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Updated: May 25, 2025
As we rode along we kept a look-out for kangaroos, as we should have been glad to kill one for ourselves, although our black friends were not likely to benefit by it. We had gone some way when we caught sight of a dark object appearing just above a thick mass of leaves some two hundred yards away.
Carmichael went out to shoot game; there were kangaroos, and in the way of birds there were emus, crows, hawks, quail, and bronze-winged pigeons; but all we got from his expedition was nil. The horses now being somewhat refreshed by our stay here, we proceeded across the little plain towards another high bluff hill, which loomed over the surrounding country to the west-north-west.
Anxious if possible to give our horses a day or two's rest, at such a grassy place, and especially as the many kangaroos we saw, gave us hope of obtaining food for ourselves also, I twice dug for water, but did not find any of such quality as we could use.
They had other causes for hope and thankfulness: the natives were not likely to prove troublesome, the climate was healthy, and food abundant. Besides kangaroos, wild dogs were seen, which were supposed to be foxes or wolves, as they partly resembled both these animals. With the natives for some time no intercourse was opened.
Kangaroos and various birds, particularly the white cockatoo, were numerous; and the little bees came like flies on our hands, on my paper, and on our soup plates, and indicated abundance of honey; a small species of Cicada had risen from its slumbers, and was singing most cheerfully.
As we crossed the plain on which the last kangaroo had been killed we saw many fresh tracks of these animals; and the dogs took after one which they killed, as appeared by their mouths when they returned. It may be observed that lower down on the Darling we saw neither kangaroos nor emus, a sufficient proof of the barrenness of the adjacent country.
"You know what a kangaroo battue is, don't you?" "But that is killing, slaughtering kangaroos by the hundred." "Well, and that is aboriginal dispersion," said the novelist. "That is the aristocratic method of legislating the native out of existence." Blackburn here vigorously protested.
There was an abundance of pasture over the whole, from amongst which they started numerous kangaroos. The scenery towards the ranges was beautiful and romantic, and the general appearance of the country such as to delight the whole party.
Whether or not they understood him, however, we could not tell, for they stood without altering their position, and not wishing to have an encounter with them which must have ended in bloodshed, we made a wide circuit beyond the reach of their weapons. When we looked back we saw them joined by a large number of their fellows who were employed in dragging off the bodies of the kangaroos.
The best marksmen of the marines and convicts were also selected, and put under the command of a trusty sergeant, with directions to range the woods in search of kangaroos, which were ordered, when brought in, to be delivered to the commissary.
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