The Explorers (52 page)

Between the camp and the well, which we easily found, there ran a well-beaten foot-pad, showing that this had been a favoured spot for some time past…We started at once to water the camels, which had had no drink since August 21st, a period of seventeen days, with the exception of two gallons apiece at Warri Well, where the parakeelya grew. By midnight all but three—Satan, Redleap and Misery—had drunk as much as they could hold. These three had to be content with a small amount, for we could not get more without digging out the well, and this we proceeded to do. The night was hot and cloudy, and constant puffs of wind made work by the light of candles so impossible that we had perforce to bear the extra heat of a blazing fire…This was the second night without rest or food, and no more than a mouthful of water each, for on arrival we had given what our tanks contained to the thirsty camels…

It soon became clear that, labour as we would, the hole would yield but little so, leaving the rest to work, I took Warri, and continued the search for the natives…After a long, tedious day of tracking, we found ourselves back at our own camp. The natives—two bucks, two gins and three piccaninnies—travelled north to a dry well, and there split, the men going one way and the rest another. We chose the bucks to follow, and presently the rest joined in, and the whole family swung round until close to our camp. We could, by their tracks, see where they had herded together in fear under a beef-wood tree not one hundred yards from us. Just before sunset we again set forth, taking Czar and Satan as riding-camels, and were lucky in picking up tracks going in a fresh direction before night fell.

We camped on the tracks, and ran them in the morning, noticing two interesting things on the way: the first, several wooden sticks on which were skewered dried fruits, not unlike gooseberries; these were hidden in a bush and are remarkable, for they not only show that the natives have some forethought, but that they trade in edible goods as well as in weapons and ornaments. These fruits are from the
Solanum sodomeum
, and were only seen by us near the Sturt Creek (300 miles away).
^†
The second, little heaps of the roots of a tree (known to me only as pine-mulga) stacked together, which had been sucked for water; we tried some but without result, and the tree the natives had made use of did not seem to be different from others of its kind. This showed us, too, that they must be dry, and probably had had no water since our arrival at their well.

About midday we rode right on to their camp without warning. Again the scrub befriended them, but in spite of this I could have got ahead of them on Satan had his nose-line not snapped. Determined not to be baulked, I jumped down and gave chase, old Czar lumbering along behind, and Warri shouting with glee and excitement, ‘Chase ‘em—we catch 'em,' as if we were going through all this trouble for pleasure. Happy Warri! He never seemed to see gravity in anything.

It is almost incredible how quickly and completely a blackfellow can disappear; as if in a moment the whole family was out of sight. One black spot remained visible, and on it I centred my energies. Quickly overhauling, I overtook it, and found it to be an old and hideous gin, who, poor thing! had stopped behind to pick up some dingo puppies.

Sorry as I was to be rude to a lady, I had to make her prisoner, but not without a deal of trouble. ‘Dah, dah, dah!' she shouted, scratching, biting, spitting, and tearing me with her horrid long nails, and using, I feel sure, the worst language that her tongue could command. I had to carry this unsavoury object back to her camp, she clutching at every bush we passed, when her hands were not engaged in clawing and scratching me. After her anger had somewhat abated she pointed out a rock-hole from which they had got their water. Securing the woman with a light rope, I put her in Warri's charge, who kept watch above, lest the natives should return and surprise us, whilst I descended the rock-hole to see what supply was there. A little water was visible, which I quickly baled into the canvas bags we had brought for the purpose.

The bottom of the hole was filled in with dead sticks, leaves, the rotting bodies of birds and lizards, bones of rats and dingoes. Into this ghastly mass of filth I sunk up to my middle, and never shall I forget the awful odour that arose as my feet stirred up the mess. Nevertheless water was there, and thankful I was to find it, even to drink it as it was. After half an hour's work in this stinking pit, sick from the combination of smells—distinguishable above every other being the all-pervading perfume of aboriginals—I was rewarded by some twelve gallons of water, or, more properly speaking, liquid.

I decided to take the gin back with us, as it had been clear to me for some time past that without the aid of natives we could not hope to find water. With our small caravan it was impossible to push on and trust to chance, or hope to reach the settled country still nearly 500 miles ahead in a bee-line. Even supposing the camels could do this enormous stage, it was beyond our power to carry sufficient water for ourselves. The country might improve or might get worse; in such weather as we now experienced no camel could go for more than a few days without water.

I felt myself justified, therefore, in unceremoniously making captives from what wandering tribes we might fall in with. And in light of after events I say unhesitatingly that, without having done so, and without having to a small extent used rough treatment to some natives so caught, we could not by any possibility have succeeded in crossing the desert, and should not only have lost our own lives, but possibly those of others who would have made search for us after.

‘A man arms himself where his armour is weakest', so I have read; that, however, is not my case. I am not justifying myself to myself, or defending a line of action not yet assailed. I write this in answer to some who have unfavourably criticised my methods, and to those I would say, Tut yourselves in our position, and when sitting in a comfortable armchair at home, in the centre of civilisation, do not, you who have never known want or suffered hardship, be so ready to judge others who, hundreds of miles from their fellow-men, threatened every day with possible death from thirst, were doing their best to lay bare the hidden secrets of an unknown region, as arid and desolate as any the world can show.'

