Again they recommenced their journey to the Oakover, Lewis and Charley on ahead, Warburton and his son coming on as fast as their exhausted state would permit; their only hope for life now lay in the chance of the advance party finding water soon and bringing it back to them. At midday, on the 14th, Lewis appeared with a bag of water; another well had been found, but this time it nearly cost Charley's life. As he usually did, he had gone in advance when close to the native camp, in order not to alarm them. The blacks had received him kindly and given him water; but when he cooeed for his companions they took a sudden alarm, and set upon him, spearing him in the arm and back, and cutting his head open with a club. The remainder of the party were just able to rescue him. It seems quite certain that this attack was not premeditated, but the effect of timidity caused by the unexpected appearance of the white men and the camels.
At this well the party had to rest, until Lewis and one of the Afghans pushed on to the head of the Oakover, which they thought could not be so very far distant, as the nights were cool and dewy, and in the camp of the natives they found two large seashells, an old iron tomahawk, and part of the tire of a dray wheel.
On the 19th November Lewis started, and on the 25th he returned, having been successful in reaching the head waters of the Oakover, and on the 5th December the whole party arrived at the rocky creek that he had found. They now travelled very slowly down the river, but saw no signs of settlement, so the indefatigable Lewis had once more to go ahead, whilst the others waited and starved on the flesh of the last camel. He had to ride 170 miles before he arrived at the station of Messrs. Grant, Harper, and Anderson, who immediately supplied him with fresh horses and all requisites with which to return to the starving men.
It was on the 29th of December, and Warburton was lying in the shade, moodily thinking that the cattle station must be abandoned, and that Lewis had been forced to go on to Roeburne, when the black boy, who was climbing up a tree, called out, and starting to their feet the astonished men found the pack-horses of the relief party almost in their camp.
Out of the seventeen camels the two that Lewis had ridden in for help were all that survived, and for the rest of their equipment, it had been left piecemeal in the desert.
It is distressing to think that all this suffering and labour should not have been adequately rewarded. Warburton got into a strip of desert country, but apparently was too much occupied with pressing straight through to devote any time to examine any country beyond his track. Whatever may have been the aridity, the water supply must have been ample to support such large numbers of natives as he came in contact with. In one camp there were numbers of women and children and one cripple; but they quietly vacated the well when the whites came, without any apparent difficulty, showing that they had other resources within easy reach.
This trip of Warburton's, and a succeeding one by Mr. Ernest Giles, prove conclusively that the possession of camels leads men to push on, eager to be able to say that they were the first to get across, leaving the country almost as unknown as before they traversed it.
But a few days after Warburton started on his adventurous journey, Mr. W.
C. Gosse, in charge of the Central and Western Exploring Expedition, left
Alice Springs, a telegraph station on the overland line, with the
intention of endeavouring to reach Perth.
On April 23rd, the leader reports leaving the Springs, with his party all in good spirits; beside the white men, there were three Afghan camel-drivers, and the party had a mixed equipment of camels and horses. On May 1st, they left the telegraph line, and, turning to the westward, soon found themselves in excessively dry country.
On the 14th, he had a trip lasting fifty-two hours, without water for the horses, and one of them died; this happened whilst on an excursion ahead with his brother, who was acting as collector to the party.