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the Lachlan, the channel gradually narrowed; great trees had been swept down by the floods and navigation
rendered very dangerous. Still narrower grew the stream, stronger the current. "On a sudden, the river took a
CHAPTER LIX 194
general southern direction. We were carried at a fearful rate down its gloomy banks, and at such a moment of
excitement had little time to pay attention to the country through which we were passing. At last we found we
were approaching a junction, and within less than a minute we were hurried into a broad and noble river. It is
impossible to describe the effect upon us of so instantaneous a change. We gazed in silent wonder on the large
channel we had entered."
The Murrumbidgee had joined the great Murray River as Sturt now called it, after Sir George Murray of the
Colonial Department.
To add to the unknown dangers of the way, numbers of natives now appeared in force on the banks of the
river, threatening the white men with "dreadful yells and with the beating of spears and shields."
Firearms alone saved the little crew, and the rage of the natives was turned to admiration as they watched the
white men paddling on their great river while some seventy black men swam off to the boat like "a parcel of
seals."
The explorers now found a new and beautiful stream flowing into the Murray from the north, up which the
boat was now turned, natives anxiously following along the grassy banks, till suddenly a net stretched across
the stream checked their course. Sturt instinctively felt he was on the river Darling again. "I directed that the
Union Jack should be hoisted, and we all stood up in the boat and gave three distinct cheers. The eye of every
native was fixed upon that beautiful flag as it waved over us in the heart of a desert."
While they were still watching, Sturt turned the head of the boat and pursued his way down the great Murray
River. Stormy weather at the end of January set in; though they were yet one hundred and fifteen miles from
the coast, the river increased in breadth, cliffs towered above them, and the water dashed like sea-waves at
their base.
On the 5th of February they were cheered by the appearance of sea-gulls and a heavy swell up the river, which
they knew must be nearing the sea. On the twenty-third day of their voyage they entered a great lake. Crossing
to the southern shore, they found to their bitter grief that shoals and sandbanks made it impossible for them to
reach the sea. They found that the Murray flowed into Encounter Bay, but thither they could not pass. The
thunder of the surf upon the shore brought no hope to the tired explorers. They had no alternative but to turn
back and retrace their way. Terrible was the task that lay before them. On half-rations and with hostile natives
to encounter they must fight their way against wind and stream. And they did it. They reached the camp on the
Murrumbidgee just seventy-seven days after leaving it; but to their dismay it was deserted. The river, too, had
risen in flood and "poured its turbid waters with great violence."
[Illustration: CAPTAIN STURT AT THE JUNCTION OF THE RIVERS DARLING AND MURRAY. From
the Narrative of Sturt's Expedition.]
"For seventeen days," says Sturt, "we pulled against stream with determined perseverance, but in our short
daily journeys we made but trifling way against it." The effects of severe toil were painfully evident. The men
lost the muscular jerk with the oars. Their arms were nerveless, their faces haggard, their persons emaciated,
their spirits wholly spent. From sheer weariness they fell asleep at the oar. No murmur, however, escaped
them.
"I must tell the captain to-morrow," said one, thinking that Sturt was asleep, "that I can pull no more." But
when the morrow came he said no word, but pulled on with his remaining strength. One man went mad. The
last ounce of flour was consumed when relief arrived, and the weary explorers at last reached Sydney with
their great news.
The result of this discovery was soon seen. In 1836 a shipload of English emigrants arrived off Kangaroo
CHAPTER LIX 195
Island, and soon a flourishing colony was established at the mouth of the Murray River, the site of the new
capital being called Adelaide, after the wife of William IV.
After this Sturt tried to cross Australia from south to north; but though he opened up a good deal of new
country, he failed to reach the coast. He was rewarded by the President of the Royal Geographical Society,
who described him as "one of the most distinguished explorers and geographers of our age."
The feat of crossing Australia from south to north, from shore to shore, was reserved for an Irishman called [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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