"Having reached the lowest point of the Victoria attained by the Surveyor-General, I was directed to pursue the river, and determine the course thereof as accurately as my light equipment, and consequent rapid progress, might permit. Accordingly, on the 13th of August we moved down the river, and at 4 1/2 miles crossed over to its proper right bank; the Victoria is there bounded on the south by a low sand-stone ridge, covered with brigalow; and on the north by fine grassy plains, with here and there clumps of the silver leaf brigalow; at seven miles we passed a fine deep reach, below which the river is divided into three channels, and inclines more to the southward; at thirteen miles we encamped upon the centre channel; the three were about half a mile apart, the southern one under the ridge being the deepest; we found water in each, but I believe it to be only permanent in the southernmost, which contains a fine reach, one mile below our encampment, in latitude 24 degrees 17 minutes 34 seconds; an intelligent native, whom we met there with his family on our return, gave me the name of the river, which they call Barcoo. I also obtained from him several useful words, which he seemed to take a pleasure in giving, and which I entered in my journal.
"Between the parallels of 24 minutes 17 seconds and 24 minutes 53 seconds, the river preserves generally a very direct course to the south-south-west, and maintains an unvaried character, although the supply of water greatly decreases below the latitude of 24 degrees 25 minutes. It is divided into three principal channels, and several minor watercourses, which traverse a flat country, lightly timbered by a species of flooded box; this flat is confined on either side by low sand-stone ridges, thickly covered with an acacia scrub. In latitude 24 degrees 50 minutes we had some difficulty in finding a sufficiency for our own consumption, but after searching the numerous channels, the deep (though dry) lagoons and lakes formed there by the river, we at length encamped at a small water-hole in latitude 24 degrees 52 minutes 55 seconds and longitude 144 degrees 11 minutes 26 seconds.
"Being aware that the principal view of the Government in sending me to trace the Victoria, was the discovery of a practical route to the Gulf of Carpentaria, I then began to fear that I should be unable, with my small stock of provisions, to accomplish the two objects of my Expedition. My instructions confined me to the river, which had now preserved almost without deviation a south-south-west course for nearly a hundred miles; the only method which occurred to me, by the adoption of which I might still hope to perform all that was desired, was to trace the river with two men as far as latitude 26 degrees, which the maintenance of its general course would have enabled me to do in two days, and then to hasten back to my party, to conduct them to the extreme northern point attained by the Victoria, and endeavour to prolong the direct route carried that far, from Sydney towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, by Sir Thomas Mitchell.
"With this intention I left the camp on the 20th of August, and at twelve miles found several channels united, forming a fine reach, below which the river takes a turn to the west-south-west, receiving the waters of rather a large creek from the eastward, in latitude 25 degrees 3 minutes 0 seconds. In latitude 25 degrees 7 minutes, the river having again inclined to the southward, impinges upon the point of a low range on its left, by the influence of which it is turned in one well watered channel to the west and west by north, for nearly thirty miles; in that course the reaches are nearly connected, varying in breadth from 80 to 120 yards; firm plains of a poor white soil extend on either side of the river; they were rather bare of pasture, but they are evidently in some seasons less deficient of grass. In latitude 25 degrees 9 minutes 30 seconds, and longitude about 143 degrees 16 minutes, a considerable river joins the Victoria from the north-east, which I would submit may be named the "Thomson," in honour of E. Deas Thomson, Esquire, the Honourable the Colonial Secretary. It was on one of the five reaches in the westerly course of the Victoria that I passed the second night; the river there measured 120 yards across, and seemed to have a great depth; the rocks and small islets which here and there occurred in its channel giving it the semblance of a lasting and most important river; this unexpected change, however, both in its appearance and course, caused me to return immediately to my camp for the purpose of conducting my party down such a river whithersoever it should flow.
