Although my visit to Mr. Gardiner’s farm was both interesting and agreeable, I longed to get to my destination. Originally I intended to go there on foot and get some of the blacks to carry my baggage, but Mr. Gardiner surprised me one day by offering me an old horse (Kassik) which he had kept in pasture for a year and a half on the other side of the river. I was permitted to keep him as a pack-horse as long as I pleased. He likewise placed a saddle-horse at my disposal for a limited time. I felt very grateful for this liberal offer, which I accepted with pleasure, as it would relieve me from many difficulties.
Cheerful and happy, I started on my journey in beautiful, sunny spring weather, following the river upwards. All about me was fresh and green. Light green patches of grass and thriving vine-scrubs, by the side of brooks and streams, which crossed my path on their course down to the river, passed, in pleasing succession. The dark green vine-scrubs which extended along the banks on both sides of the river gave the landscape its most conspicuous character, and contrasted well with the light green spots. The bottom of the valley was flat and fertile. Before me I saw continually the scrub-clad hills, the foot of which I knew to be my destination. It was on these mountains that I based so many hopes. It is true that Mr. Scott, the owner of this deserted cattle station, which he had kindly invited me to use as my headquarters, had warned me that I was coming to a poor place, where I must renounce every comfort. I was well aware of this, but was prepared to submit to various kinds of privation if I could but get the opportunity of living amid this instructive Nature, where I anticipated such great results. It was impossible to be melancholy in the midst of such wonderful surroundings! All was bright and inspiring.
On the evening of the second day, as I was approaching Herbert Vale, I constantly heard a peculiar whistling sound in the grass, which I could not comprehend. On dismounting, I found that it came from an infinite number of small grasshoppers which were not yet fully developed. They retreated before my horses, and were so numerous that the blades of grass literally bent under their weight. Herbert river is sometimes visited by vast swarms of grasshoppers, which do considerable damage to the young sugar-cane.
Darkness set in, but I continued to ride three-quarters of an hour after sunset. Several times I was obliged to dismount in order to look for the direction of the path. When at length I could no longer find my way in the darkness of the night, I suddenly scented smoke, and after going a few steps in that direction I discovered that the grass had been recently burnt. Far away, the stumps of trees still shone with fresh embers. Fortunately I came across a camp of blacks near the river’s bank. To the great terror of the natives I entered their camp, but quieted them immediately by showing them tobacco, for two pieces of which currency I induced one of them to be my guide to Herbert Vale.
CHAPTER VI
Headquarters at Herbert Vale—Civilised blacks—Domestic life—Nelly the cook—Cats—Swimming in fat—My bill of fare—Killing the bullock—Strong stomachs and bad fare.
Arriving at the entrance to the yard, I met a white object, which proved to be a Kanaka in his Sunday clothes. He took my horses under his care and called the superintendent of the station, who was an old white man. A bureau, a couple of wooden chairs, and a camp-bed constituted the entire furniture of my room. The bed, in which I slept exceedingly well, possessed the unexampled luxury of two thick canvas sheets, and I had been prudent enough to bring with me a heavy double woollen blanket. At breakfast I asked the old man to introduce me to some of the blacks, whose assistance I needed, for I could accomplish nothing without them. I therefore also inquired whether there were any “civilised” ones among them. The answer was, that for the last two years he had permitted them to come to the station, and consequently some of them might have the right to this title. To know that they will be killed if they murder a white man, to be fond of wearing the garments and ornaments of white people, and to smoke tobacco, is all that is required in order to be styled “civilised” among the Australian blacks, though sometimes they do learn a little more than that. These so-called “civilised” blacks look upon their savage brethren with more or less contempt, and call them myall.[[4]]
[4]. A tree (Acacia pendula) which grows extensively in the less civilised districts is called by the Europeans myall. This word was soon applied by the whites as a term for the wild blacks who frequented these large remote myall woods. Strange to say, the blacks soon adopted this term themselves and used it as an epithet of abuse, and hence it soon came to mean a person of no culture.
PECULIAR POSITION OF NATIVES WHEN RESTING.