(47 illustrations appeared in the original text, published in 1898. A number have not been reproduced in the html version of the etext.)

  1. [Hon. D. W. Carnegie]
  2. [Jarrah Forest, West Australia]
  3. [General store And Post-office, Coolgardie, 1892]
  4. [The first hotel at Coolgardie]
  5. [The “Gold Escort”]
  6. [Grass trees, near Perth]
  7. [Death of “Tommy”]
  8. [Fresh meat at last]
  9. [Bayley Street, Coolgardie, 1894]
  10. [Condensing water on a salt lake]
  11. [Fever-stricken and alone]
  12. [Miner's Right]
  13. [Typical sandstone gorge]
  14. [Crossing a salt lake]
  15. [Entrance to Empress Spring]
  16. [At work in the cave, Empress Spring]
  17. [Alexander Spring]
  18. [Woodhouse Lagoon]
  19. [A buck and his gins in camp at Family Well]
  20. [Cresting a sand-ridge]
  21. [Helena Spring]
  22. [The only specimen of desert architecture]
  23. [The Mad Buck]
  24. [Southesk Tablelands]
  25. [A native hunting party]
  26. [Plan of sand-ridges]
  27. [Exaggerated section of the sand-ridges]
  28. [Charles W. Stansmore]
  29. [Native preparing for the emu dance]
  30. [Spears]
  31. [Woomera]
  32. [Iron Tomahawks]
  33. [Stone Tomahawks]
  34. [Boomerangs]
  35. [Clubs and throwing-sticks]
  36. [Shields]
  37. [Quartz knife]
  38. [Ceremonial sticks]
  39. [Rain-making boards]
  40. [Message sticks]
  41. [Group Of Explorers]
  42. [Just in time]
  43. [A wild escort of nearly one hundred men]
  44. [Establishing friendly relations]
  45. [The tail-end of a miserable caravan]
  46. [A karri timber train]
  47. [A pearl shell station, Broome, N.W. Australia]

INTRODUCTION

“An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.”

The following pages profess to be no more than a faithful narrative of five years spent on the goldfields and in the far interior of Western Australia. Any one looking for stirring adventures, hairbreadth escapes from wild animals and men, will be disappointed. In the Australian Bush the traveller has only Nature to war against—over him hangs always the chance of death from thirst, and sometimes from the attacks of hostile aboriginals; he has no spice of adventure, no record heads of rare game, no exciting escapades with dangerous beasts, to spur him on; no beautiful scenery, broad lakes, or winding rivers to make life pleasant for him. The unbroken monotony of an arid, uninteresting country has to be faced. Nature everywhere demands his toil. Unless he has within him impulses that give him courage to go on, he will soon return; for he will find nothing in his surroundings to act as an incentive to tempt him further.

I trust my readers will be able to glean a little knowledge of the hardships and dangers that beset the paths of Australian pioneers, and will learn something of the trials and difficulties encountered by a prospector, recognising that he is often inspired by some higher feeling than the mere “lust of gold.”

Wherever possible, I have endeavoured to add interest to my own experiences by recounting those of other travellers; and, by studying the few books that touch upon such matters to explain any points in connection with the aboriginals that from my own knowledge I am unable to do. I owe several interesting details to the Report on the Work of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia, and to Ethnological Studies among the North-West Central Queensland Aboriginals, by Walter E. Roth. For the identification of the few geological specimens brought in by me, I am indebted to the Government Geologist of the Mines Department, Perth, W.A., and to Mr. W. Botting Hemsley, through the courtesy of the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, for the identification of the plants.

I also owe many thanks to my friend Mr. J. F. Cornish, who has taken so much trouble in correcting the proofs of my MSS.