"On the 25th August, we resumed our journey down that portion of the Victoria above described, and made the river mentioned from north-east three miles above its junction; following it down we found an unbroken sheet of water in its channel, averaging fifty yards in breadth; we forded it at the junction, and continued to move down the Victoria, keeping all the channels, into which it had again divided, on my left. At about one mile the river there turns to the south-south-west and south, spreading over a depressed and barren waste, void of trees or vegetation of any kind, its level surface being only broken by small doones of red sand, resembling islands upon the dry bed of an inland sea, which, I am convinced, at no distant period did exist there.
"On the 1st September, we encamped upon a long, though narrow, reach in the most western channel, at which point a low sandstone ridge, strewed with boulders, and covered with an acacia scrub, closes upon the river. This position is important, as a small supply of grass will, I think, in most seasons, be found on the bank of the river, when not a blade, perhaps, may be seen within many miles above or below: my camp, which I marked K/IV was in latitude 25 degrees 24 minutes 22 seconds, longitude 142 degrees 51 minutes. Beyond camp IV the ridge recedes, and the soil becomes more broken and crumbling; our horses struggled with difficulty over this ground to my camp, at a small water-hole, in latitude 25 degrees 43 minutes 44 seconds, where I found it necessary to lighten some of their loads by having buried 400 lbs. flour, and 70 lbs. sugar, still retaining a sufficient supply to carry us to Captain Sturt's farthest, on Cooper's Creek, to the eastward, (to which point I was convinced this river would lead me) and from thence back to the settled districts of New South Wales; which was all I could then hope to accomplish. At about sixteen miles further, the ground becoming worse, so that our horses were continually falling into the fissures up to their hocks, I was compelled to leave 270 lbs. more of flour and sugar at my camp of the 4th September, in latitude 25 degrees 51 minutes, at another small water-hole, found in the bed of a very dry and insignificant channel; here a barren sandstone range again impedes the river in its southerly course, and throws it off to the westward, thus causing many of its channels to unite and form a reach of water in latitude 25 degrees 54 minutes; this, the lowest reach we attained, I did not discover until my return, having found a sufficient supply in a channel more to the westward. In latitude 25 degrees 55 minutes, and longitude, by account, 142 degrees 23 minutes, the river, having rounded the point of the range which obstructs it, resumes its southerly course, spreading in countless channels over a surface bearing flood marks six and ten feet above its present level; this vast expanse is only bounded to the eastward by the barren range alluded to, which, ending abruptly, runs parallel with the river at a distance varying from four to seven miles. On the 7th September, I encamped upon a small water-hole in 26 degrees 0 minutes 13 seconds, in the midst of a desert not producing a morsel of vegetation; yet so long as we could find water, transient as it was, I continued to push on with the hope of reaching, sooner or later, some grassy spot, whereon by a halt I might refresh the horses; however, that hope was destroyed at the close of the next day, for although I had commenced an early search for water when travelling to the southward, with numerous channels on either side of me, I was compelled at length to encamp in latitude 26 degrees 13 minutes 9 seconds, and longitude, by account, 142 degrees 20 minutes, on the bank of a deep channel, without either water or food for our wearied horses. The following morning, taking one man and Harry with me, we made a close search down the most promising watercourses and lagoons, but upon riding down even the deepest of them, we invariably found them break off into several insignificant channels, which again subdivided, and in a short distance dissipated the waters, derived from what had appeared the dry bed of a large river, on the absorbing plain; returning in disappointment to the camp, I sent my lightest man and Harry on other horses to look into the channels still unexamined, but they also returned unsuccessful. We had seen late fires of the natives at which they had passed the night without water, and tracked them on their path from lagoon to lagoon in search of it; we also found that they had encamped on some of the deepest channels in succession, quitting each as it had become dry, having previously made holes to drain off the last moisture. My horses were by this time literally starving, and all we could give them was the rotten straw and weeds which had covered some deserted huts of the natives. Seeing, then, that it would be the certain loss of many, and consequently an unjustifiable risk of my party to attempt to push farther into a country where the aborigines themselves were at a loss to find water, I felt it my imperative duty to at once abandon it. I would here beg to remark, that although unsuccessful in my attempt to follow it that far, from the appearance of the country, and long-continued direction of the river's course, I think there can exist but little doubt that the "Victoria" is identical with Cooper's Creek, of Captain Sturt; that creek was abandoned by its discoverer in latitude 27 degrees 46 minutes, longitude 141 degrees 52 minutes, coming from the north-east, and as the natives informed him, "in many small channels forming a large one;" the lowest camp of mine on the Victoria was in latitude 26 degrees 13 minutes 9 seconds, longitude 142 degrees 20 minutes; the river in several channels trending due south, and the lowest point of the range which bounds that flat country to the eastward, bearing south 25 degrees east; Captain Sturt also states that the ground near the creek was so blistered and light that it was unfit to ride on; but that before he turned, he had satisfied himself that there was no apparent sign of water to the eastward.
