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 theILLUSTRATED TRAVELS, I gave an account of a terrible cyclone whichvisited the north-eastern coast of Queensland in the autumn of 1866, nearly destroying the small settlements of Cardwell and Townsville, anddoing an infinity of damage by uprooting heavy timber, blocking up thebush roads, etc. Amongst other calamities attendant on this visitationwas the loss of a small coasting schooner, named the 'Eva', bound fromCleveland to Rockingham Bay, with cargo and passengers. Only those whohave visited Australia can picture to themselves the full horror of acaptivity amongst the degraded blacks with whom this unexploreddistrict abounds; and a report of white men having been seen amongstthe wild tribes in the neighbourhood of the Herbert River induced theinhabitants of Cardwell to institute a search party to rescue the crewof the unhappy schooner, should they still be alive; or to gain somecertain clue to their fate, should they have perished. In my former narrative I described our exploration of the HerbertRiver, lying at the south end of Rockingham Channel, with its fruitlessissue; 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 onlyas regards the wild nature of the country traversed, but also asshowing the anxiety manifested by the inhabitants of these remotedistricts to clear up the fate of their unhappy brethren. I may alsohere mention, for the information of such of my readers as may not haveread the preceding portions of the narrative, that Cardwell is the nameof a small township situated on the shores of Rockingham Bay; and thatTownsville is a settlement some hundred miles further south, known alsoas 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 assembledat Cleveland Bay, and intended coming up in a small steamer to thesouth end of Hinchinbrook, to assist in the search for the missingcrew. As it would be of the utmost importance that both parties shouldco-operate, I sent my boat down to the mouth of the channel, with anote to the leader of the expedition announcing our intention oflanding on the north end of the island and working towards the centre;and requesting them to scour their end, and then push northward, whenwe should most probably meet in the middle of the island. The boat hadorders to wait at the bar until the arrival of the steamer, and then toreturn with all speed. In the meanwhile, the 'Daylight' wasdischarging her cargo, and we were making preparations for what we wellknew would prove a most arduous undertaking; the sequel will show thatwe did not overrate the difficulties before us. At the risk of being tedious, I must explain to the reader some of thepeculiarities of Hinchinbrook Island. Its length is a little short offorty miles, and its shape a rude triangle, the apex of which is at thesouth, and the north side forming the southern portion of RockinghamBay. Now this north side is by no means straight, but is curved outinto two or three bays of considerable extent, and in one of them standtwo islands named Gould and Garden Islands. The latter of these wasour favourite resort for picnics, for the dense foliage afforded goodshade, and, when the tide was low, we were enabled to gather mostdelicious oysters from some detached rocks. Gould Island isconsiderably larger; but, rising in a pyramid from the sea, and beingcovered with loose boulders, it was most tedious climbing. From thetownship we could, with our glasses, see canoes constantly passing andrepassing between these two islands; and as the 'Daylight' had aparticularly heavy cargo this trip, and would not be clear for the nexttwo days, we made up our minds to search the islands, and drive theblacks on to Hinchinbrook, so that one of our parties must stumbleacross them when we swept it. This may seem to the reader unnecessarytrouble, but most of our party were conversant with the habits of theblacks and their limited method of reasoning; and we judged it probablethat the Herbert River gins would have at once acquainted theHinchinbrook blacks with our unceremonious visit, and warned them thatwe should probably soon look them up also. Now on the receipt of thisunwelcome intelligence, the first thing that would strike the blackswould be the facilities for concealment afforded by Gould or GardenIslands, more particularly had they any captives; and they would say tothemselves that we should certainly overlook these two out-of-the-waylittle spots; and when we were busy on Hinchinbrook, they could easilypaddle themselves and their prisoners to some of the more distant chainof islands, where they could lie by until all fear of pursuit was past. Such was the opinion both of the troopers and of the experiencedbushmen; and as we were fully resolved to leave them no loophole forescape, we jumped into our boat and pulled gently over to Garden Island. It was about seven o'clock in the morning when we started, sixstrong--four whites, and Cato, and Ferdinand--well armed, and with agood supply of provisions. The sun was already very hot, and the watersmooth as glass, save where the prow of the boat broke the stillsurface into a tiny ripple, which continued plainly visible half a mileastern. I find it difficult to bring before the reader the thousandcurious objects that met us on our way. The sullen crocodile baskingin the sun, sank noiselessly; a splash would be heard, and a four feetalbicore would fling himself madly into the air, striving vainly toelude the ominous black triangle that cut the water like a knife closein his rear. Small chance for the poor fugitive, with the ravenousshark following silent and inexorable. We lay on our oars and watchedthe 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 hemay. Anon the springs become more feeble, the pursuer's tail partlyappears as he pushes forward with redoubled vigour, a faint splash isheard, the waters curl into an eddy, and the monster sinks noiselesslyto enjoy his breakfast in the cooler depths beneath. And now we cometo a sand bank running out some miles or so into the bay, and on whichthe water is less than three fathoms. Here the surface is broken byhuge black objects, coming clumsily to the top, shooting out a jet ofspray, and again disappearing. We let the boat glide gently alonguntil she rests motionless above the bank, and stooping over the sidewith our faces close to the water, and sheltered by our hands, we canpeer down into the placid depths, and see the huge animals grazing onthe submarine vegetation with which their favourite feeding-place isthickly overgrown. But what animal is he talking about? the reader willask. It is the dugong ('Halicore Australis'), or sea-cow, from whenceis extracted an oil equal to the cod-liver as regards its medicinalqualities, and far superior to it in one great essential, for insteadof a nauseous disagreeable flavour, it tastes quite pleasantly. Itfrequents the whole of the north-eastern coast of Australia, and whenthe qualities of the oil first became known, it was eagerly soughtafter by invalids who could not overcome their repugnance to thecod-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 neverquite certain what they were pouring down the throats of their unhappypatients. Thus the oil lost its good name, though I am convinced frompersonal observation that fresh, pure dugong is quite equal, if notsuperior, in nourishing qualities to cod-liver oil, and do not doubtthat a time will come when it will enter largely into thePharmacopoeia. The animal itself is so peculiar, that a briefdescription of it may not be here amiss. Its favourite haunts are baysinto which streams empty themselves, and where the water is from two tofive fathoms in depth, feeding on the 'Algae' of the submerged banks, for which purpose the upper lip is very large, thick, and as it turnsdown suddenly at right angles with the head, it much resembles anelephant's trunk shorn off at the mouth. Its length averages fromeight to fourteen feet; there is no dorsal fin, and the tail ishorizontal; colour blue, and white beneath. Its means of propulsionare two paddles, with which it also crawls along the bottom, andbeneath which are situated the udders, with teats exactly like a cow's. Its flesh is far from bad, resembling lean beef in appearance, thoughhardly so good to the taste, and the skin can be manufactured intogelatine. I have often wondered that this most useful animal was notoftener captured. A fishing establishment with a good boat, a trainedcrew, and proper appliances for extracting the oil, could not fail toreturn a large profit to the proprietors, and every now and then theycould kill a whale, one or more of which could be frequently seendisporting 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 along sandy spit that stretched into the sea. Leaving one man asboat-keeper, we spread ourselves into line, and regularly beat thelittle island from end to end, but without finding a single black; wecould, however, see their smoke-signals arising from Gould Island, andobserved several heavily-laden canoes making the best of their waytowards Hinchinbrook. Our search having been unsuccessful, we hurrieddown to the boat, with the intention of cutting the fugitives off, butfound to our disgust that the tide had fallen so low during our absencethat our united strength was insufficient to move the boat, so we wereperforce compelled to remain until the return of the water. This didnot in reality so much signify, indeed, some of the party were ratheraverse to our plan of intercepting the canoes, arguing that if closelypressed, the blacks might make an end of their captives. However thismight be, there was no help for it, we were stuck fast until theafternoon, so had to summon such philosophy as we possessed, and whileaway the time as best we could. The boat's sail, spread under theshade of a tree, kept the intense heat a little at bay until afterdinner, and this most essential part of the day's programme have beendone ample justice to, and the pipes lighted and smoked out, wewandered about the long space left bare by the tide, amusing ourselvesby collecting oysters, cowrie shells, and periwinkles. The way we captured the two latter was by turning over the rocks, tothe under sides of which we found them adhering in great numbers, sticking on like snails to a garden wall. Some of the cowries werevery beautiful, particularly those of a deep brown colour approachingto black. This kind, however, were rather rare, and the lucky finderof a large one excited some envy. These beautiful little shells are ofall sizes, from half an inch to two inches in length. When the stoneis first turned over, the fish is almost out of its home, and thebright colour of the shell is hidden by a fleshy integument, but a fewseconds suffice for it to withdraw within doors, and then the mottledpattern is seen in its full beauty. The best way to get the shellwithout injury to its gloss, is to keep the fish alive in a bucket ofsalt water, until you reach home, and then to dig a hole a couple offeet deep, and bury them. In a month or so, they may be taken up, andwill be found quite clean, free from smell, and as bright in hue asduring life. I have tried boiling them, heaping them in the sun, andvarious 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 cookperiwinkles--and there are many worse things, when you are certain oftheir freshness--let them remember that they should be boiled in 'saltwater'. This is to give them toughness; if fresh water is used, however expert the operator may be with his pin, he will fail toextract 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 acertain 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 reachedby wading, the water being little more than knee-deep. Its base wasliterally covered with oysters of the finest quality. The mere task ofgetting there was one of considerable difficulty, for the rock was asslippery as glass, and whenever you got a fall--which happened on anaverage every five minutes--bleeding hands and jagged knees boretestimony to a couch of growing bivalves being anything but as soft asa feather bed; also the oysters cling so fast that they might be takenfor component parts of the rock, and only a cold chisel and mallet willinduce them to relinquish their firm embrace. Three or four of theparty had ventured out, and we had secured a large sackful, after whichwe all retired to the tent, except one of our number, who, having alady-love in Cardwell with an inordinate affection for shell-fish, lingered to fill a haversack for his 'inamorata'. We were comfortablysmoking our pipes and watching with satisfaction the tide rising higherand higher, when a faint "coo-eh" from the direction of the rockreached us, followed by another and another and another, each one moreshrill 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 atwhich stood the Sail Rock. The tide had now risen considerably, andthe water between the rock and ourselves was over four feet deep, andincreasing in depth each moment. We saw poor Wordsworth clinging on tothe 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 onehand, he pointed to the water between himself and the island. "By Jove!" cried the pilot, "he's bailed up by a shark, look at hissprit-sail!" and following his finger we saw an enormous black finsailing gently to and fro, as regularly and methodically as a veteransentry paces the limits of his post. "Stick tight, old man! we'll bring the boat, " and leaving the pilot tokeep 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 shewas immovable, and every moment the tide was rising, the little ripplesexpending themselves in bubbly foam against the thirsty sand. Westrained, we tugged, we prised with levers, but unavailingly, the boatseemed as if she had taken root there and would not budge an inch. Ahappy thought struck me all of a sudden, as a reminiscence of a similarcase 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 Ihad 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 thelooms. "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 thefriendly rollers, the heavy boat trundled into the water. The pull was long, at least it seemed to us long, for we had to roundthe sandy spit before we could head towards the rock, and nearly got onshore in trying to make too close a shave. We could hear the crack ofthe pilot's carbine every few minutes, borne down to us by thefreshening breeze, and the agonising "coo-ehs" of poor Wordsworth, whose ankles were already hidden by the advancing waters; added tothis, we had only two oars, and the wind, now pretty strong, was deadin our teeth. I was steering, and Jim was standing up in the bows withhis carbine for a shot, if the shark offered such an opportunity. Aswe neared the rock we could distinctly see the black fin within sixfeet of the narrow ledge on which the poor fellow was standing, andonly when we approached to within a couple of boats' lengths, did theferocious brute sail sullenly out to sea, pursued by a harmless bulletfrom Jim's rifle. Poor Wordsworth dropped into the boat fainting fromterror, exhaustion, and loss of blood, for, although he was unconsciousof it all the time, in his convulsive grip, the sharp oyster-shells hadcut his hands to the very bone. A good glass of grog and some hottea--the bushman's infallible remedy--soon brought him round, but thescars on his hands and knees will accompany him to his grave. Heafterwards described the glances that the shark threw at him asperfectly diabolical, and confessed that he it not been for the cheeryhails of the pilot, he should most certainly have relinquished hishold, and met with a death too horrible to contemplate. It was now about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the boat beinglaunched, we resolved to reach Gould Island before dark. The tent wassoon struck, the provisions stowed away, the priming of the carbineslooked to afresh, and in a few minutes we were sweeping across thesmall belt of water that separated the two islands. We approached theshore with caution, for, as I mentioned before, the sides of GouldIsland are everywhere very steep, and hostile blacks, by simplydislodging some of the loose masses of rock, could easily have smashedthe boat and its crew to pieces without exposing themselves to theslightest danger. Noiselessly, and with every faculty painfully alert, we closed the land, sprang on to the rocks, and at once set about thetedious task of breasting the hill. Hill climbing, under the verticalsun of North Australia, is by no means an enjoyable undertaking, moreparticularly when the loose shale and rock gives way at every stride, bringing down an avalanche of rubbish on the heads of the rearmost ofthe party. Encumbered with our carbines, we made but slow progress, and it was nearly six o'clock before we attained the summit, fromwhence we saw several canoes making their way with full speed towardsHinchinbrook. "So far then, so good, " we said; "we have made certain that none of therascals are lurking about the two islands, and we are sure to get themnow, when we sweep Hinchinbrook. " We had now done everything that was possible until the 'Daylight' hadfinished unloading, and so spread ourselves out about the island to seeif the blacks had left any of their curious implements behind them. Wewere in no hurry to get back to the township, so purposed having supperwhere we were, and pulling back in the cool of the evening, by thelight of the moon, which was just then in full glory. We found plentyof traces of the blacks, the embers of their fires even still glowing, but they had carried off everything with them, and no trophies crownedour 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 naturalhistory that I am tempted to describe it. In rummaging about, I cameto a place strewed with old bones, shells, parrots' feathers, etc. , close to which stood a platform of interwoven sticks. I was terriblypuzzled at first to account for the presence of this miniature rag andbone depot, and my astonishment culminated when Ferdinand informed methat-- "Bird been make it that fellow; plenty d--d thief that fellow, steallike it pipe, like it anything. " It then flashed across me that I had fallen in with the "run" of thebower-bird, of which I had so often heard, and had so often sought forwithout success. The satin bower-bird ('Ptilonorhynchus holosericus') belongs to thefamily of starlings, and though tolerably common in New South Wales, isbut a rare visitor to the hotter climate of Northern Queensland. Theplumage of the adult male is of a glossy satin-like purple, appearingalmost black, whilst the females and the young are all of anolive-greenish colour. The peculiarity for which this bird isgenerally known, is its habit of constructing a sort of arbour of drytwigs, to act as a playground. These bowers are usually made in somesecluded place in the bush--not infrequently under the shady boughs ofa large tree--and vary considerably in size, according to the number ofbirds resorting to them, for they seem to be joint-stock affairs, andare not limited to one pair. The bower itself is somewhat difficult todescribe, and a better idea can be formed from the engraving, or byvisiting the British Museum, where several are shown, than I can everhope to set before the reader in words. A number of sticks, mostartistically woven together, form the base, from the centre of whichthe walls of the structure arise. These walls are made of lightertwigs, and considerable pains must be taken in their selection, forthey all have an inward curve, which in some "runs" cause the sidesalmost to meet at the top. The degree of forethought that theseself-taught architects possess is strikingly exemplified in the factthat, whilst building the walls, any forks or inequalities are turned'outwards', so as to offer no impediment to their free passage whenskylarking (if it is not an Irishism, using such an expression withregard to a starling) and chasing each other through and through thebower, to which innocent recreations, according to the testimony ofMessrs. 