drains the flat country forming Central Australia, and empties itself into Spencer’s Gulf, but which the researches of this traveller, coupled with the observations of Hack, Babbage, and Warburton, have proved to be a series of disconnected lakes of brackish water. Leaving the western bank of the mighty swamp, Stuart, in this his first expedition which brought him into notice, kept towards the north and west, sweeping round the Gawler Range, and though furnished with provisions for only three weeks, he and his companion remained out for six, suffering great hardships from the inclemency of the weather, and from living on reduced allowance; nor were the privations they endured in any measure recompensed, since the country they passed through proved quite unavailable for pastoral purposes.
It had been often noticed in the account given by Eyre of his perilous journey, that cool breezes and flocks of birds always came from the north; and though the design on which he planned his route did not allow of his taking advantage of this fact, it bore fruit in the course followed by future explorers. In 1856 Mr. Babbage, prosecuting a Government research in the north, came upon a tract of country comparatively well watered, which he designated Blanche Water in honour of Lady Macdonnell, but here, with the exception of one or two, the runs put up to auction found no bidder. In 1857 a large and very stony piece of country was made known by Mr. Swindon, but so badly grassed, and so ill supplied with water, as to repel the idea of occupying it for pastoral purposes. In 1858, however, Mr. Stuart, acting on information gathered while resident at Oratunga, a station belonging to Mr. Chambers, situate 400 miles from Adelaide, in what is termed the far north, and again provisioned and supplied by that gentleman, set out on a second expedition, keeping to the north and west from the head of Spencer’s Gulf, the direction from which Eyre had noticed the occurrence of cool breezes and flocks of parrots.
On this occasion he was eminently successful, discovering a tract of 16,000 square miles of new and available country, together with a large creek now known by his name, and many immense water-holes. After shaping his course for three or four weeks to the north-west, he, fearing that the water in his rear might be dried up, turned nearly due south, and made for the stations situated on Streaky Bay, near the eastern end of the Great Bight. It was on his return from this trip that we had an opportunity of hearing the details from his own mouth, while present at a conversazione in Government House, given by Sir R. G. Macdonnell to the members of the Adelaide Philosophical Society.
As the law then stood with regard to the waste lands of the Crown, Mr. Stuart was quite entitled to put in a claim for lease of the whole, or part of this new territory; accordingly, he or his patron forwarded an application to Government, praying to be permitted to occupy 1500 square miles of it on the usual form of tenure. Unable to ignore the great services he had rendered to his adopted country, the Legislative Assembly granted him a fourteen years’ lease of 1000 square miles, to be selected from any part of it.
It may give some idea of the paucity of results earned by the Government expeditions, as compared with those of private enterprise, to say, that at the same time that Stuart in six weeks had made these astounding discoveries, Mr. Babbage had spent six months at the head of an expedition costing an immense sum, and had hardly got beyond the settled districts, or sixty miles from Port Augusta. In the succeeding year (1859), this indefatigable traveller still prosecuted his researches, backed, of course, by the inexhaustible funds advanced by Messrs. Finke and Chambers; and though he added further to the revelations of good pastoral country already made known by his exertions, the crowning effort was reserved for the Australian winter of the present year (1860).
In the month of March, Stuart and his two companions—Kekwick and Heed—started from Oratunga, situated on Chambers’ Creek, and returned after an absence of five months, having in the interval crossed the continent nearly on the mesial line, and attained to within one hundred miles of the sea-coast on the Gulf of Carpentaria. It was his intention to have kept more to the north-west, and have reached the Victoria River, made known to us by the travels of Mr. Gregory, the Surveyor-General of Moreton Bay (Queensland), but all his efforts in this direction were checked by an extensive plain, devoid of grass, and covered with nothing but spinifex and gumtrees. Three times ho endeavoured to cross it, and was driven back, being saved the loss of his horses, which had been three days without water, solely by the accidental discovery of a native well.
Nothing daunted he made two more attempts to round this “horrid plain” to the eastward, but with similar want of success. He then withdrew, and observing from the top of the central Mount Sturt (a hill situated about three miles to the north of the centre, and named after that celebrated explorer whom Stuart accompanied on the expedition of 1844), that there were ranges of hills to the north-east, giving indications of better country in that direction, he resolved to shape his course accordingly. Having reached latitude 19° 32′ S., by longitude 134° 18′ E., he determined to make one more effort to fall in with the Victoria River; but after journeying to the north-west for several days over a heavy sandy soil, exposed to a burning sun, and losing three horses, owing to their being without water for a hundred and eleven hours, was obliged to abandon that project as hopeless. Stuart now changed his plan, and decided on pushing towards the Gulf of Carpentaria. With this intent he reached latitude 18° 47′ S., and had already got into excellent country, well-grassed and watered, when his further progress was stopped by bands of savages, who, attacking him and his party, and endeavouring to cut off their pack-horses, necessitated a precipitate retreat.
These natives are described as being the most powerful and muscular yet met with on the Australian continent, and so fearless that it was not till they had been repeatedly fired upon, and several of their number killed, that Mr. Stuart and his two companions could retire unmolested. Opposed by such a dangerous enemy in front—having sustained the loss of three or four horses,