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On the 7th, therefore, we set forth on our journey and bade adieu to the last outpost of civilisation in the North. Our party was further increased by a Sturt Creek boy, Tiger by name a very smart and intelligent fellow of whom Mr. Stretch was very glad to see the last, for smart boys are nearly always the most mischievous amongst the cattle.
The native cucumber was growing upon its banks, and the feed was abundant. Here they met with immense numbers of brown pigeons, of the same description as those found by Captain Sturt in 1845. There were thousands of them; in fact, they flew by in such dense masses that, on two occasions, Woodforde killed thirteen with a single shot. The travellers pronounced them first-rate eating.
When swimming, very little of their bodies appear above water; their necks are extended a little forward, and their progress is slow. On two occasions I saw some ostriches swimming across the Santa Cruz river, where its course was about four hundred yards wide, and the stream rapid. Captain Sturt, when descending the Murrumbidgee, in Australia, saw two emus in the act of swimming.
Saturday 15th June, North-east Small Plains, Sturt Plains. Started at 7.30 a.m.; course, 60 degrees, through another ten miles of very thick forest, the thickest we have yet seen. At eleven miles came again upon the large open grassy plain, at the point where I turned on the 21st ultimo.
Eyre's services in the proposed expedition, provided no prior claim be preferred by Captain Sturt, with whom I have had some communication on the subject. The whole expense of the expedition would be defrayed by the Government; but before I can enter into any engagement with Mr.
On Sturt informing him that he was in the engineer department, and that his particular duties were to construct bridges, repair fortifications, superintend mining operations, and furnish plans of attack, he was promptly asked, "In how long a time do you think your army could take my fortress?" In about a quarter of an hour, answered Sturt in his quiet way.
On crossing this lake they found the passage to the ocean blocked up by a great bar of sand, and were forced to turn their boat round and face the current, with the prospect of a toilsome journey of a thousand miles before they could reach home. They had to work hard at their oars, Sturt taking his turn like the rest.
It was evident that either the Macquarie marshes or some other extensive tract to the eastward was on fire, as the wind blew from that quarter. The obscurity continued during the whole of the day, and the smell also. As we crossed the plain, which appeared to Captain Sturt like a "broad and rapid river," the dogs killed an emu, and thus we were now pretty well supplied with fresh meat.
"If," answered Sturt, "we shall meet with the same reception from them as we have hitherto enjoyed from all other chiefs whose possessions we have had occasion to trespass upon during our journeyings, we cannot complain of want of either kindness or hospitality; for as travellers we come, and once eating the 'salt of an Uzbeg, we know that none would dishonour himself by acting the traitor."
These nets are strong, with wide meshes; and when occasion requires they are stretched across the river from a lofty pole erected for the purpose on one side to some large opposite tree on the other. Such poles are permanently fixed, supported by substantial props, and it was doubtless one of them that Captain Sturt supposed to have been erected to propitiate some deity.
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