Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia | Page 7

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and the sow-thistle of the southern districts; one we came to was a thick
tea-tree swamp, extremely picturesque, and producing abundance of
these plants, some of which were collected by the men to eat in the
evening. To my surprise Mr. Walker here came up to me and asked if I
did not think it would be better to halt for a day or two at places of this
kind to allow the men to refresh themselves. The idea of men halting
and wasting their strength and energies in searching for native food
whilst they had so fearful a journey before them, and no supplies,
appeared to me to be preposterous in the extreme: to obtain a
sufficiency of food, even for a native, requires in Australia a great
degree of skill and knowledge of the productions of the country; but for
a European, utterly unaccustomed to this species of labour and totally

unacquainted with the productions of the land, to obtain enough to
support life for any period, whilst at the same time he has to search for
water, is quite impossible. Even Kaiber, from his ignorance of the roots,
declared that he should starve in this country. I saw therefore that did I
adopt the proposed plan of travelling only a few miles a day, and
occasionally halting for a day or two to refresh ourselves upon some
thistles and periwinkles, I should infallibly sacrifice the lives of the
whole party; and under this impression I declined to accede to the
suggestion. Amongst indolent and worn-out men however it
subsequently became an extremely popular notion, and, as future events
clearly showed, a fatally erroneous one. I from the first opposed it both
by my words and example; and in this instance, as soon as I conceived
that the men were sufficiently rested, I moved on.
PICTURESQUE ESTUARY.
After travelling another mile we found ourselves at the head of a large
and picturesque estuary which lay north and south; the native path ran
along its shores, which were of great richness and beauty, and the
estuary itself lay to our west and was about two miles across; on the
east a series of rich undercliff limestone hills gradually rose into lofty
and precipitate ranges, between which and the estuary was the fertile
valley along which we wound our weary way; while groups of graceful
acacias with their airy and delicate foliage gave a great charm to this
beautiful spot. We moved slowly along, and ere we had made two
miles more the shades of night began to fall and I halted the party.
RICH AND FERTILE DISTRICT.
The abundance of grass which grew around enabled us to enjoy the
almost unknown luxury of a soft bed, yet as I lay down my thoughts
were far from pleasant when I found that we had only walked twelve
miles today, and this distance had been accomplished by several of the
party with the greatest difficulty. Three of them were the men who
carried those heavy loads which I could not yet induce them to abandon;
now I could not but reflect that, if their difficulty was so great in
walking in a country abounding with water, that it would be almost
impossible for them to get along in one where it was scarce; moreover
the mere physical exertion of getting unwilling men to move by
persuasions and entreaties was harassing in the extreme, and indeed had
so agitated me that the night had nearly worn away ere I closed my

eyes. The rich flats we were on today have apparently at no distant
period formed part of the head of the estuary.
April 5.
Such a heavy dew had fallen during the night that when I got up in the
morning I found my clothes completely saturated, and everything
looked so verdant and flourishing compared to the parched up country
which existed to the north of us, and that which I knew lay to the south,
that I tried to find a satisfactory reason to explain so strange a
circumstance, but without success. It seemed certain however that we
stood in the richest province of South-west Australia, and one which so
differs from the other portions of it in its geological characters, in the
elevations of its mountains which lie close to the sea coast, in the
fertility of its soil, and the density of its native population, that we
appeared to be moving upon another continent. As yet however the
only means I had of judging of the large number of natives inhabiting
this district had been from their paths and warran grounds, but it was
most probable that we should ere long fall in with some of them.
We started at dawn pursuing a south-south-east direction, and at the
end