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, andscattered about the ground in its vicinity, are found bleached bones, broken oyster, snail, and cowrie shells, and not unfrequently, in themore civilised districts, pieces of coloured rag, and fragments ofribbon pilfered from some neighbouring station, for, in search ofattractive objects to decorate his playground, the bower-bird entirelyignores the eighth commandment, and, I fear, justifies the somewhatstrong 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 smallarticle of value is missing, and often succeed in recovering the lostobject. I find that I have been using the pronoun 'he' hitherto, whilstdescribing this insatiable love of finery, but on reflection I cannotbut think that I am utterly wrong, and that when more is known of thedomestic arrangements of the bower-bird, it will be found that the ladyalone is responsible for this meretricious taste, and that the poor'he', whom I have so unblushingly accused, is in reality gatheringberries and fruit for the little ones, guiltless of the slightestinclination towards picking and stealing. These birds live and thrive in confinement, and busy themselvesimmensely in the construction of runs, but they never multiply whilstcaptive. Indeed, the place and manner of their breeding is as yet amystery, for, so skilful are they in concealment, that even thelynx-eyed blacks have failed to discover their next. We found the descent to the boat incomparably preferable to the tediousclimb of two hours previous, and, thanks to the promise of a "nobblerof rum each, " Cato and Ferdinand transported my precious "run" insafety to the stern-sheets; the sun having then sunk in crimson beautybehind the coast-range, and the breeze having fallen to the faintestwhisper, we shoved off, and pulled leisurely over the calm bay toCardwell, 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 waslying motionless as a mirror, with a rosy hue thrown across its placidsurface, when I awoke on the following morning, stiff from the clamberof the preceding day. The short half-hour before the rays of the sunhave 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 ofman. 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 itwas only by a stretch of the imagination that I could say I wasincluded within the village boundary. On the side farthest from thesettlement 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 Ihad made for the growth of maize, sweet potatoes, etc. Now thisclearing had many enemies, and of many species, ranging from featheredand furred to biped. The cockatoos came down in such clouds as almostto whiten the ground, and made short work of the maize; the bandicootsand the township pigs dug up and devoured the sweet potatoes, just asthey were becoming large enough for use--commend me to yourhalf-starved pig to find out in a moment where the juiciest and finestesculent lies buried--and the chattering little opossums stripped thepeach-trees of their wealth, in which labour of love they were eagerlyassisted by the flying-foxes during the night, whilst any that hadescaped these nocturnal depredators became the spoil of two or threeidle boys, who loafed about all day, seeking mischief, and, as alwayshappens, succeeding in finding it, even in this sequestered region. From this it will be seen that my efforts in the direction of husbandrywere attended with some difficulty, and, despite a real liking for theanimal world, I had imbibed a holy hatred of that particular section ofits society which insisted on devouring my substance under my verynose, only retreating to the nearest tree until my back was turned, andthen resuming operations with unblushing effrontery. By way of a mildvengeance, I had got into the habit of coming out every morningdirectly I awoke, with my gun, and easing off both barrels amongst thecockatoos, wallabies, or whatever particular class of robbers happenedto be afield at the moment--a practice which served as a safety-valvefor my injured feelings, whilst at the same time it provided me with acockatoo pie, or a good bowl of kangaroo-tail soup. Once, in my indignation at finding my palings broken down, and somesugar-cane, that I had been most carefully rearing, rooted up anddestroyed, while the author of the mischief, a huge sow, innocent ofthe 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 mywishes), stood gloating over the havoc she had caused. Then, in mywrath, I had hastily loaded a carbine with a handful of salt, andprematurely converted a portion of my enemy's flank into bacon; buteven this just act of retribution was not to be accomplished withoutfurther loss to myself, for on receipt of my hint to move on, hersowship dashed straight ahead, and brought down a whole panel of myfence about her ears, owing to which the village cows, which I hadoften observed throwing longing glances over the paling at my bananas, doubtless apprised of their opportunity by the evil-minded andmalicious sow, took a mean advantage of the weakness of my defences, and on the same night devoured everything in the garden that theythought worthy of their attention. Though I had now become hardened to the many injuries thus heaped uponme, and had almost discontinued all attempts at cultivation, I stillretained the habit of stepping out into the verandah every morning withmy 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 ofunusual splendour. The tall gum-trees, with their naked stems, andcurious hanging leaves that exasperate the heated traveller by throwingthe scantiest of shadows, glistened dew-beaded in the rising sun. Thelaughing jackass, perched upon a bare limb, was awaking the forestechoes with his insane fits of laughter, alternating from agood-humoured chuckle to the frenzied ravings of a despairing maniac. Suddenly ceasing, he would dart down upon some hapless lizard, tooearly astir for its own safety, and, with his writhing prey in hisbill, would fly to some other branch, and after swallowing his captive, burst forth into a yell of self-gratulation even-more fiendish thanbefore. The delicate little "paddy melon, " a small species ofkangaroo, turned his gracefully-formed little head, beautiful as afawn's, and, startled at the strange figure in the verandah, stoodhesitatingly for a few seconds, and then, bending forward, bounded intothe scrub, the noise caused by the flapping of its tail being audiblelong after the little animal itself was lost to sight. The whitecockatoos, alarmed by the outcry of the sentry--for, like the Englishrooks, they always tell off some of their number to keep alook-out--who with sulphur-coloured crest, erect and outstretched neck, kept up a constant cry of warning, rose from the maize patch, thespotless white of their plumage glancing in the sun, and forming abeautiful contrast to the pale straw-colour of the under portion oftheir extended pinions. With discordant screams they circle about, asif a little undetermined, and then perch upon the topmost branches ofthe tallest trees, where they screech, flap their wings, and engage ina 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, singularlydepressing in its effect, and a string of some dozen black cockatoosflit from tree to tree, the brilliant scarlet band on the tail of themale flashing as he alternately expands and contracts it, to keep hisbalance whilst extracting the sweets from the flowers of the'Eucalypti'. Few things present so great a contrast as the cries ofthese two birds--of the same family, and so alike in everything butcolour--and yet both are disagreeable: that of the white variety fromits piercing harshness, and that of the black from an indefinablesensation 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 palingand looking into the clearing--for although my gun is in my hand, it isloaded with ball cartridge, and I do not fire--the nimble littlebandicoot scuttled away towards his hollow log, looking so uncommonlylike a well-fattened rat, that I mentally wonder how I could ever havehad the courage to eat one, and a flight of rainbow-hued Blue Mountainparrots, who have held their ground to the last, whirr up with aprodigious flapping of wings, and, alighting on a gum-tree, can be seenhanging about the blossoms, head downwards, sucking out the honey withtheir uncouth beaks and awkward little tongues, which seem but badlyadapted to such a delicate task. But I find I am digressing terribly, and the gloomy winter days of England, which make the recollection of abright tropical morning so agreeable a task to contemplate, must be myexcuse. After breakfast, I hurried down to the beach to see if Tom Frewin, theskipper of the little cutter, 'Daylight', would be likely to keep hispromise, and have the vessel ready to start by noon. I found himbusily engaged with his not over-numerous crew--for it consisted onlyof a man and a boy, besides himself, though Mrs. Tom, who also lived inthe tiny craft, ought to be counted as no inconsiderable addition tothe vessel's complement, for she did the cooking, and on occasionscould take the tiller and steer as cunningly as the gallant Tomhimself. I found him hard at work hurrying the cargo over the side, assisted by the townspeople, who all showed the greatest anxiety thatno time should be lost in setting out for the relief of the shipwreckedmen. Everything thus pointing to the probability of our getting awaythat afternoon, the provision question had to be next considered, forthe party would be numerous, and the exact time our expedition wouldtake could scarcely be correctly estimated. We knew Government wouldrefund us for any reasonable outlay, and so determined our searchshould not be cut short by any scarcity of food, and our fears ofovershooting the mark and laying in more than we could consume, wereallayed by Mr. McB--, the store-keeper who generously offered to supplyus, and to take back, without charge, anything that remained at theexpiration of the trip. All difficulties being thus disposed of, wewere left at liberty to make our own private arrangements, until oneo'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 werecompelled to limit to ten men, inclusive of the native police. Theseconsisted of the pilot and his crew of two men, Mr. Dunmore, theofficer in command of the police, with the two troopers, Ferdinand andCato, three volunteers, and myself. Where all were anxious and willingto aid in the good task, it would have been invidious to select, andthe 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 itwas a 'she', reader as the sequel will prove. About eighteen monthsbefore, the troopers had visited Hinchinbrook Island, to recover stolenproperty, and in one of the native camps had found an exceedinglypretty gin of some fourteen summers. The personal charms of this coynymph of the forest had proved too much for the susceptible heart ofFerdinand, who, regarding her as his lawful prize, had borne her, irateand struggling, to the boat, from whence she was in due coursetransported to the police camp (mounted on the pommel of the saddle infront of the adventurous swain), where, in a very short time she becameperfectly at home, and under the name of Lizzie, made Ferdinand aremarkably pleasant wife. Certainly the blacks are a curious race, the like of which was neverbefore seen under the sun. For two days after Lizzie's arrival incamp, she refused to speak or eat; for the next two days she ateeverything she could lay her hands on, but still kept an unbrokensilence; 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 ofHinchinbrook vituperation. On the seventh day, as if by magic, shebrought her tirade to a close, went down to the creek with the othergins to fetch water, cooked her husband's supper, appeared perfectlyreconciled to her change of life, and henceforth, from her sharpness, the aptitude with which she picked up the broken English in which theofficers communicate with the troopers, and her great knowledge of thesurrounding country, she became a most useful acquisition to the camp, and Dunmore used frequently to say that Lizzie was worth three extratroopers. One of the most extraordinary things about her--and she wasnot unique, for all the Australian blacks are alike constituted in thisrespect--was the facility with which she seemed to rupture all thenatural ties of kinship and affection. Her own tribe--her father, mother, sisters, all were apparently wiped from her mind as completelyas 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, withwhich the taffrail of the 'Daylight' was armed, echoed over the bay, and announced to the party that all was in readiness. In a very fewminutes we were all mustered on the beach, looking, I must confess, remarkably like brigands, in our slouching and high-crowned Californianhats, coatless, and with shirt-sleeves either tucked up or cut offabove the elbow, which, with the carbine that each man carried in hishand, and the revolvers, knives, etc. , stuck into the waist-belts, madeour 'tout ensemble' such, that I am convinced no honest citizen, with aplethoric purse, who saw us thus for the first time, would have feltquite at his ease in our company. With a ringing cheer from thetownspeople assembled on the beach, under the shade of the big trees, we shoved off, and, manned by willing hands, the cable rattled in, in afashion that must have astonished the old windlass, accustomed to theleisurely proceedings that usually obtained on board the 'Daylight'. The sail was soon clapped on, the little vessel heeled over to thesea-breeze now setting in pretty stiffly, and ten minutes afterquitting the shore we were down in the hold, the captain and his ladyoccupying the cabin. Making our preparations for the night, whichconsisted, I may mention, mainly of spreading out our blankets, whilstthe 'Daylight', with the Government whale-boat towing astern, wasbeating up against the adverse wind for the north end of Hinchinbrook, where we purposed anchoring for the night, and commencing our search onthe following morning. What with a contrary wind and tide, it was not until past ten o'clockthat we glided into the little bay, and, shortening sail as noiselesslyas possible, let down the anchor by hand to avoid the rattling of thechain through the hawsehole, which, in the stillness of the night, would have certainly reached the keen ears of the blacks, were thereany in the neighbourhood, and caused them to shift their quarters. Thelittle inlet or creek in which we now found ourselves, was entirely newto us, and we were indebted to Lizzie for the discovery of such a quietretreat. With straining eyes, our novel pilotess stood at the heel ofthe bowsprit, extending an arm in the direction she wished the vesselto go, and, her task completed, she wrapped her blanket round heractive little body, scarcely shrouded in the striped twill shirt thatconstituted her sole attire, and, sinking down in the waterways underthe 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, includingLizzie, with the exception of the pilot and his two men. He was toreturn to the 'Daylight' after having put us ashore, and, getting underweigh as soon as the wind was strong enough, was to take her round to asmall inlet on the island, some distance down Rockingham Channel, andthere await either our arrival or further instructions. Our expeditionwas to join him there in two or three days at the farthest, perhapssooner; but, whatever happened, he was to remain with the cutter at therendezvous, and on no account, nor under any inducement, was he to quituntil 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 alongsidethe cutter, with the carbines belonging to the crew loaded and tricedup under the thwarts, ready for immediate service, and a brightlook-out was to be kept on the channel, in both directions. If thenatives attempted the smallest communication with the mainland, thewhale-boat was to give chase immediately, and either intercept andcapture 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 ofthis happy event, must follow whithersoever fortune and Miss Lizziethought fit to lead us. At least an hour before dawn we were astir, and swallowing the scaldingtea that the man on watch had prepared: this done, and a snack ofdamper and cold meat eaten, we got quietly into the boat and werepulled ashore. Until daylight, we were unable to make our way, forpaths there were none, and the ground was dangerous from the quantityof stones, etc. , so we were compelled to sit down quietly and smoke ourpipes until we could see to pick our way. In the tropics there is butlittle dawn; the sun springs up without heralding his approach by alengthened gradation from darkness to night, as obtains in moretemperate climes, and but little patience was requisite to enable us tocommence our search. As many of our readers are doubtless aware thatin Australia no journey is ever undertaken on foot; that the realbushman would think himself sunk to the depths of abject poverty, if hehad not at least 'one' horse of his own; and that a man will wanderabout for a couple of hours looking for a horse to carry him half amile, when he might have gone to his destination and back half a dozentimes, in the interval wasted in searching for his steed. Knowingthis, they will doubtless wonder why we did not bring our mounts withus, and perform the journey comfortably, in place of the tedious methodwe now adopted. It must not for a moment be imagined that the greatassistance horses would have afforded us had not been duly weighted andconsidered, and our reasons for leaving them behind were asfollows:--From the little we knew of Hinchinbrook, and from thedescription Lizzie gave of the country, they would have been rather inour way than otherwise. The whole island is a mass of lofty volcanicmountains; and the passes through the gorges so strewn with hugeboulders, debris, and shale, that we should have been compelled to leadour nags, and thus they would have only proved an encumbrance. Thiswas one reason, and apparently a very good one, but I doubt if it wouldhave had much effect upon our party, who could hardly contemplate anyundertaking without the agency of horseflesh, had not a more cogentargument been forthcoming, to which they were compelled to give intheir adherence. "The 'Daylight' is quite big enough to carry them all, for such a shortdistance, 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 asquickly again. " "How will you land them?" I ventured to suggest; "for the cutter cannever 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 thistime none of us knew of the little inlet, into which Lizzie so deftlyguided us. "Pitch them overboard, of course, " cried Jack; "they'll pretty soonmake for the land; and I'll send my mare Gossamer first; she'll givethem a lead, I'll bet. Cunning old devil!" The impetuosity of Jack was fast gaining converts, when Cato pulledDunmore 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 thatfellow like 'it damper. " "By Jove! Cato's right, " said Dunmore; "we forget about the alligatorsand sharks. I won't let the boys take their horses, and shall not takemy own. I lost one horse from an alligator last year, on the PioneerRiver, and Government wanted to make me pay for it, and I'll take careI 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 wasas the apple of Jack's eye; and the point-blank and sensible refusal ofDunmore 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 meansof 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 itcould be called, for it consisted only of a dim track beaten by thenaked feet of the blacks--wound in and out among the long grass, which, as we approached the foot of the mountain range, became exchanged forboulders and loose shale, which rendered walking most