From the foregoing narrative it will be at once seen that the unfortunate collapse of Gray, when within only two days' journey of the depôt, was the direct cause of the death of Burke and Wills. King was a young man, of good physique, and of a nature in which the disposition to mental worry or anxiety had no part. The leaders had to endure this in addition to their physical sufferings, and the bitterness of dying within the reach of help, after having successfully accomplished the most dashing feat ever recorded in the annals of Australian exploration. They had performed their allotted task, and they perished miserably in the hour of their success.
The criticisms of Australians generally, and of bushmen in particular, were for a long time afterwards directed to the apparently unaccountable circumstance that neither Howitt, Welch, nor Brahe detected at their first visit to the depôt that the CACHÉ had been opened. King's narrative showed that it had actually been twice opened, but it must be borne in mind that on each occasion the best precautions were adopted to conceal the fact, and thereby avoid attracting the attention of the blacks. The unfortunate men, who were slowly starving to death on the banks of the creek, had left no visible sign of their visit to the spot. Brahe, who made the plant, positively asserted that it had not been interfered with, and Howitt, therefore, wisely declined to burden himself with an additional weight of stores for which he had no present use. Even had it been opened on that 13th of September, the knowledge which it would have revealed was too late to be of service, and could not have expedited the rescue of King by more than a few hours, if at all.
(See page 219.—[Chapter IX.])
* * * * *
POISON PLANTS.
The properties of the Australian plants are only imperfectly known, very few species having been chemically examined; numbers are suspected, but have not been positively proved. The poison plant that caused such havoc amongst the horses of both Jardine and Austin mostly affects the spinifex country. It is a ground plant, and liable to be cropped by a horse amongst the grass, when the animal would probably refuse to touch a bush.
Amongst the most poisonous plants known in Australia may be mentioned the "thorny apple," DATURA STRAMONIUM, and DATURA TATULA; also the EXCAECARIA AGALLOCHA, and LOLIUM TERMULENTUM.
The indigo plant, SWAINSONA GALEGIFOLIA, is a glabrous perennial, or undershrub, with erect flexuose branches, sometimes under one foot, sometimes ascending, or even climbing, to the height of several feet. The flowers are rather large, and deep-red in the original variety; pod much inflated, membranous one to two inches long, on a stipe varying from two to six lines. The species varies, with light, purplish-pink flowers, S. CORONILLAEFOLIA; and white flowers, S. ALBIFLORA. The difference in the length of the stipes of the pod does not, as had been supposed, coincide with the difference in the colour of the flower. This plant acts in a peculiar way upon sheep, driving them insane until death ensues. The sheep, however, select it as an especial tit-bit, it, apparently, possessing an irresistible fascination for them.
The "Darling pea" SWAINSONA PROCUMBENS. Glabrous; or the young shoots and foliage slightly silky; or sometimes pubescent, or hirsute, with procumbent ascending, or erect stems of one to three feet. Leaflets varying from oblong or almost linear, and one-quarter inch to half-inch long, to lanceolate, or linear-acute, and above one inch long. Flowers: large, fragrant, violet, or blue; pod sessile, above one inch long.
The "Pitchuri plant," ANTHOCERCIS HOPWOODII. A glabrous tree, or shrub. Leaves: narrow-linear, acutely acuminate, with the point often recurved, entire, rather thick, narrowed into a short petiole, two to four inches long; fruit unknown.