Explorations in Australia | Page 3

the interior, and, with the assistance of his friends Messrs. Chambers and Finke, he was enabled to make two preparatory expeditions in the vicinity of Lake Torrens--from April 2nd to July 3rd, 1859, and from November 4th, 1859, to January 21st, 1860. The fourth expedition started from Chambers Creek (discovered by Mr. Stuart in 1858, and since treated as his head-quarters for exploring purposes), on March 2nd, 1860, and consisted of Mr. Stuart and two men, with thirteen horses. Proceeding steadily northwards, until the country which his previous explorations had rendered familiar was left far behind, on April 23rd the great explorer calmly records in his Journal the following important announcement: "To-day I find from my observations of the sun that I am now camped in the CENTRE OF AUSTRALIA." One of the greatest problems of Australian discovery was solved! The Centre of the continent was reached, and, instead of being an inhospitable desert or an inland sea, it was a splendid grass country through which ran numerous watercourses.
Leaving the Centre, a north-westerly course was followed, but, after various repulses, a north-easterly course eventually carried the party as far as latitude 18 degrees 47 minutes south, longitude 134 degrees, when they were driven back by the hostility of the natives. As has already been stated, Mr. Gregory in 1855, starting from the north-west coast, had penetrated to the south as low as latitude 20 degrees 16 minutes, longitude 127 degrees 35 minutes. Mr. Stuart had now reached a position about half-way between Gregory's lowest southward point and the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Without actually reaching the country explored by Gregory, he had overlapped his brother explorer's position by one degree and a half, or more than one hundred miles, and was about two hundred and fifty miles in actual distance from the nearest part of the shores of the Gulf. It is important to remark that the attack of the savages which forced Mr. Stuart to return occurred on June 26th, 1860, so that he had virtually crossed the continent two months before Messrs. Burke and Wills had left Melbourne.* (* They did not leave Cooper Creek until December 14th, rather more than a fortnight before Mr. Stuart started on his fifth expedition.)
On New Year's day 1861, Mr. Stuart again left Adelaide, aided this time by a grant from the Colonial Government of 2500 pounds, in addition to the assistance of his well-tried friends Messrs. Chambers and Finke. He made his former position with ease, and advanced about one hundred miles beyond it, to latitude 17 degrees, longitude 133 degrees; but an impenetrable scrub barred all further progress, and failing provisions, etc., compelled him, after such prolonged and strenuous efforts that his horses on one occasion were one hundred and six hours without water, most reluctantly to return. The expedition arrived safely in the settled districts in September, and the determined explorer, after a delay of less than a month, was again despatched by the South Australian Government along what had now become to him a familiar road. This time success crowned his efforts; a passage was found northwards through the opposing scrub, and leaving the Gulf of Carpentaria far to the right, the Indian Ocean itself was reached. Other explorers had merely seen the rise and fall of the tide in rivers, boggy ground and swamps intervening and cutting off all chance of ever seeing the sea. But Stuart actually stood on its shore and washed his hands in its waters! What a pleasure it must have been to the leader when, knowing well from his reckoning that the sea must be close at hand, but keeping it a secret from all except Thring and Auld, he witnessed the joyful surprise of the rest of the party!
The expedition reached Adelaide safely, although for a long time the leader's life was despaired of, the constant hardships of so many journeys with scarcely any intermission having brought on a terrible attack of scurvy. The South Australian Government in 1859 liberally rewarded Mr. Stuart and his party for their successful enterprise.* (* Mr. Stuart's qualities as a practised Bushman are unrivalled, and he has always succeeded in bringing his party back without loss of life.) On the 10th of March a resolution was passed to the effect that a sum of 3500 pounds should be paid as a reward to John McDouall Stuart, Esquire, and the members of his party, in the following proportions: Mr. Stuart 2000 pounds; Mr. Keckwick 500 pounds; Messrs. Thring and Auld 200 pounds each; and Messrs. King, Billiatt, Frew, Nash, McGorrerey, and Waterhouse, 100 pounds each. Perhaps this is the most fitting place to express Mr. Stuart's appreciation of the honour done him by the Royal Geographical Society of London, in awarding him their gold