tedious, andplayed the very mischief with our boots. Here even this track seemed, to our eyes, to die out; but Lizzie led the way confidently, andevidently with a thorough knowledge of what she was about. We had nowbeen walking for more than three hours, and had apparently only gothalf way up a kind of gorge in the mountains, which seemed to becomegradually narrower and narrower, and from all appearances affordedevery prospect of terminating in a 'cul-de-sac'. A watercourse must atsome 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 dreadfullyfatiguing. The boulders were sometimes so close as to render walkingbetween impossible, and then it became necessary to clamber over them, which, loaded as we were, was very painful. If, on the other hand, weattempted to journey on the 'top' of the boulders, they were not onlyof unequal heights, but sometimes so wide apart, that a good spring wasrequisite to get from one to the other. Lizzie was the only one of theparty who appeared thoroughly at home; her light figure bounded fromrock to rock with the greatest ease and rapidity. Even Cato andFerdinand, barefooted as they were, seemed to be a long way fromenjoying themselves, and for us wretched Europeans, with our thickboots, that obtained scarcely any foothold, we slipped about from therounded shoulders of the rocks, in a way that was anything but pleasant. Thus we scrambled along for another hour, at the expiration of which wecould only see a blank wall of mountain before us, up which it wouldhave been both impossible and useless to climb. Wondering where thedeuce Lizzie was leading us, we blundered along until we arrived at thebase of the perpendicular cliff, and saw that by some convulsion ofnature the ravine now branched off at a right angle to the left, andgradually widened out into a beautiful and gently declining stretch ofcountry, perfectly shut in by hills, and into which a pretty little bayextended, with several canoes on its placid surface. We were distantfrom the beach about three miles, and could see clearly the smoke ofseveral fires; while with binocular glasses we could make out thefigures of the blacks fishing, and of the piccaninnies and gins rompingin the sand. Lizzie was a sight to see, as she pointed triumphantly to theunconscious savages, and, trembling with eagerness, tapped the butt ofDunmore'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, " repliedour amiable little guide, who, enjoining the strictest silence, at onceput herself in motion, bidding us, by a sign, to follow her. For more than an hour and a half we crept cautiously along, sometimescrawling on all fours where the country was open, and frequentlystopping, while Lizzie went noiselessly forward and reconnoitred, before beckoning to us to advance again. The direction in which sheled us lay at the base of the hills, which on one side bounded thelittle plain and its bay, and though we could form but a crude idea ofwhere we were going, owing to the thickness of the undergrowth, yet itwas sufficiently evident that the young lady was one of nature'stacticians, and meditated a flank blow at her unfortunate relatives. Proceeding, we came at last within a stone's throw of the beach, andcould 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 shrubthat lay in front of us, and indicated that immediately outside it werethe 'gunyahs', or huts; and, "plenty you shoot, " she added showing herwhite teeth as she grinned with glee at the thoughts of the cheerfulsurprise she had prepared for her old companions. We were notthoroughly on the 'qui vive', for we thought this unknown bay would bethe very spot in which the blacks were likely to seclude any prisonersfrom the 'Eva', and accordingly willingly followed the lithe figure ofour little guide, as she wound her way through the tangled brake, likea black snake, and with a facility that we in vain attempted toimitate. The troopers--who had reduced their clothing to a minimum, for their sole vestment consisted of a forage-cap andcartridge-belt--wound along as noiselessly as Lizzie; but we poorwhites--with our flannel shirts and other complicated paraphernaliathat custom would not permit us to dispense with in the matter-of-factway they were laid aside by our sable allies--were getting intocontinual trouble; now hitched up helplessly by a lawyer vine, whosesharp prickles, like inverted fish-hooks, rent the skin; now crawlingunsuspiciously against a tree-ants' nest, an indiscretion that thefierce little insects visited with immediate and most painfulpunishment; or else, becoming aware, by unmistakable symptoms, that wewere trying to force a passage through a stinging tree-shrub. Wheneverwe thus came to grief, Lizzie would stop, turn round, and wave her armsabout like a semaphore, indicative of impatience, contempt mingled withpity and warning. Luckily for us, the belt of scrub was not of great extent; Lizzie hadalready reached its edge, and was peering cautiously through, and wewere struggling along, each after his own fashion, when bang went acarbine, the bullet of which we distinctly heard whistle over ourheads, and turning round we got a glimpse of Jack, the roughrider, hungup in a vine, one of whose tendrils had fired off his weapon; and hadjust time to hear him exclaim, "If I'd only been mounted, this wouldn'thave happened, " before we broke cover, and all further concealmentbeing now unnecessary, rushed recklessly on to the encampment. But we were too late to capture any of the men, for I need hardly tellthe reader that never had we intended to make use of the curt argumentsthat Lizzie had relied upon for cutting off the abrupt exit of herquondam friends; it would be quite time enough to commence a system ofreprisals when it was ascertained that the blacks had actually beenguilty of any atrocity. At present it was mere surmise on our part, and putting altogether on one side the natural reluctance to shedblood, an aggressive policy would have been an unwise one, engendering, as it infallibly would, a bad feeling against any other lucklessmariners whom the winds and the waves might in time to come cast uponthe 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, affordedsufficient time for the male portion of the encampment to make theirescape at speed, in different directions, some taking to the water, where they were picked up by the fishermen in the canoes; others divinginto the nearest cover, and being lost to sight without hope ofrecovery. The women and children followed the tactics usual on suchoccasions, and flung themselves into a heap, similar in colour andcontour to that described in a previous chapter, when we searched theHerbert River. The same thing took place again exactly; we sat down ina circle round them, waiting for the deafening "yabbering" to die away, which "yabbering" burst forth in all its pristine discord, whenever oneof the party made the slightest movement. Time and patience, however, had the desired effect, restoring tone to their not over sensitivesystems, and at the expiration of half an hour, we could distinguishsharp, bead-like black eyes peering at us out of the mass, which hadnow sunk into silence, but burst out again louder than ever, whenLizzie made her appearance from one of the gunyahs--perhaps thepaternal roof, who knows?--where she had retired, swelling withindignation, and as sulky as a whole team of mules. Finding that noone took any notice of her, and half an hour's reflection having, Isuppose, convinced her, that if she wanted to make a display before herrelations, now was the time, her ladyship came slowly up to the circle, and commenced an attack on poor Dunmore, as she knew him best. Totranscribe her words would be impossible, for she put in a nativesentence whenever she found herself at a loss for an English one, butthe burden of her plaint was this:-- "Plenty d--d fooly fellow, white fellow"--a string of Hinchinbrookvernacular--"Baal you been shoot 'em like 'it dingo"--moreHinchinbrook, but evidently, from the accompanying gestures, indicativeof intense disgust--"Baal mine take any more along of black fellowcamp"--half sobs--"Baal mine care suppose you fellow all go like 'it--" And she summarily consigned us to the bottomless pit, as the only placeat all suited for such stupid idiots who could refrain from shootingblacks when so grand an opportunity presented itself. Her eyes flashedfire as she delivered herself of her woes, and at the concludingsentence she stamped her little foot, and flinging a short waddy sheheld, with remarkable dexterity and no mean force, into the midst ofthe sable mass, she turned round to depart with the dignity of atragedy queen, when Dunmore jumped up, caught her, and holding herwrist, walked off a little way from us. "You like 'it one fine fellow red shirt, Lizzie? Mine give you onewith 'plenty long tail'. Baal any other gin along of camp have shirtlike 'it you; and when piccaninny sit down" (for there was a prospectof her presenting Ferdinand with a little pledge of affection), "minegive that fellow two budgeree flour-bag shirts, suppose only you goodfellow girl Lizzie. " Evidently, Dunmore knew the way to the young lady's heart--we nicknamedhim "Faust" afterwards--for at the mention of the red shirt, with thelengthy tails, her eyes lost their fierceness, and the allusion to thepiccaninny completed his victory, and changing at once from one extremeto the other, as only a black or a child can, Miss Lizzie took her seatin the circle, lighted her pipe, commenced nodding to, and chattingmost affably with, her relatives, and looking so kind, that it seemedimpossible to believe that an intense longing for bloodshed and crueltyhad so shortly before lurked in the breast of the pretty, smilinglittle savage who was now beside us. During the task of pacifying Lizzie, the "heap" had again sunk intocomparative silence, and only a confused murmur was audible from itsdepths. Allowing no time to be lost, Dunmore said to Lizzie--who waspuffing out huge mouthfuls of smoke, greatly to the astonishment of theother gins, who looked as if they expected to see her suddenly blazeup-- "Lizzie, you ask, suppose they been see any white fellow on island?White fellow in plenty big canoe. That fellow canoe been come like 'itshore. You tell them, 'Baal white fellow hurt you, suppose you beenshow, where brother belonging to him sit down. ' You tell them that, Lizzie. " Lizzie proceeded with the greatest gravity, and evidently with anoverwhelming 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 amomentary break in the conversation. I should imagine that the vernacular of the Hinchinbrook Islanders wasnot pre-eminently adapted for the noble intricacies of diplomaticintrigue. In the first place it contains but few words, and nonerepresenting any number higher than five, so that even the courtlynobleman now presiding over Foreign Affairs, would find the smooth flowof his amenities subjected to rude shocks; and as for expressing anylarge number either in words or figures--say, for instance, the Alabamaindemnity of three millions--to do so, would tax to the utmost thegenius of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lizzie, in her firstflash of pride, as representing a plenipotentiary armed withextraordinary powers, had commenced negotiations with the dignity andslowness of speech adapted to so exalted a personage. But the shrillchorus which emanated from the audience was decidedly antagonistic tograve deliberation, and the anxious curiosity of the woman supersedingthe self imposed role of the diplomatist, our envoy lost the pompoustone she had first adopted, and a volley of queries and replies wasexchanged so rapidly, and with such appalling shrillness, that weonlookers ran a great risk of being either deafened, or driven out ofour senses. At the first slackening of the wordy warfare, Dunmore puthis 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 myreaders with too minute a description of a scene with which they mustnow be pretty conversant, suffice it to say, that what with the real orpretended stupidity of the gins, and the imperfect English of ourinterpreter, we were more puzzled at the conclusion of the debate thanwe 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 ofbig canoe. " Altogether the skein was too tangled for us to attempt to unravel it. They had seen vessels evidently, both sailing ships and steamers, butwhether it was yesterday, or ten years back, there were no means ofascertaining; but to make certain that we were not being deceived, weinstituted a strict overhaul of the gunyahs, in hopes of findingsomething 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 ofthe "heap" assumed an upright posture, and it was remarkable to witnessthe awe with which they regarded Lizzie. At first they seemed afraidto approach her, and stood some five yards distant, watching her whilstshe puffed out the smoke from her relighted pipe, and posed herself inan attitude of becoming superiority, for she saw clearly enough thatthe happy moment for making an impression had arrived. Gradually theydrew closer and closer, and at last, three of the eldest gins goingdown on all fours, crept slowly up until close in front of her, whenthey stopped, and buried their withered old faces in the sand at herfeet. After enjoying their humiliation for a few seconds, shecondescended to speak to them, and very shortly they were allchattering away on the most amicable terms. Meanwhile the gunyahs or native huts, and the camp, had been thoroughlysearched, but without bringing to light anything European, except a fewbottles, and a pint pot which had been accidentally left behind by oneof the party on the occasion of Lizzie's abduction. The gunyahs werebetter constructed than usual, and consisted of saplings bent in anarch and covered with tea-tree bark, a great improvement on all thenative dwellings we had hitherto seen, which were generally littlebetter than a rude screen against the wind. But our time was precious, for we carried but little provision; and we could not afford to loiterabout, even in so pleasant a spot as this little bay; so, afterdispatching a hasty dinner, we started off afresh, to the immenserelief of the gins, and got out of the valley by another pass, whichLizzie showed us. I must not forget to mention one ludicrouscircumstance, which convulsed us with laughter. The gins showed suchcuriosity about Lizzie's pipe, that she handed it round and made themeach take a puff. Their expressions, when the pungent smoke causedthem either to sneeze, cough, or choke, were most laughable; and I haveno doubt that it is still a matter of wonder to them, and a fruitfulsource of debate over the camp-fires, what pleasure the white man canfind in filling his mouth with smoke, apparently with no better objectthan to puff it out again as soon as possible. Our course now lay duesouth, and the travelling was much the same as in the morning, that isto say, as bad and as fatiguing as it well could be. Lizzie said shecould take us to another bay, where there were sure to be more blacks;and so we trudged patiently along under her guidance, with the sunblazing down so fiercely that the carbine-barrels became quite heated. Our new path was very similar to the last one, seeming to come to anabrupt termination, but really shooting off at an angle, and leadingdown to a bay, which opened out to our view about five o'clock, and didnot present nearly so pretty an appearance as the one we had just left, for the ground seemed swampy, and the beach was a nasty muddymangrove-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 wereloaded with Torres Straits' pigeons, and sea-crabs were abundant. Thiswould enable us to lay in an extra day's provisions, and to extend oursearch, if necessary, before visiting the 'Daylight', from which vesselwe were now separated by more than twenty miles of unknown country, inclusive of a mountainous range. We determined not to shoot anypigeons that night, for they would only keep the less time; and havinglit our fire by the side of a small creek, we had supper, and were soonsleeping the sleep of the weary, the watch having instructions to callus at an early hour for the purpose of replenishing our larder beforethe birds took their departure for the mainland. A pint pot of tea swallowed--what a blessing it is that this gloriousbeverage is so portable that abundance can always be carried--three ofus sallied forth with our carbines, from which we had extracted thebullets and substituted shot, each taking a different direction, thetroopers guaranteeing a crab breakfast, and Lizzie cutting and peelingwooden skewers to roast the game on; for in this climate nothing willkeep beyond a few hours, unless partially cooked. I struck awaytowards the left with the intention of making the mangroves as soon aspossible, where I knew I should find plenty of birds. The walk of theday 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 ofgetting rid of the stiffness, I started off at a run and soon reachedmy destination, where I sat down until there was sufficient daylight toenable 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 distinguishwhether it was a human being or not. "If that is a black fellow, " I thought, "he's worth all the pigeons puttogether, and I'll wait quietly to try and capture him, " for the objectI saw was moving in the direction my companions had taken; and if itwere a native, he would be certain to return by the road he had come, when he heard the firing. Sitting still, waiting for anything oranybody, when waited on yourself by hungry mosquitoes, may be agreeableenough to Mr. Fenimore Cooper's typical Red Indian, but I can safelysay that it is anything but pleasant work to a thin-skinned Englishman. Daylight had now fully come, and I was beginning to hesitate as towhether I had not better bag some of the birds that were flutteringover my head, and get out of the swamp as fast as I could, when I heardthe distant report of a gun, and said to myself, "Well, I'll give thenondescript five minutes more, and if it doesn't turn up by then, I'llblaze away at the pigeons. " Half the allotted time had barely elapsed, when another report broke the stillness of the morning, and immediatelyafterwards I heard a rustling among the mangrove-leaves, and a slightcrackling, as though some heavy weight were passing over the archedroots. I stayed quiet, almost breathless, as the noise came nearer andnearer, and, turning my head, I peered through the bush behind which Ihad taken up my quarters, and saw a fine-looking black glidingcautiously from one to another of the interlaced mangroves. He wasevidently quite unsuspicious of any danger in front, and kept all hisfaculties concentrated on the direction in which he had heard thecarbine-shots, which now followed each other rapidly, as the twogunners 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 betweenme 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 yardsof him before he saw me. In his amazement he dropped the longfish-spear with which he was armed, stood one moment undetermined, andthen made his way, with the greatest agility, from tree to tree, notback towards my friends, as I had fondly hoped, but straight for thebay. 