The year opened with Captain Grey and four adventurers, including his two sappers, travelling into the interior in search of Mr. George Ellis and his two companions, who, having left the Williams' River for the Leschenault on the coast, had been out for several days beyond the period it was expected they would reach their destination, and fears were entertained for their safety. Captain Grey and his men steadily pursued their object, till the missing travellers, alive and in tolerable health, turned up to their exertions at Augusta. After twenty-two days' bush-ranging, the Captain and his party re-entered Perth on the 31st of January. This episodical service was one of fatigue, particularly in crossing the Darling range and in pushing their route through forests and over wild and rugged ground. In some districts, the want of water was severely felt by them, and for eleven hours in one day, they journeyed onwards under a sultry sun, suffering from excessive thirst.[[329]]
On the 17th of February, the expedition of twelve persons sailed from Fremantle to examine the shores of Shark’s Bay and the country behind it, taking with them three whale-boats for future use. On the 25th, they landed at Bernier Island, discovering, when too late, that the keg of tobacco which was to have constituted their chief consolation in hardship, was left on board. After landing the provisions, the greater part of them were buried for security, but the want of water drove the expedition to Dorre Island on the 28th of February, where their persevering search was equally unavailing, for the little that was obtained was extracted by suction from small holes in the rock. Already the party had had one of its boats knocked to pieces, and its stores lost, whilst the other two boats in a hurricane were much injured. For three days the sappers were engaged in their repair, and on the 3rd of March, the travellers, oppressed with thirst, wearied by fatigue, and exposed to the full blaze of a powerful sun, sailed for the main.[[330]]
Reaching a sand-bank, the boats were tracked and pulled onwards, through deep mud and weeds, into a dense mangrove creek, to land; and, in accomplishing this service, severe trials were encountered, the difficulties of which were increased by the exhaustion which labour and the want of water induced. In fifteen days, the allowance had been reduced from two and a half pints to half a pint a day.[[331]]
Pursuing their journey, a lagoon of fresh water was soon found, and all bent the knee to take their fill of the luxury. A black line round the countenance showed how deeply each had regaled himself. Next day, the two sappers and some of the party visited the lagoon again, and in the evening returned loaded to the boats.[[332]]
Several days had been spent in exploration and adventure, during which the river Gascoyne had been discovered, and a few objects of geographical interest named. On one occasion, a storm having overtaken the wayfarers, their boats, which were swamped, were dragged amid much danger to shore; and their flour, saturated with salt water, was now quite spoilt. Nevertheless, unwholesome as it was, they were forced to use it, as they had nothing else to eat. Illness now began to appear among the party, and as there was neither food nor medicine to give them, their situation was deplorable. While in this helpless state, they were attacked by a body of about thirty natives near Kolaina plains; but fortunately, they succeeded in pushing off their boats without any serious accident occurring.[[333]] Auger at the time was in the head of the boat, soldering up the breaches in an old kettle, valuable in its way, for the expedition had none other for its cooking purposes, when a spear, thrown by a savage, whizzed past the industrious tinker, and struck the seaman Ruston.
After a period of intense desolation and gloom, in which the expedition was exposed to the fury of angry storms, and the pinching calls of want, the boats put to sea; and surrounded by perils both from surf and squall, the adventurers returned to the Gascoyne. Launching or beaching their boats on the rocky coast was a service of hazard and difficulty. On the 20th of March the provisions were nearly expended, and to replenish their stores, the boats made for Bernier Island. A gale of wind caught them on the passage, and they only made good the landing by almost superhuman exertion. Here a store of provisions had been buried, when the expedition first made the island, but from its very altered appearance, caused by the ravages of recent hurricanes, Captain Grey doubted whether the depôt could be found. Fearing some disaster had befallen the stores, he considered it unadvisable that the “discovery should be made in the presence of too many persons, as future discipline would depend on the first impression that was given.” He therefore selected Mr. Smith and corporal Coles, in whose courage, disinterestedness, and self-possession, he placed great confidence, to accompany him to the depôt. The corporal took a spade with him.[[334]]