On starting back for camp the gin refused to walk or move in any way, so we had to pack her on Czar, making her as comfortable as possible on Ward's blankets, with disastrous results thereto. Arrived at camp, I found that the rock-hole was bottomed, and now quite dry. Straining the putrid water brought by me through a flannel shirt, boiling it, adding ashes and Epsom salts, we concocted a serviceable beverage. This, blended with the few gallons of muddy water from the well, formed our supply, which we looked to augment under the guidance of the gin. After completing our work the well presented the appearance of a large rock-hole, thirty feet, deep, conical in shape, of which one half of the contents had been dug out. This confirmed my opinion that the native wells of these regions are nothing more than holes in the bed-rock, which have been covered over and in by the general deposit of sand. I had no time to observe for latitude at this spot, the position of which is fixed merely by dead reckoning. The rock-hole lies eight miles from it to the
SE
by
E
, and has no guide whatever to its situation. I christened the well ‘Patience Well', and I think it was well named.

From September 8th, 9 a.m. until September 12th, 12.30 a.m. we had worked almost continuously, only taking in turn what sleep we could snatch when one could be spared; and the result, 140 gallons as sum total, inclusive of mud and other matter.

We left Patience Well on the 12th, at 10 a.m., taking the woman with us. Breaden was the only one in whose charge she would consent to be at all calm; to him therefore was allotted the duty of looking after her. At eleven we reached the dry well to which Warri and I had tracked the natives. The water we were forced to use was so uninviting that I decided to make another effort to find a supply in this locality. The gin was of no use whatever, and would only repeat whatever we said to her—
gabbi
, which King Billy had understood, was wasted on her. ‘
Gabbi, gabhi
,' she repeated, waving her arm all round the horizon.
^†

Leaving the rest to bottom the dry well, which might have water lower down, Warri and I again started off on the tracks of a buck, and these we followed due north on foot for four and a half hours, hoping every moment to come on a well. Soon after starting, an apparently old track joined the other, and together they marched still north. Presently the old tracks changed into fresh ones, and close by I found two rough sandals made of strips of bark. One I kept, the other was nearly worn out. There was no change in the dreary appearance of the country; through scrubs, over stones and sand we held our way, until Warri, who was now a little way behind, called, ‘No good, no more walk!' I could see the poor boy was knocked up, and felt little better myself; to go on did not guarantee water, and might end in disaster, so after a short rest we retraced our steps.

The night was now dark and oppressive, so hatless and shirtless we floundered through the spinifex, nearly exhausted from our walk, following so close on the last few days' work. I believe that but for Warri I should have been ‘bushed'; my head was muddled and the stars not too clear. What a joyful sight met our eyes as we crested a rise of sand—a sight almost as reviving as the food and water we so anxiously looked forward to. Tongues of flame shot up in the air, a fire lit by our mates, but showing that, in spite of Warri's instinct, we had not been walking in quite the right direction.

No welcome news greeted our arrival—the well was dry, and the native obdurate. We all agreed she was useless, and since she refused all forms of nutriment I feared she would die on our hands, so she regained her liberty, and fled away with a rapidity not expected in one of her years.

^†
Solanum sodomeum
: a kind of bush tomato.

^†
King Billy: an Aborigine captured by Carnegie earlier in the expedition.

L
AWRENCE
W
ELLS

Dried Like a Mummy, 1897

Two young men, Charles Wells and George Jones, joined Albert Calvert's 1896 expedition to northern Australia, and never returned. Their mummified bodies, along with a pathetic notebook documenting their last days, were finally found the following year in the desert to the north of Separation Well, at the centre of the most forbidding part of Western Australia. A map of the area shows a trackless tangle of sand dunes, the well a tiny pinprick in the middle of nothingness.

The bodies were found by a party led by Lawrence Wells, Charles' cousin, who had sent the two men out into the desert to make their own discoveries. Despite the grief he must have felt at seeing his cousin's remains, his treatment of Aborigines was so abominable it is hard to empathise with him. We join the search party in the Great Sandy Desert.

Monday 24 May—Started Bejah with the camels, accompanied by Sandy and the tracker Ned, for Joanna Spring. Taking Ned's horse, I accompanied Mr Ord, Nicholson, and Bob. Bearing north 152° east in the direction where smokes were seen yesterday, we travelled over wretched desert sand ridges for ten miles, when smoke began to rise in several directions: one, which we made for, immediately on our bearing. Getting close to it, Bob crawled up a sand ridge to ‘look out', and returning reported two natives some distance east along the ridge, which we followed down, and crossing over it, galloped down upon them, but discovered they were two gins, the elder almost a dwarf about thirty years of age, and the other a young gin, and good-looking for a native.

They were very frightened at first, but the younger soon recovered and, in answer to our inquiries, pointed on the course we were taking for a water called Djillill, thirteen miles from our camp, and took us to it. Here we surprised a wizard or doctor rejoicing in the name of Yallamerri. He rushed out of a bough wurley with a spear, shaking it at Bob who covered him with this rifle, and would have fired but for Mr Ord, who called to him to desist. There were also four small boys at the water. The wise man could not understand the horses, and was trembling with fear.

Searching the camp, we found several pieces of iron, including a large piece of a part of the bow of a camel riding saddle. It was sharpened at one end, evidently for use as an axe. Questioning the native about this, he said, ‘
Purrunng
whitefellow', pointing south-westerly. Noting smokes a few miles
WNW
, we took the wise man, gins and children in that direction. The old fellow pleaded lameness, but, being prodded occasionally with a spear, he soon forgot he was lame. He was most anxious to go for a number of smokes where he pointed saying, ‘
Jibir
' and counting ten on his fingers; but as we did not want ten more natives, we made him go for a single smoke bearing north 280° east for four miles, where we found a native, whom with Yallamerri's assistance we enticed to come up to us.