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 smallshot, lodged somewhere about the calves of those lean legs that werecarrying him over the roots with such provoking rapidity, and haveoften wondered since why I refrained; but I did, and continued toscuttle after him, now slipping down and barking my shins, now nearlylosing my carbine, and often compelled to sprawl on all fours. He wasnow forty or fifty yards ahead of me, and I was nearly giving up theuseless chase, when an unforeseen accident turned the tables in myfavour, and caused me to push on with redoubled vigour. As weapproached the bay, the whole of the roots and lower portions of themangroves became thickly studded with oysters, whose shells, sharp asrazors, cut the bare feet of the fugitive; while, on the contrary, theyproved of assistance to me by preventing my thick boots from slippingoff the treacherous roots. I now gained ground as fast as I hadpreviously lost it, and made certain of capturing my prisoner onarriving at the end of the mangroves, through which I could alreadycatch glimpses of the sea. Animated by the thoughts of bringing acaptive into camp, from whom we should probably gain valuableinformation, I jumped from tree to tree in hot pursuit, and when thebay 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 thelast stool of roots, and as I was eagerly following, holding my breathfor a tussle; when, to my intense mortification, he plunged headlonginto the sea, leaving me disconsolate and out of wind, to get back asbest I could. I waited until his head reappeared, which was not untilhe 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. Hewent quietly out seaward, and at the last, when I turned unwillingly toretrace my steps, I saw his black head bobbing about on the calmsurface. When, after a series of involuntary feats on the mangroverope, I again stood on 'terra firma', all the pigeons had left; and Iwas compelled to make my way back to camp, empty-handed, muddy, cutabout 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 westarted for the interior of the island, and without meeting withanything beyond the ordinary routine of bad bush and mountaintravelling; certainly encountering nothing that would justify me ininflicting a prolix description upon the reader--we arrived late on thefollowing evening at the rendezvous, found the 'Daylight' safely atanchor, and thus completed one portion of our search, without havingobtained the faintest clue to an elucidation of the mystery of the'Eva'. The pilot reported that, to the best of his belief, no blacks hadsucceeded in making their escape to the mainland; several canoes hadattempted to cross, but they had been seen and intercepted, though noneof their occupants had been captured. One canoe he had takenpossession of, and now showed us, which was, I think, the mostprimitive piece of naval architecture any of us had seen. Canoe itcould hardly be called, for it was only a sheet of bark curled up bythe action of fire; the bow and stern formed by folding theextremities, 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 ofequilibrium that they can stand upright in these tiny craft, and evenspear and haul on board large fish. We slept in the hold of the 'Daylight' that night, after making allarrangements for a start at early dawn. We trusted that the ClevelandBay party would have performed their portion of the task, andthoroughly overhauled the southern part of the island, and fullyexpected to fall in with them on the following day. Our road lay through most abominable country--stony, precipitous, andin places covered with dense vegetation. The traces of blacks wereabundant, and we could travel but a short distance without falling inwith some of the numerous camping-places. In many of these, the fireswere still smouldering, but the inhabitants had cleared out, mostprobably warned by those whom the whale-boat had intercepted. Eachcamp was subjected to a rigid scrutiny, but without revealing anythingEuropean, except fragments of bottles, to which we attached noimportance, for they were probably flung over-board by some passingvessel, and carried ashore by the tide. These are highly valued by theblacks, who do not use them for carrying water, but break them, andscrape down their spears with the fragments. To make a spear must be a work of many weeks' duration, when theimperfect implements at the natives' disposal are taken intoconsideration. In the first place, his missile must be perfectlystraight, and of the hardest wood; and no bough, however large, wouldfulfil these requirements, so it must be cut out bodily from the stemof 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 agiant iron-bark is a miserable tomahawk, or hatchet, made of stone, butlittle superior to the rude Celtic flint axe-heads, that may be seen inany antiquarian's collection. These are of a very hard stone, frequently of a greenish hue, and resembling jade; and, having beenrubbed smooth, are fitted with a handle on the same principle that ablacksmith in England twists a hazel wand round a cold chisel. Thehead, and the portion of the handle which embraces it, then receive aplentiful coating of bees'-wax, and the weapon is ready for use. Fancyhaving to chop out a solid piece of wood, nine feet long, and ofconsiderable depth, from a standing tree, with an instrument such as Ihave described, which can never, by any possibility be brought to takean edge! I have frequently examined the trees from which spears havebeen thus excised, and the smallness of the chips testified to thelength of the tedious operation; indeed, it would be more correct tosay the segment had been bruised out than excised. Having so farachieved his task, there is still a great deal before the black canboast 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 wedgeshe knows nothing, so is compelled to work away with the tomahawk, andto call in the aid of fire; and when he has managed to reduce the spearto something approaching its proper size, he gets a lot ofoyster-shells, and with them completes the scraping, and puts on thefinishing touches. It may easily be imagined what a boon glass must beto the savage, enabling him to do the latter part of the operation in atithe of the time. I am afraid that it is often the habit with us Australians to eitherdestroy or carry away as curiosities, the weapons and other littlethings that the blacks manufacture, utterly regardless of the loss wethus inflict upon them; for without his weapons the wretched native isnot only defenceless against neighbouring tribes, who would not scrupleto attack him when unarmed, but he is also literally deprived of themeans of subsistence. Without his spear, he is unable to transfix thekangaroos and wallabies on which he so much depends for his daily food, and, robbed of his boomerangs and nullah-nullahs, the wild duck canpass him scatheless, and the cockatoo can scream defiance from thelofty trees. I know that this practice of returning laden with nativespoil is more frequently the result of thoughtlessness or curiositythan anything else. The implements appear so trumpery, that theEuropean thinks they can be of little use to anybody, but the bad bloodthus engendered between the aborigines and the settlers is greater thanwould be easily credited. Another reason, I would venture to submit, in opposition to this custom is, that in the case of the blacks doingany mischief, no method of punishing them can possibly be devised equalin severity to the destruction of their weapons. A tribe is renderedmore helpless and more innocuous by this than by shooting down half themales, and I am sure that if they once found that only in case ofmischief was this punishment resorted to, we should hear infinitelyless of cattle-spearing and shepherd-murdering than at present obtains. I mention this, not from any good-will towards the blacks, who havebeen causes of much sorrow to me and mine, but because I am sure that adiscontinuance of this idle habit would tend to lessen the existingcauses of friction between the two races. In one of the camps we found a blanket--not, O reader, made of thefinest wool, deftly woven at the looms of Witney, but a blanket of DameNature's own contrivance, stripped by the aboriginal from the bark ofthe Australian tea-tree ('Melaleuca squarrosa'), no small shrub, but anoble fellow standing from 150 to 200 feet high, and generally found inthe neighbourhood of fresh water, or in the beds of creeks. The barkof this tree is of great thickness, and composed of a series of layers, each of which can be easily separated from its neighbours, and, infact, much resembling a new book, just issued from the hot-press of thebinder. From a portion of this--the inner skins, I imagine--the blacksmanage to make a flexible, though not over warm, covering for thewinter nights, or for the newly-born piccaninnies. The whole of theprocess I am not acquainted with, but from all I could gather fromLizzie, the bark is stripped in a large sheet at the end of the rainyseason, the inner cuticle of several leaves carefully separated fromthe remainder, and placed in fresh water, weighted with heavy stones toretain it in its position. After the lapse of a certain time, knownonly to the initiated, it is taken out, hung up to dry, and at apeculiar stage, before all the moisture has evaporated, it is laid on aflat rock, and cautiously beaten with smooth round stones, whichoperation opens out the web sufficiently to make it quite pliant, afterwhich it is allowed to dry thoroughly, and is then ready for use. These vegetable blankets are very strong, and must be a greatprotection to the naked savages, but, despite the ease with which theycan be obtained, and the small time and labour occupied in theirpreparation, 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 outof 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-treebark. Now, of all shapes to drive a Limerick hook-maker to despair, none, one would think, could have been invented better than this, forthe odds are certainly ten to one against its penetrating any portionof a fish, even though he should have gorged it. The material of whichthese quaint hooks are made is tortoise or turtle shell, for bothtortoises and turtles abound on this coast, the former frequenting thefresh-water creeks and lagoons, and the latter the sea. Whether theywere cut out of the solid, or whether a strip was soaked, bent, andthen 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 tofire, we should speedily have made a good bag, but this we dared notdo, so I made a mental resolve to return at some future time and makeamends for this enforced restraint. At nearly every step, we put upsome bird or beast strange to European eyes. I have no doubt it is known to most of my readers that Australia isdestitute of 'Ferae' proper, and that elephants, lions, tigers, etc. , are unknown. They will also know that the kangaroos are marsupialanimals; that is to say, the females have a peculiar pouch for theiryoung, which are born in a far less advanced state than the young ofother animals. But perhaps it is not so generally known that, with twoor three exceptions, such as the dingo or native dog, the platypus, andseveral species of bats, the 'whole' of the animals on the continentare marsupial. The brains of this species are very small, and theysadly lack intelligence, in which respect they exhibit a wonderfulaffinity to the aboriginals who live by their capture. [ILLUSTRATION--GROUP OF KANGAROOS. ] Of kangaroos there are more than thirty different kinds, but theEnglish are now so well acquainted with this curious animal that itneeds no description. There are two things about it, however, that Imay with propriety here point out--viz. , the use of the pouch, and thevarious ways in which the kangaroo is serviceable to the settler. Theaverage size of the ordinary female kangaroo is about six feet, counting from the nose to the tip of the tail; and, marvellous thoughit may appear, the young kangaroo, at its birth, is but little over aninch in length, having a vague kind of shape, certainly, but otherwisesoft, semi-transparent, and completely helpless. Now the pouch comesinto use. The little creature is conveyed there by the mother's lips, and immediately attaches itself to one of the nipples, which areretractile, and capable of being drawn out to a considerable length. Thus constantly attached to its parent, it waxes bigger daily. Fromtwo to eight months of age it still continues an inhabitant of itscurious cradle, but now often protrudes its little head to take anobservation of the world at large, and to nibble the grass amongstwhich its mother is feeding. Sometimes it has a little run by itself, but seeks the maternal bosom at the slightest intimation of danger. Itquits the pouch for good when it can crop the herbage freely; but evennow it will often poke its head into its early home and get a littlerefreshment on the sly, even though a new-comer may have succeeded toits 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 Cingalesemouse-deer does to an elk, was once given to me as a pet, and we becamegreat friends. Whenever I went into the room and opened my shirt orcoat, the little fellow would bound in and coil himself snugly away forhours, if permitted; thus showing, I think that he still retained arecollection of the snug abode of his childhood. Like most pets, hecame to an untimely end--in fact, met with the fate that ultimatelybefalls all the members of his tribe who are domesticated and allowedto run about the bush huts in Australia. The fireplaces are largerecesses in the wall, and on the same level as the floor. Wood only isburnt, and large heaps of glowing ashes accumulate, for the fire neverreally goes out, by night or day. As long as it is blazing, the petkangaroo will keep his distance, but when it has sunk down to livingcoals, his foolish curiosity is sure to impel him, sooner or later, tojump right into the thick of it; and then--and here his want of brainsis painfully shown--instead of jumping out again at once, he commencesfighting and spurring the burning embers with his hind feet, and, as anatural sequence, is either found half roasted, or so injured that hisdeath is inevitable. The uses to which the settler puts this animal are many. He has totake the place of the stag when any hunting is going on (as the dingohas 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 mostkangaroo dogs bear witness, by cruel scars, how keen a gash he caninflict with his sharp hind claw when brought to bay. From ten totwelve miles is by no means an unusual run, and when thoroughlyexhausted he makes a stand, either with his back against a tree, or inthe 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 hisshort fore arms and ripping them open, if on land; or by seizing andholding them under, if in the water. Instances are on record of adespairing kangaroo dashing through the dogs on the approach of adismounted hunter, and severely wounding him. The common practice whenthe animal is brought to bay is to ride up and pistol him. But, however he may be killed, his useful qualities have by no meansdeparted with his breath. His skin, properly cured, will make gooddoor-mats, boots, saddle-cloths, stock-whips, gaiters, and numberlessother useful articles. His long and heavy tail is much valued for thesoup it yields; and the hams can be cured, and, thus preserved, findmany admirers. The hind-quarters of a large "boomer" will run littleshort of seventy pounds; and, with the tail, form the only partscommonly 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 thesame sombre hue: pheasants, quail, every kind of feathered fowl thatcould gladden the heart of the sportsman, were found in abundance, andamongst these the scrub turkey and its nest. This latter bird is solittle known, that I am tempted to give a short account of it. The Australian scrub turkey ('Tallegalla Lathami') is common in all thethick jungles in the north of Queensland, and, though smaller than thedomestic bird, is sufficiently like it to be easily recognised, havingthe same wattle, and neck denuded of feathers. The most remarkablefeature about this turkey is its nest, which is composed of sand, leaves, and sticks, piled up into a great mound three feet or so inheight, and ten or more in diameter. This enormous mass is not theunaided work of one pair, but of a whole colony, and the material isgot together by the bird grasping a quantity in its foot, and throwingit behind him; the ground in the immediate vicinity of the mound isthus entirely stripped of every blade of grass, or fallen leaf. Inprocess of time, the heap partially decomposes, and when the femalejudges that enough heat has been engendered to serve her purpose, sheproceeds to lay her eggs. These are enormous when compared with thesize of the bird, and are not simply deposited and covered over, butburied at a depth of eighteen or twenty inches, each egg nearly a footfrom its neighbour, and standing on end, with the larger halfuppermost. Thus they remain until hatched, though how the bird managesto plant them with such dexterity has, I believe, never beenascertained; no one yet having been sufficiently lucky to witness theproceeding. Directly the little birds chip the shell, they run aboutwith the greatest agility, and their capture is exceedingly difficult. A nest with freshly-laid eggs is a glorious find, for several dozen arefrequently extracted, and are most delicious eating. The evening was fast approaching, when we camped for the night by theside of a nice clear water-hole in a sequestered valley, and, afterbathing and having tea, we tried our luck at fishing, for these holesare sometimes full of eels. We prospered, and soon had several finefellows on the bank, from whence they were speedily transferred to thehot ashes, and roasted in their integrity; they were thus spared theskinning, to which, it is averred, custom has habituated them. Ferdinand and Cato were collecting firewood for the night, for, in theposition we had selected, we were not afraid of making a good blaze, and we were sitting and lounging round the fire, conjecturing what hadbecome of all the blacks, and how soon we should fall in with the otherparty, when Lizzie--who had accompanied the troopers--came rushingback, 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, andfollowed by Ferdinand, who dragged after him a large black snake, theauthor of the mischief. If Australia is exempt from wild beasts, the number of venomousreptiles with which it is cursed make it as dangerous to the travelleras other tropical countries in which ferocious animals abound. Hardlya tree or a shrub can be found that does not contain or conceal somestinging abomination. The whole of these are not, of course, deadly, but a tarantula bite, or a centipede sting, will cripple a strong manfor weeks, while a feeble constitution stands a fair chance ofsuccumbing. But of all these pests, none can equal the snakes, whichnot only swarm, but seem to have no fear of man, selecting dwellings bychoice for an abode. These horrible reptiles are of all sizes, fromthe large carpet snake of twenty feet, to the little rock viper ofscarcely half a dozen inches. The great majority of these arevenomous, and are of too many different kinds for me to attempt theirenumeration here. The most common with us were the brown, black, andwhip snakes, and the death-adder, all poisonous; and the carpet-snake, harmless. The brown and black snakes run from two to eight feet inlength, frequent the long grass, chiefly in the neighbourhood ofswamps, and from the snug way in which they coil up, and theirdisinclination to move, are highly dangerous. The latter is veryhandsome, the back of a brilliant black, and the under portion of asea-shell pink. Their skin is sometimes used by bushmen as a cover totheir waistbelts, which are much beautified thereby. The whip-snakesare of all sizes and of all colours; in fact, under this name thecolonists include all the slender climbing snakes, so many of whichinhabit Australia. In my opinion, these are the worst; for they comeboldly into your room in search of warmth, and may be found stowed awayin a boot, or under the pillow, or in any place where they are leastexpected. Last and worst of our venomous snakes comes the death, ordeaf, adder, for it is called indiscriminately by both names, and amplyjustifies either prefix. The hideous reptile is very thick and stumpyin proportion to its length, which rarely exceeds two feet, whilst itscircumference may be put