"Having marked a tree EK/1847, we commenced our return journey along the track at two p.m. of the 9th of September; at eight miles I allowed one of the horses to be shot; for being an old invalid, and unable to travel further, he must have starved if left alive. At thirteen miles we reached the water. Some while after dark the following day we made our next camp; but it was with much difficulty that my private horse and two or three others were brought to water, one being almost carried by three men the latter part of the day. Upon discovering the reach, in latitude 25 degrees 54 minutes, near the range, and finding a little grass in the channel about the water, I gave the horses two days' rest. My camp on the reach is marked K/III.; it is in latitude 25 degrees 55 minutes 37 seconds, longitude, by account, 142 degrees 24 minutes; the variation of the compass 8 degrees east; water boiled at 214 degrees, the temperature of the air being 64 degrees. On the 14th September we proceeded on our journey, and reached the firm plains beyond the desert. On the 22nd, having halted a day, we again moved on, and arrived within five miles of the carts; on the 7th October, leaving my party on the south channel, I rode to the spot, and found them still safe, although a native had been examining the ground that very morning. Lest he should have gone to collect others to assist him in his researches, I brought my party forward the same evening, had the carts dug out during the night, and at sunrise proceeded to our position of the 4th August on the south channel."
From the above account, which is equally clear and distinct, it would appear, that, just below where the river Alice joins the Victoria, the latter river had already commenced its south-west course, and that the last thirty miles down which the Surveyor-General traced this river was a part of the general south-west course, which it afterwards maintained to the termination of Mr. Kennedy's route, and consequently the latter traveller never had an opportunity of approaching so near the Gulf of Carpentaria as the Surveyor-General had done. Here its channel separates into three principal branches, at half-a-mile apart, and, notwithstanding the promise it had given down to the point, at which he had now arrived, (latitude 24 degrees 52 minutes, and longitude 144 degrees 11 minutes,) having then travelled nearly 100 miles along its banks, Mr. Kennedy had great difficulty in finding water. In consequence indeed, of the unfavourable changes that had taken place in the river, he determined on leaving the party stationary, and proceeding down it with two men to the 26th parallel, whence, if he found that it still held to the south, he proposed returning with the intention of trying to find a practicable route to the Gulf of Carpentaria, in compliance with his instructions, and under an impression, I presume, that the fate of the Victoria would then have been fully determined.
In latitude 25 degrees 3 minutes, the river having changed its course to the W. S. W. was joined by a large creek from the "EASTWARD." In latitude 25 degrees 7 minutes it was turned by some low sandstone ranges on its left, and trended for thirty miles to the west, and even to the northward of that point, having almost connected ponds of water for that distance, varying in breadth, from 80 to 120 yards, and being bounded on either side by firm plains of white soil. About 25 degrees 9 minutes and 143 degrees 16 minutes the river was joined by a large tributary stream from the NORTH-EAST, to which Mr. Kennedy gave the name of the "Thomson," and encouraged by the favourable changes which had now taken place, he returned for his party with the determination of following so fine a river to the last.
We shall now see how far his anticipations were confirmed, and how far his further investigation of the Victoria river, and his account of the country through which it flows, accords with the description I have given of the dreary region into which I penetrated.