – what they term “bollie make’em” or frightening the old boy away.
Gulliver in Dampier Land. Editorial, p. 516.
When Mr Lemuel Gulliver, on that voyage which led to his protracted residence in Lilliput, first saw the Australian Continent, it was in latitude 30 deg 2 min S, the precise latitude of Mount Lesueur. Thence his track was north, and from the map published in the small octavo edition of his travels of the edition of 1768, Lilliput would seem to be the mainland, and Blefuscu one of the Rosemary Islands in Dampier’s Archipelago. There, at all events, Dean Swift has placed the scene of the first stage of his immortal fiction, and has described, in the most life-like and truth- like manner, the most improbable and unreal persons and incidents. If we read the narrative of the stay of Gulliver in Lilliput, we are surprised and amused, not at the dwarfs, as dwarfs, but at the precise similarity of motives and actions which affect them equally with ourselves; fiction was never so near the truth, and but for the improbability that a race of men existed on the earth not more than six inches high, with all natural objects, animate and inanimate, on the same scale, it would be difficult, from mere internal evidence, to refute the story.
…
In 1839 Sir George Grey travelled over and described our Champion Bay country; and that he described it truthfully, subsequent experience has amply shown. In 1841 Captain Stokes, of the Beagle, and the late Mr Marshall Waller Clifton, acting on the mere evidence of their senses, published him as a sort of Munchausen, and declared to the world that what Grey had fancied to be little less than Eden, was something like the wilderness of Sinai. The stories of both Grey, and Stokes and his companion, were substantially true, for the same localities were seen at different seasons: by Grey, when the country was green with grass, after rain; by the others, when it was parched with drought. And as Mr Clifton inspected the country with a view to its occupation by the body of settlers who afterwards made their way to Australind, and that inspection induced him not to settle in Grey’s Eden, as he otherwise would have done, there were stronger reasons for believing Grey’s story to be false, than Clifton to be mistaken. Grey was then a very small man – a mere Captain in the Army: and as his journey over the country had been in a race for his life, he had the discredit of being something worse than a visionary, and that unfortunate incident of Stokes and Clifton seeing Grey’s country in the dry season, postponed its settlement for full ten years, and entailed its full measure of disaster on the Colony.
…
While the settlers did not find the dwarfs of Lilliput, we observe that the intellectual state of the current local leaders is truly Lilliputian.
T. Hooley. Overland Route Between the Murchison and Nickol Bay, p.688.
Perth, 16th January, 1868.
The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Perth.
Sir,
I have the honor to inform you of my safe arrival in Perth from the Nickol Bay
district, and that I have succeeded in procuring good permanent water in eight wells between the Geraldine Mine and the Lyons River. I tried several others, but either came upon salt water or solid granite rock, which we could not penetrate. I regret to say that owing to the absence of rain water I was unable to sink a well between the Lyons and Ashburton Rivers, where it had been my intention to sink two; but I discovered a spring, which will take the place of one. My charts and field book are coming by the Sea Spray from Champion Bay, and when they arrive I will furnish you with the positions of the wells and other watering places on the route. Any person knowing the country can now travel in the driest season from Champion Bay to Nickol Bay, and get water, twice every day for themselves and horses, in proof of which I have brought a team and three horses overland for the purpose of conveying stores, tools, &c I trust that His Excellency the Governor will be satisfied with my poor exertions for the benefit of the North District, and that he will sanction the payment of £150, due to me on the work.
I have the honor to be, &c, T. Hooley. Perth, 28th January, 1868.
R.J. Sholl. The North-West Settlements, p.685.
Government Resident’s Office, Roebourne, Sept 29, 1866.
The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, &c., Perth.
Sir, The Mystery from Fremantle arrived on the 4th September, and the Clarence
Since the date of my last letter, 13th July, No. 236, the exploring party, of whose departure for Exmouth Gulf and the Ashburton River I then advised you, has returned. Mr Broadhurst arrived in camp on the 7th ult., having left the others a few miles the other side of the Fortescue, and on the following day I rode to the Nicol, where I met the return expedition, and came back with the party to the Harding.
The exploration had not been successful as regards the discovery of a Harbor or available townsite at Exmouth Gulf, but the result of the expedition has been so far favourable that we are now in possession of more reliable information with respect to the course and position of the Ashburton and its tributaries, as well as of the adjacent country. The doubt that existed relative to the facilities offered for anchorage to coasters within the Ashburton at a short distance from its mouth, has also been satisfied, as the party crossed the river some three miles from the coast, the water not being higher than the horses’ shoulders, although the stream was swollen after recent rain.
The natives were troublesome at a spot about thirty miles from Exmouth Gulf, towards Globe Hill, but although many were seen on the Ashburton, they exhibited no signs of hostility.
On the 28th August another expedition was dispatched to the Upper Sherlock and Fortescue. It consisted of Mr T.C. Sholl, in charge, Mr McRae, Mr A.R. Richardson, police constable W. Jones, and native assistant Peter. The party was equipped for three weeks’, and well armed. The horses were supplied by Messrs Broadhurst and Anderson, the former gentleman furnishing six, and Mr Anderson two horses.
The object of the expedition was an examination of the country lying between the two rivers. The party returned on the 13th Sept., having traced the Fortescue nearly to its source. Some good country was seen, but the water supply was scanty. The pastoral land was superior to that on the Ashburton, but not of equal extent. No natives were seen on this occasion…
Note on the value of camels in Australian exploration, p. 754
By Colonel P. E. Warburton.
(Note appended to his Journal.)
It may perhaps be useful to others, should they have an opportunity of getting camels, to know that, in my opinion, they are of all animals the most suitable to Australian explorations. It is quite certain we never should have reached the western coast with any others. No doubt in some countries it may be expedient to have horses as well as camels, but this entirely depends upon the character of the country. No horses could have lived with us.
Camels alone can travel over any but a boggy country. Horses alone are useless where there is no feed and little water, but excellent where both [298] are abundant. I, however, have never found any such country.
Camels and horses may do well together, but the chances are they will be in each other’s way – that is, in dry, grassless country the camels get on and the horses cannot. Amongst salt lakes, swamps, &c., horses will do well and camels are useless, so they stop each other, unless the country is all through good for both – a very rare occurrence indeed.
Adelaide, 18th May, 1874.