down at one-fifth of its total measurement. The tail is terminated by a small curved spike, which is commonlyregarded as the sting; but though when touched it doubles up, andstrikes with this horn, as well as bites, I do not think the tail doesany material damage, but this opinion one would find it difficult tomake a bushman credit. I once saw a man take a death-adder up--quiteunintentionally, you may be sure--between two shingles, and itimmediately struck backwards with both head and tail, the twoextremities luckily meeting above his hand. From the sluggish habitsof this reptile, it is popularly accounted deaf, and it seems quiteunalarmed even by the report of a gun. You may walk over it a dozentimes, as it lies basking in the sun, usually in the most frequentedpart of the road, and it will take not the slightest notice, but iftouched, however gently, it bites at once. When I first went to Cardwell, I was talking about death-adders, andthe naive remark made by one of the inhabitants amused and at the sametime rather terrified me, for the perfect knowledge he exhibited of thereptiles showed plainly how common they were there. "Nasty things, " he said, "but Lord, they won't hurt you. Best not tryto 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 hedoubled up and very nearly bit me; his tail just grazed my hand as itwas. " 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 wouldbenefit by his experience and use the greatest caution. The eye of this snake is remarkable for its vivid yellow, crossed by ablack longitudinal pupil. The colour of the body is a mixture of dullhues, and the abdomen pinkish; the head broad, thick, flattened, andits 'tout ensemble' hideously repulsive. But I am digressing, andleaving poor Cato still uncared for. The snake, which was a very large one, had been laid hold of by the boyin the imperfect light, and had instantly bitten him in the wrist, onwhich the punctures of the fangs were plainly visible. A handkerchiefwas at once tied round the wounded limb, with a small pebble so placedas to compress the brachial artery inside the forearm, and with theiron ramrod from a carbine as a lever, we screwed this rough tourniquetup until the circulation was in great measure cut off. Luckily Dunmorehad a pocket-knife with him, for the sheath-knives we carried were butrude instruments for surgery, and with the small blade he slashed thebitten part freely, while Lizzie, applying her lips to the wound, didher best to draw out the subtle venom. Some of us carried flasks, containing various spirits, and the contents of these were at oncemixed--brandy, rum, hollands, all indiscriminately--in a quart pot, andtossed off by the sufferer, without the slightest visible effect. Hadthe 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 issafe. But the poison neutralised the potent draught, and poor Catoshowed no indication of having swallowed anything stronger than water. With the superstition inherent in the blacks, he had made up his mindto die, and his broken English, as he moaned out, "Plenty soon thisfellow go bong, " was painful in the extreme. "It's no use, " said Dunmore. "I know these fellows better than any ofyou, 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 quininewould have put him to rights, but he had made up his mind to die, andwhen once they have done that, all the drugs in a doctor's shop won'tdo them any good. " Everything we could think of was proposed, but speedily rejected asuseless. "Pour a charge of powder on the wound, " said Jack Clarke, "and thenfire it, that will take the part out clean enough;" but we agreed thatit would be putting the boy to unnecessary pain, for the poison must bealready in the system and beyond the reach of local remedy; and thepatient had become drowsy, and repeatedly begged to be left alone andallowed to go to sleep. "We must walk him about, " said Dunmore, "it is the only chance, andpainful as it is, I must have it done. Remember, I'm responsible forthe boy, and no means must be left untried. " I had withdrawn a little from the group, and as I stood some distanceoff, outside the circle of light thrown by the fire, I could not helpthinking what a scene for the painter's brush was here presented. Thedark outline of the lofty gums looked black and forbidding as funeralplumes, against the leaden sky. The rugged range starting up in therear, cast a threatening gloom over the little valley in which we wereencamped, and the distant thunder of a falling torrent could, withlittle effort, be interpreted as a dull voice of warning from themountain. The fitful glare of the fire, now sinking, now rising as afresh brand was added, threw a ruddy glare over the actors in thisstrange scene; showing the hopeless face of the poor patient, theundemonstrative countenances of his sable companions, and the anxiousair apparent in the white men, more particularly in Dunmore, as heknelt over his follower, and tried to inspirit a little hope bydwelling on the chances of recovery. The fantastic dresses, and thewildness 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 lastchance, we compelled him to walk about, despite his piteous prayers forrepose. It soon became evident that our labour was thrown away, for hedropped heavily down from between the two men who were supporting him, and no power could induce him to rise. A heavy stertorous sleepoverwhelmed him, his breath came gradually slower and slower, and abouttwo 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 arecommon who profess to cure snake-bites, but I doubt if they ever reallysucceed. It is beyond all question that in the early days ofAustralia, and whilst this beautiful continent was held by GreatBritain as nothing more than a useful place for the safe custody of hercriminal classes, a convict named Underwood discovered a remedy forsnake-bite, and in many cases treated it successfully. The story hasby no means died out in the colonies, of the good old laws of brutalterrorism, under which, when a bitten man was brought to Underwood, thelatter proceeded to apply his remedy, stimulated by the pleasing threatof a severe flogging, should his treatment be of no avail. He appearsto have been a man of great firmness of purpose, for he never could bebetrayed into divulging his secret, though many unworthy means wereresorted to for that end. The utmost that he would acknowledge wasthat the antidote was common, and that Australians trampled itunder-foot every day of their lives. The way he became acquainted withthe remedy was by accidentally witnessing a fight between a snake andan iguana. The latter was frequently bitten, and in every case ran toa certain plant and ate it before renewing the contest, in which it wasultimately victorious, leaving the serpent dead upon the plain. Underwood demanded his pardon and liberty as the price of his preciousknowledge, and I believe a mixed commission of military men andcivilians deliberated on the case at Sydney, and decided not to grantthe convict's request. In due time he died, and with him perished hisinvaluable secret. It is to be presumed the commission knew what theywere about, but undoubtedly their adverse decision has been a realmisfortune to all those whose lives are passed in a country inhabitedby venomous reptiles. We are much indebted to Doctor Fagren for theexhaustive researches he has made into the action of snake-poison andits remedy--the result of which the reader can find in his elaboratelygot-up volume, entitled "The Thanatophidia of India"--and on lookingover the concise directions given by him for immediate use in the eventof such an accident, I do not see that we could possibly have done morethan we did, considering the limited material we had at our command. Perhaps, had it been a white man, with a strong constitution, he wouldhave pulled through; for the settled conviction that he was doomed, doubtless accelerated the death of the black boy; but the action of thepoison is so rapid, that most cases terminate fatally. Two instances Iknow of, in which the patient recovered. The first was an Irishlabourer, who whilst reaping took up a snake, which bit him in thefinger. He walked at once to the fence, put his hand on a post, andsevered the wounded member with his sickle. Irishman-like, he forgotto move the sound fingers out of the way, and two of them shared thefate of their injured companion. Paddy walked into the nearesttownship, had his wounds dressed, and felt no inconvenience from thevenom. Under the soubriquet of "Three-fingered Tim, " this individualmay frequently be met with at Sydney, and, for a glass of grog, will bedelighted to recount the whole affair, with the richest of Milesianbrogues. The second case was that of a woman. She was going from thehut to the fireplace, when she trod on a snake, which bit her justbelow 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 whomshe acted as hut-keeper, had both gone out with their flocks some hourspreviously, and there was nobody about but a poor half-witted lad, whohung about the place doing odd jobs. She was a resolute woman, andmade up her mind how to act, in far less time than it takes me to setit down on paper. Coo-ehing for the lad, she went into the hut, andcame out again with a sharp tomahawk and an axe. "Take this, " she said, handing the latter to the boy, "and strike hardon the back of it when I tell you. " Thus speaking, she placed her foot on a log of wood, adjusted the keenedge of the tomahawk so that when struck it would sever the toe and theportion of the foot containing the bite, and, holding the handle of thetomahawk 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 theoperation, 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 ofbeef, until the shocking task was completed. With Jim's assistance, she then bound up the foot to arrest the bleeding, and, accompanied byhim, rode ten miles into the township, and, need I say, in due courserecovered. In these instances the reader will see that the measures taken wereboth prompt, and such as would require more nerve than is possessed bythe ordinary run of mortals. In the above cases, also, the bitten partwas capable of being removed; but for a bite on the wrist, had such anextreme measure as immediate dismemberment been performed, the curewould have been as fatal as the disease. Poor Dunmore was terribly cut up at the premature death of hisfollower; Lizzie, having smothered her head with fluffy feathers fromsome cockatoos that had been roasted for supper, employed herself inchanting a most weird kind of dirge over the body, to which she beat aspecies 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 atea-tree, to act as a rude coffin. A great difficulty now presenteditself, for we had no tools whatever, and how could we dig a grave? Insuch hard ground, knives would make no impression, and the body must beburied deeply, or it would be rooted up by the dingoes, whose howl wecould plainly hear around us, as they bayed at the moon. We spreadourselves out in different directions, in the hope of finding some riftor recess that would answer the purpose, but in the imperfect light, wefailed to discover anything, so were compelled to wait for dawn. I donot think any of us slept much. One of our little party suddenlysnatched away in so unforeseen a manner, gave us all food forreflection--for which of us knew that the same fate would not befallhim to-morrow? When I dropped off into a slumber, it was so light andbroken, that I seemed to be conscious of Lizzie, continuing hermelancholy drone, and battering monotonously on the tin pannikin, norwas I surprised when in the morning I ascertained that such had reallybeen her occupation all night; for the purpose of keeping the body fromharm, she avowed, but, I am inclined to think, much more from fear ofsleeping in the neighbourhood of a dead body, for the blacks aredreadfully superstitious, and frightened to death of ghosts. At daylight we were lucky enough to find a tree that had been blowndown in the late hurricane, leaving a hollow where its roots had beentorn out of the ground. In this natural grave we laid the poortrooper, wrapped in his bark shell, and, having raised a pile of stonesupon the spot, of such dimensions as to preclude the probability of thebody being disturbed by dingoes, we went on our way, silent andmelancholy. AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY--IV. BY CHARLES H. EDEN. OUR next day was a repetition of the last; camps in abundance, but noblacks, and we had as yet seen no signs of the Townsville party. Atnight we camped by the side of a large creek, and, after supper, werelying down, with the intention of making up for the broken slumbers ofthe previous night, when Ferdinand, who had moved higher up the streamto get a private eel for himself and his lady, came back and shookDunmore, saying-- "Many big fellow fire sit down up creek. " We were on our feet in a moment, and, stealing quietly through thebush, soon saw the glare, and on our nearer approach, could make outmany 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 takecare they don't fire into us. Lie down, or get behind trees, all youfellows, and I'll hail them. " "Holloa there!" he cried, when we had all "planted" (in Australianparlance signifying "concealed") ourselves. "Don't fire, we'reCardwellites!" In a moment the sentry's rifle was at his shoulder, pointed in thedirection 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 slumberingcompanions. As quickly as it had been raised, his rifle fell into thehollow of his arm, and shouting out, "Get up, you fellows, here are theRockingham Bayers!" he rushed forward, and in a moment was shakinghands with Dunmore, while the sleepers, uncertain whether it was analarm, stood rubbing their eyes, and handling their carbines soominously as they peered into the darkness, that we deemed it the bestpolicy to remain under cover until their faculties had grasped the factthat we were not enemies, and as such to be slain incontinently. It is a startling thing to be hailed suddenly in the silence of thebush, and had a less experienced sentry than Abiram been on guard, hewould most likely have fired. We had also before our eyes the case ofa party who not long before had gone out to chastise the blacks, andhaving split into two divisions, opened a brisk fire upon each otherwhen they drew near again, luckily without effect. Some of thesewarriors we knew to be amongst ourselves, so it behoved us to exercisecaution. Our greeting was most cordial, and we were soon all assembled round thefire--now blazing up with fresh fuel--smoking the pipe of peace, whichwe moistened with a modicum of grog from the well-filled flasks of theCleveland Bayers, and comparing notes, previous to making our plans forthe morrow. Like ourselves, they had found plenty of camps, but not aliving creature in them; and they were as perplexed as we were as towhat had become of their occupants. On their way up from Townsville, they had seen smoke-signals thrown up from the mangroves at the mouthof the Herbert River, and these were answered both from the rangebehind Cardwell, and from Hinchinbrook, so it was evident there wereblacks on the island, though most likely concealed in some of thehidden valleys, which, from the volcanic nature of the country, were soplentiful, and so difficult to find. Lizzie was now brought forward, and subjected to a most rigidcross-examination, with which I will not trouble the reader. She saidthat they must have crossed over to the main-land, for every place hadnow 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 thehabit of resorting at certain seasons of the year, to hold"corroborries" or dances, and also to perform divers mysterious riteson the young people of both sexes attaining the marriageable age. Whatthese solemnities really are, is but little known, and they seem todiffer widely in each tribe. In some, the young girls have a couple offront teeth knocked out; in others they lose a joint of the littlefinger; and at that time the hideous lumps with which the men embellishtheir bodies must be raised. These curious ornaments are formed bycutting gashes in the flesh three-quarters of an inch long, andstuffing the wound with mud, which prevents the edges from adhering, and when the skin grows over, leaves a lump like an almond. Thenumber, proximity, and pattern of these adornments are according to thepeculiar tastes of the family, and vary considerably, but the breast, back, shoulders, and arms are usually pretty thickly sown, giving theappearance of a number of fresh graves, placed close together in ablack soil field. [ILLUSTRATION--"NATIVE AUSTRALIAN. "] Abiram's question was one of those lucky inspirations that sometimesstrike one, changing, as by magic, obscurity into distinctness, andpouring in a flood of light where no ray could be seen before. "My word!"--cried Lizzie, her whole face lighting up with eagerness andjoy--"my word, close up mine been forget. Mine know one fellow boraground, 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" bythe 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 blackboys, so we now mustered a strong force. Lizzie would hardly allow ustime 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 generalattention, when our little guide stamped her foot, and, trembling withindignation, said-- "Plenty big bingey (belly) that fellow. Baal he been fill 'em like 'itsundown!" The travelling was worse than ever now; up and down steep ravines inwhich the tangled scrub grew so thickly that progress was almostimpossible, and we were compelled to wade along the bed of the creek;now tripping over a sharp ledge of rock, now floundering up to thewaistbelt in a treacherous hole; past the base of a beautifulwaterfall, where the action of the torrent had worn a hollow basin inthe rock, in which it sparkled, cool, transparent, and prismatic, inthe rays of the burning sun, and where the view, so unlike thegenerality of Australian scenery, was perfectly bewitching; on, throughmore scrub, through swamps, and over stiff mountains, wet, draggled, moody, and cross, crawling along after the little black figure infront, that held steadily on its way, as though hunger and fatigue wereto it things unknown. At length, about three o'clock in the afternoon, we found ourselves ina sort of natural funnel in the rock, the end of which grew narrowerand narrower as it wound about in curious curves. "Close up now, " said Lizzie, "water sit down along of other side; baalblack fellow get away. " We halted for a few minutes to get breath, and to steady ourselves, andthen, keeping close together, stepped out of the gloomy passage intothe broad daylight. It was a beautiful sight. The "bora ground" hadbeen selected in a miniature bay, of about three acres in extent, closed in by perpendicular rocks, and attainable only by boat, or bythe passage through which we had just arrived. In this secluded spot aquantity of coca-nut palms were growing, waifs, carried there by theocean from the distant South Sea Islands, fructifying and multiplyingon the hospitable shore, and shielded from the tomahawk of the native, on account of the shelter they afforded his mysterious retreat. Underthe palms stood several conical huts, or lodges, of considerabledimensions, used, I presume, on state occasions for the deliberationsof the elder warriors. But the thing most pleasing to our eyes, wasthe sight of some two hundred natives, of both sexes, and all ages, whonow started to their feet, with wild cries of alarm, and motionsexpressive of the utmost terror, at this sudden invasion of theirretreat by the dreaded white man. Some of the blacks flew to arms at once, and stood with poised spearsin a menacing attitude, whilst the gins and piccaninnies coweredtogether on the beach. We had our carbines in hand, cocked, andprepared to defend ourselves in the event of