Travelling Diaries in New South Wales.
From among my numerous travelling journals into the interior parts of the country,I select the following to present to the reader,as equally important in their object,and more amusing in their detail,than any other.
In April 1791an expedition was undertaken,in order to ascertain whether or not the Hawkesbury and the Nepean,were the same river.
With this view,we proposed to fall in a little above Richmond Hill,and trace down to it;and if the weather should prove fine to cross at the ford,and go a short distance westward,then to repass the river and trace it upward until we should either arrive at some spot which we knew to be the Nepean,or should determine by its course that the Hawkesbury was a different stream.
[Look at the map for the situation of this place (Unfortunately,there is no map accompanying this etext.Ed.)]
Our party was strong and numerous.It consisted of twenty-one persons,viz.the governor,Mr.Collins and his servant,Mr.White,Mr.Dawes,the author,three gamekeepers,two sergeants,eight privates,and our friends Colbee and Boladeree.These two last were volunteers on the occasion,on being assured that we should not stay out many days and that we should carry plenty of provisions.Baneelon wished to go,but his wife would not permit it.Colbee on the other hand,would listen to no objections.
He only stipulated (with great care and consideration)that,during his absence,his wife and child should remain at Sydney under our protection,and be supplied with provisions.
But before we set out,let me describe our equipment,and try to convey to those who have rolled along on turnpike roads only,an account of those preparations which are required in traversing the wilderness.Every man (the governor excepted)carried his own knapsack,which contained provisions for ten days.If to this be added a gun,a blanket,and a canteen,the weight will fall nothing short of forty pounds.Slung to the knapsack are the cooking kettle and the hatchet,with which the wood to kindle the nightly fire and build the nightly hut is to be cut down.Garbed to drag through morasses,tear through thickets,ford rivers and scale rocks,our autumnal heroes,who annually seek the hills in pursuit of grouse and black game,afford but an imperfect representation of the picture.
Thus encumbered,the march begins at sunrise,and with occasional halts continues until about an hour and a half before sunset.It is necessary to stop thus early to prepare for passing the night,for toil here ends not with the march.Instead of the cheering blaze,the welcoming landlord,and the long bill of fare,the traveller has now to collect his fuel,to erect his wigwam,to fetch water,and to broil his morsel of salt pork.
Let him then lie down,and if it be summer,try whether the effect of fatigue is sufficiently powerful to overcome the bites and stings of the myriads of sandflies and mosquitoes which buzz around him.
Monday,April 11,1791.At twenty minutes before seven o'clock,we started from the governor's house at Rose Hill and steered for a short time nearly in a north-east direction,after which we turned to north 34degrees west,and steadily pursued that course until a quarter before four o'clock,when we halted for the night.The country for the first two miles,while we walked to the northeast,was good,full of grass and without rock or underwood.
Afterwards it grew very bad,being full of steep,barren rocks,over which we were compelled to clamber for seven miles,when it changed to a plain country apparently very sterile,and with very little grass in it,which rendered walking easy.Our fatigue in the morning had,however,been so oppressive that one of the party knocked up.And had not a soldier,as strong as a pack-horse,undertaken to carry his knapsack in addition to his own,we must either have sent him back,or have stopped at a place for the night which did not afford water.Our two natives carried each his pack,but its weight was inconsiderable,most of their provisions being in the knapsacks of the soldiers and gamekeepers.We expected to have derived from them much information relating to the country,as no one doubted that they were acquainted with every part of it between the sea coast and the river Hawkesbury.We hoped also to have witnessed their manner of living in the woods,and the resources they rely upon in their journeys.
Nothing,however,of this sort had yet occurred,except their examining some trees to see if they could discover on the bark any marks of the claws of squirrels and opossums,which they said would show whether any of those animals were hidden among the leaves and branches.They walked stoutly,appeared but little fatigued,and maintained their spirits admirably,laughing to excess when any of us either tripped or stumbled,misfortunes which much seldomer fell to their lot than to ours.
[Our method,on these expeditions,was to steer by compass,noting the different courses as we proceeded;and counting the number of paces,of which two thousand two hundred,on good ground,were allowed to be a mile.
At night when we halted,all these courses were separately cast up,and worked by a traverse table,in the manner a ship's reckoning is kept,so that by observing this precaution,we always knew exactly where we were,and how far from home;an unspeakable advantage in a new country,where one hill,and one tree,is so like another that fatal wanderings would ensue without it.This arduous task was always allotted to Mr.Dawes who,from habit and superior skill,performed it almost without a stop,or an interruption of conversation:to any other man,on such terms,it would have been impracticable.]