Before they had gone far, they observed staves of flour casks scattered about amongst the rocks and high up on the sand hills. Coles, taking a rapid glance of the ground, “persisted, they were so far inland, that they could only have come from the flour casks which the expedition had emptied before starting.” Moving on in their anxious survey, they “next came to a cask of salt provisions washed high and dry at least twenty feet above the usual high-water mark; the sea had evidently not been near the spot for a long period, as it was half covered with drift sand, which must have taken some time to accumulate. This Coles again easily accounted for; it was merely the cask which had been lost from the wreck of the 'Paul Pry.'” The Captain thought otherwise, but made no remark. At length they reached the depôt. “So changed was it, that both Mr. Smith and Coles persisted it was not the place: but on going to the shore, there were some very remarkable rocks, on the top of which lay a flour cask more than half empty, with the head knocked out, but not otherwise injured. This was also washed up at least twenty feet of perpendicular elevation beyond high water mark. The dreadful certainty now flashed on the minds of Mr. Smith and corporal Coles;” but poor Coles, usually so imperturbable in character, and so ready to find reasons for the alarming appearances which had met his gaze at every step, did not bear the surprise as well as had been expected. He dashed the spade upon the ground with almost ferocious violence, and looking up to Captain Grey, said, “All lost, sir! We are all lost.” A few rallying words from the Captain, however, made him “perfectly cool and collected, and he promised to make light of the misfortune to the rest, and to observe the strictest discipline.” Coles with eager economy now collected every particle of the precious flour, discoloured as it was, that was left in the barrel and strewn on the rocks, and with another bag of spoiled flour found among the sea-weeds, the adventurers returned to the party. Their tale of distress was soon told, and all heard it with dismay. “Mr. Walker and corporal Auger set an excellent example to the others. Two seamen named Woods, indisposed to bear, in common with the adventurers, the sacrifices that impended, seized the first opportunity of endeavouring to appropriate to themselves the miserable remnant of damper belonging to the party; but their unmanly intention being observed, a sentry was placed in charge of the scanty store of provisions, which only amounted to about nine lbs. of salt meat, and about sixty lbs. of tolerably good flour.”[flour.”][[335]]
The expedition quitted Bernier Island on the 22nd of March, to make for Swan River. In taking this course, it was hoped, that if any accident occurred Perth could be reached by walking. Crossing the bay, the party sailed to the southward, examining the coast, and after a brief stay on Perron’s Peninsula and Dirk Hartog’s Island, the boats on the 31st, reached Gantheaume Bay. Eleven days were spent in achieving this run: the coasting was very perilous, and the gales that caught the leaky boats as they swept along, were terrific. Both were more than once in imminent danger, but the unsparing energy and determination of the men carried them safely to the shore. At Gantheaume Bay, however, the landing was not effected without casualty. The surf was high and raging, and the wind drove the boats along at a fearful rate. Onwards they plunged, now dancing on a swell, now pitching in a trough, now quite unmanageable, when one was tossed over by a furious wave and dashed in fragments amongst the rocks and breakers. In an instant, its crew and the two sappers were struggling through the foaming surf, but after tumbling amongst oars and water-kegs, and the spars and splinters of the wreck, all clambered to the summit of the cliff, torn, jaded, and exhausted.[[336]]
A crisis had now arrived which it was necessary to meet with firmness. Assembling the expedition, the captain explained matters as they appeared, and of which the travellers were only too cognizant. Auger, who all along had repaired the boats, was asked by the chief, if they could be put in any kind of condition for service. Knowing their unfitness for anything, and the impossibility of making them even temporarily seaworthy, he frankly answered in the negative. Fortified by the professional opinion of a truthful and skilful artificer, Captain Grey took his determination at once and arrangements were made accordingly. On the 2nd April, the party started from Gantheaume Bay, resolved to reach Perth by marching. The provisions had been shared out—20 lbs. of flour and 1 lb. of salt meat per man. The flour was of a brown colour with a fermented taste, like bad beer, and nothing but dire necessity could induce any one to eat it. The distance to be travelled was about 300 miles in a direct line, without taking hills, valleys, and deviations into account. Corporals Coles and Auger, besides their provisions, &c., carried a pocket chronometer and a large sextant, turn about. Coles also bore the Captain’s rifle, and Auger a choice book valued by the chief, and a housewife containing some needles and thread and a few patches. In all the dreadful hardships that beset them, even when extreme feebleness might have excused them the toil of bearing the articles, they abandoned nothing until ordered to do so. “Indeed,” says Captain Grey, “I do not believe that there is a stronger instance of fidelity and perseverance than was evinced by some of the party, in retaining under every difficulty, possession of that which they had promised to preserve for me.”[[337]] Impeded by natural obstacles, their progress was tediously slow. The Hutt River was reached on the 5th. A few days after they touched the Bowes River, and then journeying through the province of Victoria, rested by the rivers Buller and Chapman.[[338]]
On the banks of the latter a man was found missing; and Dr. Walker and corporal Auger were sent in search of him. They ascended the cliffs and tracked him to the sea; but as a large party of natives were near them, they gave up the pursuit, and, unobserved, retreated. The missing man turned up next day.[[339]]