hostilities, which weearnestly hoped to avoid. Lizzie, who had at last begun to understandthat slaughter was not our object, and who had been reconciled to ourtame proceedings by the promise of much finery, now advanced towardsthe threatening natives and made a speech in their own language, to theeffect that we wished to do them no harm, beyond ascertaining whetherthere were any whites among them, though, if we found murder had beencommitted, we should discover the perpetrators, hold them answerable, and punish them. Rewards were offered for any information that wouldlead to a knowledge of the real fate of the shipwrecked crew, and anexaggerated estimate of our strength, and the capability of ourfirearms, was given by our interpreter, on her own account, and wasperfectly intelligible to us from the signs and gesticulations shemade, and the scorn with which she pointed to the rude weapons of hercountry-men; for the intrepid little girl had marched fearlessly up tothe group of warriors. After delivering her speech, Lizzie withdrew to us, and we waited, rather anxiously, the turn that affairs would take; for a peacefulsolution would be far preferable to a fight, in which, though we mustultimately be the victors, yet success would only be achieved atconsiderable loss of life, probably on both sides. Whilst matters rested thus, and the blacks were holding an animateddiscussion, one of the troopers espied a solitary dingo on the rocksoverlooking the "bora ground, " and distant from us about fifty yards. Lizzie at once said-- "Suppose you shoot 'em that fellow dingo, plenty that frighten blackfellow. " "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 ifthey see it done by a black; and let Lizzie warn them of what is goingto take place. " "You believe you shoot 'em that fellow dingo?" asked Dunmore ofFerdinand. "Your (yes), marmy, mine believe. " "Plenty big glass of rum, suppose you shoot 'em bony (dead), " addedAbiram. The trooper's eyes glistened, and he licked his lips as if the spiritwere already won. Meanwhile Lizzie had told her countrymen to watch the dog, and theywould see him killed, and the blacks stood straining their eyes at thedoomed dingo, who, with pricked ears and drooping tail, stoodmotionless against the sky-line, intently surveying the unusual scenebeneath, and wondering probably how soon he should get the relics ofthe roasted fish, whose fragrant odour had assailed his nostrils, anddrawn him into his present position. It was a moment of intense suspense while the trooper raised hiscarbine--slowly and deliberately; no hurry, not even the quiver of amuscle, for his mind was on the rum, and he recked little of the moralinfluence of a successful shot;--we drew a long breath of relief as theweapon flashed forth, and the dog, making a convulsive bound forward, fell stone dead at the foot of the rocks, where it was instantlysurrounded by the awestruck savages, who carefully examined the body, and thrust their fingers into the bullet-hole, for the ball had passedclean through the animal, just behind the shoulder-blade. The trooper first loaded his empty barrel, and then twitching Abiram bythe sleeve, whispered, "You give 'em rum now. Plenty you make himstrong, mine believe. " His task was accomplished, and that the rewardshould immediately follow was with him a natural consequence. Ferdinand's shot and Lizzie's eloquence had, however, rid us of allfurther trouble. The blacks laid down their arms, and expressedthemselves quite willing to assist us in any way. They vehementlydenied having seen any white men, but acknowledged that some had beenheard of on the Macalister River, and thought they were detained by thetribes inhabiting its banks. They were cognizant of our expedition upthe Herbert, and knew that we were searching Hinchinbrook, but neverthought 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 Lizziewould have gathered information had there been any outrage, or somesmall piece of rag or blanket would have betrayed them. That theunfortunate men might be on the Macalister was not improbable, andthither we must bend our steps, as the last resource. If we wereunsuccessful then, we could only conclude that the vessel had founderedat sea, and we should have the melancholy satisfaction of knowing thatwe had done everything in our power to rescue the sufferers. We camped for the night at one extremity of the little bay, while thenatives occupied the other, in which there was a well sunk, where wesupplied ourselves with fresh water. We soon became on friendly termswith our wild neighbours, but took care never to linger amongst themsingly, and always had our weapons ready for immediate use. In the evening Lizzie came over from the blacks' camp, where she hadbeen 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 thenative customs, and glad of anything to break the monotony of ourlives, we followed her to the group of palms, and there took up ourpositions to watch the proceedings. A tremendous fire was soon flamingon the beach, near it the gins and piccaninnies assembled, with bits ofstick, clubs, and calabashes, on which to beat time. Some thirty ofthe men then stood up, armed with spears, tomahawks, nullah-nullahs(war-clubs), and boomerangs, and commenced a series of ludicrousantics, to a most melancholy dirge chanted by the women, a kind of rudetime being observed. Gradually, however, they grew excited, and workedthemselves up by going through a sort of mock fight; and when at thelast the women danced round them with torches, all howling andshrieking at the top of their voices, and banging the calabashes withkangaroo bones or anything that would add to the noise, the whole scenereminded one of the infernal regions broken loose. This lasted anhour, at the end of which time we withdrew, after expressing ourselveshighly gratified, and the whole camp was shortly buried in repose. Wekept double sentries, but we might all have gone to sleep, for therewas no symptom of treachery. At daylight we had breakfast; gave thewarriors and gins a few trifling things we could spare, such as knives, two or three blankets--for we hoped to reach the township thatnight--and, wonder of wonders to the savages, some matches (nearly allof 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 atthe 'Daylight' early in the afternoon, to find that the latter had beenjoined by the 'Black Prince', the steamer that had brought up theCleveland Bay party. We quitted in our little craft for Cardwell, andthe Townsville men went south in their steamer, intending to get someshooting at the Palm Islands before going home for good. Eleveno'clock that evening saw us at our township, fully determined to carryout the work thoroughly by searching the Macalister River, an accountof 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 thathitherto our efforts had been unattended with the slightest success, and that the fate of the missing schooner and her living freight stillremained buried in the deepest mystery. To say that we were notdisheartened by our numerous disappointments would be untrue, for wewell knew that each closing day rendered our chances of affordingrelief to the survivors more and more difficult; so much so, in fact, that at the council assembled to discuss the matter in the largedining-room of the hotel, several voices urged the expediency ofabandoning any further attempts. Much valuable time, they remarked, had been already expended by men to whom time represented money, naymore--the means of living. Their own avocations imperiously demandedtheir presence, and although they were the last men in the world todesert their fellow-beings in extremity, still, in a country whereevery man lived by the sweat of his own brow, self-interest could notbe entirely sacrificed. [ILLUSTRATION--AUSTRALIANS IN CAMP. ] Even we, who were most anxious to organise another expedition, couldnot but acknowledge that the searchers had much justice on their side;but when we were discussing matters in rather a despondent tone, a newally 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, andanother 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 theriver, which will take much longer to explore than the ranges; and, atthe 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 theMacalister. What do you think of that, mates?" he added, turning tothe company. "Won't that suit us all?" "Capitally!" was echoed from every side, and after sundry drinks theparty broke up; Dunmore and I hastening to make immediate preparationsfor 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 hadhitherto attracted little or no attention; the great sugar industrybeing then comparatively in its infancy in Queensland. A dangerous barat its mouth, over which heavy rollers were always breaking, madepleasure-seekers rather shy of attempting its entry, more particularlyas the muddy mangrove flats held out small hope of aught savemosquitoes and blacks. Since then the sugar-cane has become one of thechief sources of wealth to the colony, and, in the search for landadapted to its growth, the Macalister was not likely to remain long inobscurity. Along its beautiful banks were discovered many thousands ofacres of magnificent black soil country, without a stick of timber toimpede the plough, over which a furrow, miles in length, could havebeen turned without an inch of deviation being necessary. Where the wretched bark 'gunyah' of the native stood, is now found thewell-finished house of the planter; and where the savage pastimes ofthe 'bora' ground once obtained, and the smoke from cannibal firescurled slowly upwards to the blue vault of heaven, is heard thecheerful ring of the blacksmith's hammer, the crack of thebullock-whip, as the team moves slowly onward beneath the weight ofseven-feet canes, and the measured throb of machinery from the factory, where the crushed plant is yielding up its sweets between theinexorable iron crushers. In this, our newest world, improvements whenonce set afoot, proceed with marvellous celerity, and a turn ofFortune's wheel may in a single year convert a howling wilderness intoa flourishing township. But I find myself digressing again, andresisting rambling thoughts, must revert to our preparations for themorrow. [Illustrations KANGAROO. And ORNITHORHYNCHUS PARADOXUS. ] The meeting at which we had just been present, took place on themorning following our return from the search on Hinchinbrook Island;and not only was another day indispensable for the arrangements thatwere necessary, but we also felt that one more night of comfortablerest would render us better able to encounter the fatigues of thecoming expedition. Only bushmen and explorers can appreciate theintense enjoyment of a night of unbroken rest between the sheets, afterknocking about for a length of time, catching sleep by snatches, andnever knowing the luxury of undressing. Turning in like a trooper'shorse, "all standing, " as the nautical phrase is, may be an expeditiousmethod of courting the sleepy god, but it certainly is not the best forshaking off fatigue. Bound up in the garments you have carried allday, the muscles are unable to relax to their full, the circulation ofthe blood is impeded, and your slumber, though deep, is not refreshing;more particularly when--as had happened to us on this last trip--ourboots were so soaked that we were afraid to take them off, lest weshould find it impossible to struggle into them in the morning. Dunmore's camp was also some distance from the township, and he had tovisit it to find out how matters had gone on in his absence, to getanother trooper in the place of poor Cato, and to replenish hisexhausted wardrobe and ammunition. But I will not occupy the reader with all these minor details, nor withthe numberless little trifles that it devolves upon the leader of suchan expedition to remember, suffice it to say that by noon on thefollowing day, all our preparations were completed, and we shoved offfrom the beach in high spirits, the party consisting this time of nine, viz. , Dunmore, the pilot, two boatmen, Lizzie, three troopers, andmyself, about as many as the boat could carry comfortably. Arendezvous had been arranged on a known portion of the river; the otherexpedition 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 dayat furthest. The sea-breeze was blowing steadily, cresting the tiny waves whichsparkled in the hot sun as they broke into foam, and under its gratefulcoolness we glided comfortably along, with a flowing sheet. The bar atthe mouth of the Macalister was eighteen miles distant, and we hoped tocross it about sunset, when the breeze would have dropped, and thepassage through the surf would be readily distinguishable; but ourplans were completely upset by one of the troopers espying smokeissuing from the scrub on a small creek, that entered the bay abouthalf-way between the town and the Macalister. "We had better have a look in here, " said Dunmore, "there is no knowingwhere we may stumble on some information. " Accordingly, the helm was put up, and we ran into the mouth of theinlet, with the wind right aft. Beaching the boat on the soft sand, wesprang out, and advanced cautiously in the direction of the smoke, but, after several minutes of scrambling, we reached the fire only to findit deserted, its original proprietors having seen our sudden alterationof course, and sought the safety of the dense bush, where furthersearch would have been useless. "Now that we are on shore, " said Dunmore, "let us make a billy full oftea; it won't take long. Here, you boys, get 'em like 'it waddy tomake 'em fire. " The troopers and Lizzie dispersed in quest of fuel; Ferdinand walkingup the bank of the creek, where he was soon lost to sight. A loudcoo-eh from that direction soon brought us to the spot from whence itissued, and we found the boy staring at several pieces of timbersticking out of the sand. "Big fellow canoe been sit down here, " he said, on our approach, andexamining the protruding stumps, we soon saw enough to convince us thatthe boy was right, and that we were in the presence of a vessel, wrecked, or abandoned, Heaven only knows how many years ago. With ourhands, with pint pots, with a spade we had brought with us--mindful ofthe difficulty we had experienced in finding a resting-place for poorCato--with every utensil, in fact, that ingenuity could devise, we setto 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, asif it had struck against metal, and in less than a minute, a muchrusted cannon-shot was exposed to view, and passed round from hand tohand. It was of small size, weighing, perhaps, five pounds, though itsdimensions were evidently much decreased by the wasting action of damp. "By Jove!" said Dunmore, "perhaps she was a Spanish galleon, and weshall 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 oldbuccaneers floated through my brain; and Edgar Poe's fanciful story ofthe "Gold Beetle" occurring to me, I sung out, "Whatever you do, keepany parchment you stumble across, " and abandoned myself to thoughts ofuntold wealth, whilst I wielded a quart pot with the energy born ofmental excitement. "My word! that been big fellow sit down like 'it here, " criedFerdinand, who, lying on one side, had his bare arm buried at fulllength in the sand. "I feel him, Marmy, plenty cold. " We rushed to the boy's assistance, and speedily scraped away theshingle, until an old-fashioned gun was exposed to view; it was coatedand scaly with rust to such an extent, that we were unable to form anyidea as to its age or nationality. It would most probably have been atwelve or eighteen-pounder howitzer, for it was about four feet inlength, and disproportionately large in girth; but one of thetrunnions, and the button at the breech, were broken off, the portionthat had lain undermost had entirely disappeared, and the remainder wasso honeycombed, that beyond ascertaining that it was a piece ofordnance, we could elicit nothing from this curious relic of a bygonegeneration. Further search brought to light several more round-shot, but in thesame state as the first, and we noticed that in several places thetimbers were burnt, most probably by the natives, or the crewthemselves, for the sake of the copper bolts. What a number of melancholy recollections are awakened by the discoveryof a forgotten memorial of the past, such as this nameless wreck; andif those old timbers could have spoken, what a strange record of hopesunfulfilled, and high adventure unachieved, would have been disinterredfrom the dark storehouse of the past! That the vessel came in herpresent position by accident, could hardly be supposed. More probably, having struck on the Barrier Reef, or on some of the hidden coralshelves with which this sea abounds, she had been taken into thissecluded creek for repairs. Cook, the great circumnavigator, careenedhis ship at a spot not far distant from this; but we were unanimouslyof opinion that this vessel must have become embedded long prior to histime. Not only was the framework some distance from the present bed ofthe creek, but it was raised considerably above the water level. Thatthe eastern coast of Australia is slowly rising from the waves is wellknown, for in the neighbourhood of Brisbane valuable reclamations havebeen made within the memory of living men; but at least two centuriesmust have elapsed to account for the altitude attained by this oldcraft. Our regret was great at getting no more certain information, but although we persevered in digging until sundown, no casket ofjewels, no bags of specie, and no mysterious parchments rewarded us;and with the darkness we were compelled to abandon our search, ratherangry at having wasted several valuable hours to such little purpose. As it would have been madness attempting to cross the bar beforedaylight, we hauled the boat up on the beach, and made ourselvescomfortable for the night. About one o'clock, the trooper who was onwatch, awakened us with the news that there was a light out at sea. Wethought at first it could only be some blacks in their canoes, spearingfish by torchlight, but it gradually drew nearer and nearer, until atlast we could distinguish the distant sound of voices, and the faintrattle 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 soonagain in the land of dreams. Before daylight we had finished breakfast, and by the time the sunrose, were in the whale-boat, pulling towards the new arrival. She wasa dirty, weather-beaten, nondescript-looking little craft, half foreand aft schooner, half dandy-rigged cutter, and the look-out on boardwas evidently not very vigilant, for we had almost arrived alongside, before a black head showed over the gunwale, and, frightened at seeinga boat-load of armed men in such an unexpected spot, poured out a floodof shrieking jargon that would have aroused the Seven Sleepers, andwhich speedily awoke from their slumbers the remainder of the crew. There seemed to be only two white men, one of whom introduced himselfas the captain, and asked us, in French, to come on board. The vesselwas the 'Gabrielle d'Estonville', of New Caledonia, commanded byCaptain Jean Labonne, and had put into Rockingham Bay for water, duringa 'beche-de-mer' expedition. Anything to equal the filth of the fair'Gabrielle', I never saw. Her crew consisted of another Frenchmanbesides the captain, and of seven or eight Kanakas, two of whom hadtheir wives on board. As perhaps this extraordinary trade is butlittle known to the reader who has not resided in China, I will brieflynarrate how it is carried out. From the neighbourhood of Torres Straits to about the Tropic ofCapricorn, extends, at a distance of fifty to a hundred miles from theshore, an enormous bed of coral, named the Barrier Reef. There, untoldmillions of minute insects are still noiselessly pursuing their toil, and raising fresh structures from the depths of the ocean. Neither isthis jagged belt--though deadly to the rash mariner--without its uses. In the first place, a clear channel is always found between it and themainland, in which no sea of any formidable dimensions can ever rise, and now that modern surveys have accurately indicated where danger isto be found, this quiet channel is of the greatest use to the vesselsfrequenting that portion of the ocean, for they avoid the whole swellof the broad Pacific, which now thunders against and breaks harmlesslyon the huge coral wall, instead of wasting its fury on the coastitself. In the second place on the Barrier Reef is found the'Holothuria', from which the 'beche-de-mer' is prepared. It is a kindof sea-slug, averaging from one to over two feet in length, and four toten inches in girth. In appearance, these sea-cucumbers are morerepulsive, looking like flabby black or green sausages, and squirtingout a stream of salt water when pressed. But despite their disgustingappearance, they are a most valuable cargo, from the high price theyfetch in the Chinese market, where they are a much-esteemed delicacy. The vessel that goes in quest of 'beche-de-mer' takes several expertdivers--usually Kanakas, or South Sea Islanders--and having arrived atthe ground they propose fishing, a sort of head-quarters is establishedon some convenient island, where vegetables are planted, to stave offthe scurvy that would otherwise soon attack the adventurers. This donethe little vessel proceeds to the edge of the reef, and begins work inearnest. The sea-slug is found buried amidst the triturated sand, worn away bythe constant play of the waves, and only the experienced and keen-eyedKanakas can detect its whereabouts, by the fitful waving of the longfeathery tentacles surrounding the mouth of the fish, which immersesits 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 akeen 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 desistfrom pulling. He drops quietly into the clear water, and the length oftime that elapses before his black head reappears, is enough to make abystander nervous. Often the diver has to encounter his dread enemythe shark, and if cool and collected, generally comes off victorious inthe contest. The South Sea Islanders have a thorough knowledge of thehabits of this salt-water pirate, and know that by keeping underneathhim, they cannot be touched, and they will fearlessly stab the intruderwith their knives, and avail themselves of his momentary departure toregain the boat. I have known one instance of a native jumping intothe water to distract the attention of a shark that was swimming guardover his friend, and both escaped unhurt; but still, despite theirutmost skill, accidents do often occur. In shallow water the'beche-de-mer' is caught with a five-pronged instrument, resembling aneel-spear. The animals are split open, boiled, pressed flat, and driedin the sun, and after a sufficient number have been taken, they arecarried to the island rendezvous and there smoked with dry wood, whichlast process converts the slug into genuine 'beche-de-mer', fit for themarket, and for the palates of Celestial epicures. I tried to cooksome, but after boiling it for a couple of hours in a quart pot, itcame out like a dirty piece of indian-rubber, and so tough that noteeth could penetrate it. Captain Labonne welcomed us very cordially--the sight of a strange facemust have been a godsend--and most hospitably asked us to share hisbreakfast, but as it consisted only of dried fish, which smelt mostabominably, we declined, and he was very grateful for a couple of potsof 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 oneof our party had succeeded in jotting down the features of a Kanakadiver, 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 sightingthe bar shortly before eight o'clock, were glad to find but little surfrunning. On our way we passed several water-snakes, one of whichseemed of large size, but we were too distant to form any accurateestimate of its length. It was not altogether without misgivings thatwe encountered the ridge of sand that extended completely across theentrance of the river. Only one of our party had ever crossed itbefore, and it was known to be very dangerous. The calm water rolleditself up in smooth walls, which sailed majestically along until theupper portion broke into a line of white, and soon the entire massrushed onward in a sheet of foam. The great danger in crossing a bar is, that the helmsman either loseshis head and permits the boat to present her broadside to the surf, orthat 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 gotover without shipping a thimbleful of water. We found a broad expansestudded with dense mangrove flats, and it was with difficulty weascertained which was the main channel. We pulled on until about noon, by which time the mud swamps had disappeared, and we were fairly in theriver, which much resembled the Herbert, of which I have already givena description, except that it was smaller, and that the vegetation wasmore 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. Inever remember seeing water-fowl in such profusion as here. The ducksand geese were literally in tens of thousands, and thebeautifully-plumaged moor-fowl quite blackened the mangrove bushes aswe passed. The scenery was perfectly lovely. Tall palms shot up in everydirection; wild bananas spread forth their broad leaves, amidst whichwere seen the bunches of fruit; and the larger trees--fig, Leichhardtplum, etc. --threw their branches across the river, and thereinterlacing, formed a leafy canopy such as we imagined was unknown inAustralia. Some of the young palms we cut down for the sake of thehead, which is very pleasant eating. Stripping off the leaves, youcome to a shoot twenty inches or two feet in length, the interior ofwhich consists of a white substance resembling an office ruler inthickness, and which tastes something like a chestnut, but is much moremilky and sweet. The fruit of the wild banana has a most deliciousflavour, but is so full of small seeds that it is impossible to swallowit. The huge fig trees, with which the banks of most of the northernrivers abound, have the peculiarity that the fruit is found growing onthe trunk, and not at the extremity of the smaller boughs. On anenormous stem, and at a distance of only a few feet from its base, areseen bunches of figs, and these, though of smaller size than theEuropean fruit, are very palatable, if they can be selected free frominsects. Usually, the ants have been first afield, and have taken uptheir abode in the very heart of the fig, forming a most undesirablemouthful for the unwary stranger. The wild plums are very good, but toattain perfection, should be buried for some days previous to eating. I trust these details will not prove tedious to my readers, but I knowfrom experience the benefit arising from even a slight knowledge ofwild fruits and herbs, which have often quenched thirst and assuagedhunger when other food was wanting, and rendered endurable what wouldotherwise have been a painful journey. We camped that night where darkness overtook us, close to a thick scrubwhich lined the bank of the river, and we paid for our stupidity in notselecting a more open spot, for myriads of mosquitoes put sleep out ofthe question. The truth was that this belt of scrub had lined theriver for several miles past, and we hoped at every turn to come to abreak, 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 abeautiful black-soil plain of great extent, without a stick of timber, and well watered, not only by the Macalister, which meandered throughits centre, but by several large lagoons, overgrown with the lovelywhite lotus, and crowded with waterfowl. The existence of such aplanter's paradise was totally unsuspected, and we all gazedspell-bound on this splendid tract of country, possessing everyrequisite 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 superbcane growing in unwonted luxuriance, and horses and cattle have takenthe place of the kangaroos, that we on this first visit found grazingthere in troops. In the distance could be seen the coast range behindCardwell, which seemed to recede inland as it trended towards ourposition, and sweeping round, approached the sea again farther north, forming a natural boundary to a vast space of available country. Asilver line shone out on the mountains, and with our glasses we couldmake out that it must be a waterfall of very large dimensions. We atonce 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 tomake this charming spot our head-quarters for the present, as we hadeverything to be desired--water, game, etc. --close at hand, and, fromthe absence of timber, no blacks would be able to steal upon usunperceived. Leaving the pilot and one man in charge of the boat, we trudged alongthrough the high grass, which reached to our middles, and was drippingwith moisture from a shower that had fallen during the night; and, after a tedious walk, reached the edge of the scrub. It was thickerthan anything we had encountered before, the density of the foliagetotally excluding the sun, and giving rise to a dank humid odour thatstruck a chill to the heart directly you entered. We wound along thepath, or rather track, that the blacks had made, with the greatestdifficulty. 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 ourmost provoking enemies was the lawyer vine, a kind of rattan enclosedin 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 loftytrees, and from thence either descending or pushing onward, orfestooning themselves from stem to stem in graceful curves ofindescribable beauty. From the joints of the parent shoot are thrownout little slender tendrils, no thicker than a wire, but of greatlength, and as dangerously armed as their larger relation. Thesemiserable little wretches seem always on the watch to claw hold ofsomething, and if you are unhappy enough to be caught, and attempt todisengage yourself by struggling, fresh tendrils appear always to lurkin ambush, ready to assist their companion, who already holds you inhis grasp. I have measured the length of one of these canes, and foundit 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 roadthrough the scrub that they had found some over 300 yards long. Theyseem to retain the same circumference throughout their whole length, and, as the bushman puts everything to some use, the lawyer is divestedof his husk, and takes the place of wire in fencing, being rove throughthe holes bored in the posts as though they were ropes. It is almostneedless to add that this cane derives its 'soubriquet' of "lawyer"from the difficulty experienced in getting free if once caught in itstoils. Another of the torments to which the traveller is subjected in theNorth Australian scrubs, is the stinging-tree ('Urtica gigas'), whichis very abundant, and ranges in size from a large shrub of thirty feetin height to a small plant measuring only a few inches. Its leaf islarge and peculiar, from being covered with a short silvery hair, which, when shaken, emits a fine pungent dust, most irritating to theskin and nostrils. If touched, it causes most acute pain, which isfelt for months afterwards--a dull gnawing pain, accompanied by aburning sensation, particularly in the shoulder, and under the arm, where small lumps often arise. Even when the sting has quite diedaway, the unwary bushman is forcibly reminded of his indiscretion eachtime that the affected part is brought into contact with water. Thefruit is of a pink, fleshy colour, hanging in clusters, and looks soinviting that a stranger is irresistibly tempted to pluck it; butseldom more than once, for though the raspberry-like berries areharmless in themselves, some contact with the leaves is almostunavoidable. The blacks are said to eat the fruit; but for this Icannot vouch, though I have tasted one or two at odd times, and foundthem very pleasant. The worst of this nettle is the tendency itexhibits to shoot up wherever a clearing has been effected. In passingthrough the dray tracks cut through the scrub, great caution wasnecessary to avoid the young plants that cropped up even in a fewweeks. 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 ascientific gentleman, who plucked off a branch and carried it somedistance as a curiosity, wondering the while what was causing the painand numbness in his arm. Horses I have been die in agony from thesting, the wounded parts becoming paralysed; but strange to say, itdoes not seem to injure cattle, who dash through scrubs full of itwithout receiving any damage. This curious anomaly is well known toall bushmen. For a couple of hours we followed the tortuous windings of the track, without we white men having the faintest conception where we weregoing, though the troopers and Lizzie declared that we were pushingstraight through. At length a ray of sunlight became visible, and in afew minutes we emerged from the sombre depths of the jungle, and foundourselves on the banks of a splendid river, the Mackay. Traces ofblacks were seen in every direction, the white sand being covered withtheir foot-prints. Abandoned gungales were plentiful on the oppositebank, which was clear of scrub, and whilst we were eating the damperand beef with which each of the party was provided, Lizzie espied athin column of smoke at no great distance. We approached it as cautiously as possible, taking advantage of everyshrub that offered a cover, and finally, lying down and worming our waythrough the grass on all fours, a mode of progression that is in itselfparticularly fatiguing and objectionable, but not without excitement, for we never knew the moment when we might chance to put our hands on adormant snake, or find ourselves sprawling over a nest of bulldog ants. We were successful in completely surprising the camp, which consistedentirely of gins and piccaninnies, all the males, as usual, being outhunting. The gins spoke quite a different language from that of theHinchinbrook and Herbert River people, and Lizzie was a long timebefore she could make them understand. They seemed to know nothing ofany white men, nor, I may say, of anything else in particular. Theywere ignorant where the Mackay rose, or where it debouched, and couldgive us no information regarding the waterfall we saw on the distantrange, what river it supplied, or what kind of country was between usand the hills. Altogether they were a most unsatisfactory lot; andhaving rummaged their camp without finding any suspicious articles, andthreatened them with wholesale destruction if they gave warning of ourapproach to any other tribe, by either smoke signals or messengers, wedeparted, much disgusted. On arriving at the edge of a small copse, at a short distance from thecamp, we found the arsenal of the male portion of the tribe. Why theyhad stacked their arms so far away from the gungales we never couldmake out; but there they were, consisting of the usual spears andshields, and, in addition, several of the enormous swords used by thesenatives, of which we had often heard, but that few of our party, exceptDunmore, had ever seen. These curious weapons are made of the heaviestiron-bark wood, are about five feet in length, by as many inches inbreadth, 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 willreceive. They are slightly curved; but the most wonderful part aboutthem is the handle, which is so small that a European can withdifficulty squeeze three fingers into it. The mystery is, how do theyuse them? for Goliath of Gath could never have wielded an instrument asheavy as this with one hand. It is supposed that the warrior raisesthe cumbrous weapon on his shield, and having got within sword's lengthof his enemy, lets it drop on his head. This portion of a black'sframe is undeniably hard; but such a blow would crush it like anegg-shell; and as he may be credited with sufficient sense to knowthis, it seems difficult to understand why he should stand still andallow such a disagreeable operation to be performed. Whether or notthe use of these weapons has been discovered since I left Australia, Iam unable to say; but certainly up to that time we who lived in theirneighbourhood were unable to appreciate the varied excellencies theydoubtless possess. We pursued our way up the Mackay River in hopes of finding sometermination to the thick scrub on the opposite bank, so that we mightreturn to our boat without having to thread its intricate mazes again;and in this we were successful, finding a break in the jungle an hourbefore sunset, which at once admitted us to the plain, through thecentre of which ran the Macalister, and in due course we reached ourcamp, where, after having a glorious "bogey" (the Australian term forbathing) in the river, and overhauling each other well, to see that noticks were adhering to our skins, we had supper, and turned in, havingdone little good, except finding a road to the Mackay less tedious thanthe one we had taken in the morning. The ticks that I mentioned justnow, are little insects no bigger than a pin's head when they firstfasten on to you, but soon become swollen with blood until larger thana pea. They do no harm to a man besides the unpleasant feeling theyoccasion, but they almost invariably kill a dog. Nearly all our dogsfell 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 lastfor a week, and to work up towards the unknown country at the head ofthe Mackay, leaving the boat in its present position, under the chargeof two men. We intended to push towards the range whence both theMacalister and the Mackay rivers drew their supply; and as the formerstream in its windings over the open plain approached within a mile ofits large neighbour, we resolved to move the boat a little further upbefore starting on our new expedition. By occasionally lightening her, and dragging her over the shallows, this was accomplished in a coupleof hours, and we finally halted at a bend in the river where the bankwas high enough to shield the boat from all observation, whilst thescrub bordering the Mackay, standing at less than a quarter of a miledistant, the men left behind could easily see if any considerable bodyof blacks moved between the two streams, and could take the bearings ofall smoke arising from fires in the direction of the coast, so that wemight visit them hereafter, if deemed necessary. The fact of tworivers, each containing a constant supply of water, being found in suchclose proximity to each other, caused much remark, for none of us hadever observed a similar instance in Australia, which is as a rule verydeficient in permanent rivers. We now turned our attention to getting sufficient provisions cooked tolast the exploring party for three days, as we were determined toemploy the utmost vigilance, and show as little smoke as possible, fornothing creates such suspicion amongst the aboriginals as seeing freshfires constantly lighted, unless accompanied by the smoke signals, which I have described in a former chapter. As we were utterlyignorant of the code they employed, we resolved only to light our firesat night, and not even then unless we found some sequestered spot wherethe flame would be unseen. Some of us at once started for a largelagoon that we had passed in the morning, and creeping up through thelong grass, found its surface quite covered with water-fowl of everydescription, from the black swan to the beautiful pigmy goose. Avolley, fired at a concerted signal, strewed the surface of the lakewith the dead and wounded, and we were compelled to stand idly on thebank until the wind wafted the game ashore, for at the report of theguns two or three heavy splashes and as many dusky forms gliding intothe water betokened that we had disturbed alligators, either having anap, 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 theirinhabitants are still afraid to bathe in the broad sheet of waterspread so invitingly before them. Having secured our game, we returned to the boat, and after pluckingand splitting open the birds, some were roasted over the fire forimmediate use, but by far the greater number were boiled in a pot, which was portion of the boat's furniture when on an expedition. Oneof the troopers had with a tomahawk stripped off a sheet of bark, andon this was manufactured a gigantic damper. For the information ofsuch of my readers as may be unacquainted with Australia, I mustexplain that damper is unleavened bread, well kneaded and baked in theashes. But simple though such a rough form of loaf may seem from theabove description, it is in reality a very difficult thing to turn outa thoroughly good damper, and only practice will enable the new-comerto obtain the sleight of hand necessary for the production of afirst-rate specimen. In form a damper resembles a flat cheese of twoor three inches thick, and from one to two feet in diameter. Great careand much practice are requisite to form this shape so that no cracksshall appear, and when this is done the work is by no means over, forthe exact heat of the fire must be judged by the cook, otherwise hewill 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 plentifulenough in the bush, and if you only know the right kind to use, youfind no difficulty in soon providing yourself with a glorious heap ofglowing embers. Scraping away a hole in the centre of the fire alittle larger than the disc, you gently drop it in with your hands, strew it over with enough powdery white ash to prevent the emberscoming into actual contact with the dough, and then cover the wholewith the glowing coals. Only practice can enable the bushman to judgethe 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 beduntil small cracks appear on the covering caused by the steam forcingits way out. This is a sign that it is nearly done, confirmation ofwhich is sought by introducing a knife-blade through the ashes, andsounding the crust. If this gives back a hard sound, the damper may beconsidered cooked, and is then withdrawn, stood carefully 'on itsedge'--never forget this--and is ready to eat when cool. As there was nothing very particular to do that afternoon, we watchedthe troopers spearing fish, in which they were most skilful. There isin 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 atime I have vainly tried to lure them from their watery depths, but nobait would tempt them that I could ever hit on, though I have littledoubt that a fly or artificial minnow would prove killing. We couldsee them in the Macalister, lying with their heads pointed up stream, and seemingly motionless but for the slight waving of the tail thatretained them in their places. Having cut several slender switches, not thicker than a tobacco-pipe stem, and sharpened one end with aknife, the trooper Ferdinand, who was by far the most expert among hisbrethren, grasped this apparently inoffensive little weapon between thethumb and middle finger, whilst the blunt end rested against the ballof the forefinger. Stooping down, he approached to within four or fiveyards of the fish, which were only a few inches from the surface, andsuddenly jerking his switch forward, it entered the water almosthorizontally, 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 sightof it in its endeavour to escape. This fish is excellent eating, andaverages from eight to thirty pounds in weight. As Dunmore and I were strolling along a small lagoon overgrown withwater-lilies, he pointed out to me a pretty graceful little bird, aboutthe size of a jack-snipe, but with longer legs, and most extraordinaryclaws. I am ashamed to say I shot this poor little fellow, to examinehim, and found that each toe measured at least three inches from theleg to the extremity of the claw. This is to enable the bird to runalong safely over the floating leaves of the lotus, on which plant itseems to get its living. I had never seen one before; and the simplemanner in which Nature had adapted it to its peculiar line of lifestruck me as both curious and beautiful. What this little bird'sscientific name is I never heard, but we colonists call it the "Lotusbird. " As there was a remote chance of the party left with the boats coming incontact with the blacks, it was deemed advisable to leave them atrooper, who would more readily recognise their whereabouts than thewhite 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, theexploring party, consisting of Dunmore, Ferdinand, Larry, Lizzie andmyself, 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, lightlytimbered, but the soil not nearly so rich as the fertile plain throughwhich wound the Macalister. It would be tedious to weary my readerswith a minute account of our doings each day; enough to say that wepassed through new country of every description, crossing from side toside of the Mackay, to cut off its many bends, and that our progresswas but slow, the distant ranges seeming hardly nearer on the third daythan they were at starting. We were disappointed in not meeting withany blacks, though their traces were plentiful; and we had commenced tofear that the tribe we had surprised five days before had given warningof our approach, when Ferdinand reported smoke a couple of miles on ourright. It was about mid-day when this was seen; and having made ahurried meal off the damper, which I may here state answered itspurpose 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 asmall belt of scrub, we could make out that the fire was by the side ofa water-hole, but the two hundred yards between it and ourselves was soopen, that surprising the camp seemed almost impossible. The hour wasin our favour, for the blacks were lying about listlessly, restingthemselves after the fatigues of procuring the food of which they hadjust made a meal. They numbered about twenty of both sexes, and wereevidently quite unconscious of our proximity. Detaching the twotroopers to make a detour, and cut them off from the scrub in thatdirection, Dunmore, Lizzie, and I remained perfectly motionless forabove an hour, and then, judging that the boys must have reached theirposition, we advanced towards the camp swiftly but silently. We gotover a third of the distance before the blacks saw us, and then ensureda general scrimmage. The women and children jumped into the lagoon, and the men, snatching up their weapons, threw a volley of spears withsuch force and precision that, had we been twenty yards closer, itwould have gone hard with both my companions and myself. As it was, the missiles nearly all fell short, seeing which the warriors droppedtheir arms and took to their heels, running directly for the spot whereFerdinand and Larry lay in ambush. Both Dunmore and myself fired ourcarbines over the heads of the retreating Myalls (wild blacks), whichcompleted their panic, and one of them, rushing recklessly forward, wascaptured 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, thewomen came out of the water, and we were very much pleased to find thatthey readily understood Lizzie. On being addressed by her, thewarrior, who had hitherto maintained a sullen and defiant attitude, became conversational, and readily replied to all the questions put tohim by Dunmore. Unlike most of the blacks, he appeared to be verylittle frightened at the situation in which he found himself, andseemed instinctively to know that all danger was past. On beingquestioned regarding the shipwrecked crew, he denied all knowledge ofany vessel having been lost, but said at once that a white man hadlived with this tribe for many moons, though he was dead now. Thisrather astonished us, and we asked if any relics were still in thecamp, upon which one of the gins produced an old sheath-knife, worndown nearly to nothing by constant sharpening; half a dozen hornbuttons, one of them still sewn to a fragment of moleskin; and an emptytin match-box. We asked how long the white man had been dead, and weretold that he died three moons before, of fever, and that we could seehis grave if we liked, for it was within a day's journey. There was anopenness about this tribe, and a frankness in their answers, that madeus certain that all we heard was the truth, and as they had evidentlybefriended this poor wanderer, we were anxious to repay them in somemeasure, and strengthen the kindly feelings they felt for the whitemen, so we told Lizzie to assure them that our visit was only to searchfor our lost brethren; that we should like to visit the grave, if oneof them would guide us; and that in return for their services we wouldgive them a new knife and a tomahawk. As they were profoundly ignorant of the use of fire-arms, and we wishedto impress upon them the irresistible power of the white man, it wasagreed that we should ask them to guide us to the nearest placefrequented by kangaroos, and pick off two or three of these animals intheir presence, if possible. They were very curious to know themeaning of our "lightning sticks, " and we repaired, escorted by nearlythe whole tribe, to a neighbouring water-hole, where we could remainconcealed, and get an easy shot at any game coming down to drink. Wewere not kept long waiting, for within half an hour a couple ofwallabies came hopping leisurely along, and were very cleverly droppedin their tracks, one by Dunmore, the other by Larry. Our hosts were inecstasies, and seemed very grateful that a similar fate had notbefallen some of their number in the morning; but we made Lizzieexplain to them clearly that our object was not to hurt our blackfriends, unless they were wicked--ill-treating white men, or spearingcattle. A couple of noble emus now came stalking slowly towards thewater, and, passing within forty yards of our hiding-place, both fellvictims 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 thesettled districts. However, in the north emus may be found in plenty;and I do not think there is the slightest fear of their becomingextinct, as some writers suggest. All my readers must have seen thisbird at the Zoological Gardens, and remarked its likeness to theostrich, both in form and habits; but the prisoner portrays but poorlythe free majestic gait of the wild inhabitant of the plains. Thecolour of the adult bird is a greyish brown, the feathers are veryloose and hairy, whilst the height of a fine male is often nearly sevenfeet. The usual mode of capturing these birds is to ride them down, using dogs trained for the purpose to pull them to the ground. Thedogs should be taught to reserve their attack until the emu isthoroughly tired out, and then to spring upon the neck; but an unwarypuppy will bitterly rue his temerity should he come within reach of thepowerful legs, which deal kicks fiercely around, and of sufficientpower to disable any assailant. The ostrich always kicks forward, inwhich he differs from the emu, whose blow is delivered sideways andbackwards, like a cow. This bird is very good eating, if you know thepart to select; the legs proving tough and unpalatable, while the backis nearly as tender as fowl. But to the bushman the most valuablething about the emu is its oil, which is looked upon as a sovereignremedy for bruises or sprains when rubbed into the affected part eitherpure or mixed with turpentine. This useful oil is of a light yellowcolour, and from its not readily congealing or becoming glutinous, itis in much request for cleaning the locks of fire-arms. It chieflyresides in the skin, but also collects in great quantities near therump. 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 astill simpler plan, though less productive, is to hang the skin beforea fire, and catch the oil as it drips down. A full-sized bird willyield from six to seven quarts. The food of the emu consists of grassand various fruits. It emits a deep drumming sound from its throat, butno other cry, that I ever heard. Its nest is only a shallow holescraped in the ground, and in this hollow the eggs, which vary innumber, are laid. Dr. Bennett remarks that "There is always an oddnumber, some nests having been discovered with nine, others witheleven, and others again with thirteen. " When fresh they are of abeautiful green colour, and are in much request for mounting in silveras drinking cups; but after a little while the colour changes to adirty brownish green. One peculiarity about the next is, that theparent bird never goes straight up to it, but walks round and round ina narrowing circle, of which the nest is the centre. I once caughtseven little emus, only just out of the shell; but shutting them up forthe night in an empty room, I was horrified the next morning to findthat they had all been killed by rats. The young ones have four broadlongitudinal stripes down the back, which disappear as they grow up. The emu is easily domesticated, and on many cattle and sheep stationstame specimens are funning about the paddocks. To my mind they are anintolerable nuisance, always doing some mischief--either frighteningthe horses, or stealing things from the workmen. I saw one cured ofhis thievish propensities for a long time. He always loafed about thekitchen when dinner was being served, and if the cook turned his backfor a moment, his long neck was thrust through the window, and anythingwithin reach--from an onion to a salt-spoon--disappeared withmarvellous celerity. But my friend caught a tartar when he bolted twoscalding potatoes, steaming from the pot. He rushed round and roundthe little paddock, and at last dropped down as if dead, from pain andfatigue. Poor wretch, he must have suffered dreadfully; and I am surewe all pitied him, except the cook, whose patience he had quite wornout. Out sable allies were gratified beyond measure when we presented themwith the game, and a great feast took place that evening. We neglectedno opportunity of gaining information about both the shipwrecked crewand the unknown white man, whose grave we were to visit on thefollowing morning. Through Lizzie we questioned different individualsseparately, but they all agreed that such an event as the loss of avessel and the arrival of her crew amongst the blacks, could notpossibly have happened without their hearing something of it. Fromtheir imperfect knowledge of time, and their difficulty in expressingany number higher than five, we could not form the slightest idea howlong the white man had lived among them; but they pointed to the rangesbehind the township of Cardwell as indicating the place where he firstjoined them. We camped at the opposite end of the water-hole, not thinking itjudicious to remain too close to our allies, and kept a strict watchduring the night; but we might all have enjoyed a good sleep in perfectsafety, for the blacks were far too busy stuffing themselves with emumeat to think of treachery. Before sunrise we started, guided by ourlate captive and two of his companions. After a tedious walk, wearrived at an open plain, on which the grass was trodden down in everydirection, in some places worn quite away by the feet of thenatives--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 theweird scenes that the posts had witnessed, we came to a little creekwhose clear stream babbled cheerfully among the rocks, and soon saw agiant fig-tree, which our guides indicated as being the spot we sought. As we approached we perceived a greyish-looking form on a large limbabout ten feet from the ground, and a closer inspection revealed to usthat it was unmistakably the body of a white man, rolled up in tea-treebark, and kept in its position by fastenings of split cane. We couldnot examine the corpse very minutely, for it was too offensive; butfrom the portions of the face that still remained, and the long blondelocks and red beard, we satisfied ourselves that the poor wanderer wasnot one of the 'Eva's' crew; indeed, we judged that his death must havetaken place some time before the loss of that vessel. We were muchpleased to observe the respect with which the natives had treated theremains, and as they think that exposure either on a platform or in atree 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 wepassed the night. Our damper was now at an end, and we had no flour with us, so made upour minds to return to the boat. On talking the matter over, it seemedquite clear that the shipwrecked men had never been thrown on this partof the coast, and that any further exploration would only be lost time. On the following morning we presented the tribe with our knives, andsome matches, and taking a friendly leave of them, started for theMacalister, accompanied by two of the warriors. We reached the boat onthe sixth day, found the pilot and his party well, and having dismissedthe blacks, with the present of a tomahawk and a blanket, we started atonce for the place lower down the river, which had been agreed uponwith Jack Clark as a rendezvous. When we arrived at this spot on thefollowing day, the horsemen had not turned up, so we amused ourselvesas best we could, fishing, shooting, and eating damper thicklyplastered 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 littlegum, attached to it a piece of down from a large owl that somebody hadshot. Releasing the insect, it flew directly towards its nest, theunaccustomed burden with which it was laden serving not only to make iteasily visible, but also impeding its flight sufficiently to admit ofthe boy following it. The next was at the top of a large blue gumtree, about three feet in diameter, and sending up a smooth column forfifty feet without a branch or twig. Most people would have given upall thoughts of a honey feed for the day; not so Mr. Larry, whosemovements we followed with considerable curiosity. Divesting himself ofhis clothing, he repaired to an adjoining scrub, and with his tomahawkcut out a piece of lawyer cane twenty feet in length. Having strippedthis of its husk, he wove it into a hoop round the tree of justsufficient size to admit his body. Slinging his tomahawk and afishing-line round his neck, he got inside the hoop, and allowing it torest against the small of his back, he pressed hard against the treewith his knees and feet. This raised him several inches, when with adexterous jerk he moved the portion of the hoop furthest away from hima good foot up the stem, and thus--somewhat on the same principle thatboys climb a chimney, for the hoop represented the chimney--he workedhimself upward, and in much less time than I have taken to describe it, was astride on the lowest branch, and chopping vigorously at the hollowwhich contained the golden store. The use of the fishing-line nowbecame apparent, for we bent on to its end a small tin billy (roundcan), used for making tea, and by hauling this up and filling it, Larrysoon supplied us with honey enough to fill our bucket and the boat'sbaler. As perhaps my readers may be tempted to wonder why the bees didnot attack the naked hide of the robber who was thus rudely despoilingthem, I must state that the wild Australian bee is stingless. It is aharmless little insect, not much larger than the common house-fly, andthough it produces abundance of honey and wax, it has not beensubjected to domestication, and from its diminutive proportions and itshabit of building on very high trees, probably never will be. TheEnglish bee has been most successfully introduced into Queensland; andmany of the farms in the neighbourhood of Brisbane make a good thingout of their honey and wax. A meeting was held the next day, at which it was agreed that allfurther search would be useless, and, indeed, I am certain that everypossible measure had been attempted for the discovery of the missingmen. There seems every reason to think that the ill-fated 'Eva' wassunk in the cyclone. Most likely she went down in deep water, and allon board her were drowned. Such was the supposition that received mostfavour at the time, and with it we must rest content until the greatday when all secrets are revealed.