M. de Rougemont.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7325, 27 September 1898, Page 1

M. de Rougemont.

According to Rougemont's stcry he struck the mainland of Australia between Cambridge Sound and Queen's Channel, about the border line between the Northern Territory and West Australia, and spent 30 years among the cannibal blacks in that part of the world before he again reached civilisation. He talk 3of the beautiful forests and silvery streams of North-West Australia. There is a remarkable difference between the accounts brought back by those New Zealanders who joined in the rush to the Kimberly diggings and M. de Rougemont's description of the region he spent so much time in. To some extent the country was the same ; yeb, according to the returned gold seekers, all that wasn't red-hot sand was red-hot rock, whereas the modern Ulysses found it an earthly paradise. The blacks, over whom the explorer gained such an ascendency by means of his prowess and deeds of valor and activity, were apparently a much finer race than any hitherto known to scientists to exist on the Australian continent. In spite of his present affection for the desert life, M. de Rougemont seems to have done his best to get out of it, for after having successfully led the tribe to battle, after becoming an adept with shield and spear, taking a wife, and adapting himself in the matter of clothing entirely to the standard of his companions—his wardrobe consisted of a plume from the tail of the lyre bird —his yearnings for civilisaticn so preyed upon his dusky wife's nerves that, pointing to the east she said she had heard white men were to be found In that direction. So off started Monsieur and Madame de Rougemont, "and marched and marched by star, by-sun, by a thousand signs of nature, until they came to the ocean once more." It was the Gulf of Carpentaria, though Rougemont thought it was the Coral Sea of the South Pacific, and to reach it he had travelled right across the Northern Territory, and must have passed under the overland telegraph line. How they missed observing such a notable sight in the wilderness is a mystery. Ou the shores of the gulf- he made a " dugout," and In this he and his native wife coasted and cruised about in search of a white man's settlement. Now, the gulf country, though not exactly populous, is not quite uninhabited. There are some settlements on its shores, and small coasting craft occasionally visit it. Yet De Rougemont's search for a white man was unavailing, and after wandering about for 18 months, he and madame found themselves back at home again. Where " home" was is not very clear, but presumably somewhere in the neighborhood of Cambridge Gulf, where they started from. To get back they must again have passed the telegraph line without seeing it, unless they sailed round, an improbable feat in a dug-out canoe. After he had rescued two white girls from the chief of another tribe, a ship hove in sight. De Rougemont, his wife, and the white women set off to her in a canoe, accompanied' by a fleet of other canoes. Tho ship, however, passed on, those on board thanking Providence, no doubt, for rescuing them from such a host of bloodthirsty savages, and Dr Rougemont's canoe being upset, the two white women were drowned. Then De Roagemont settled down to live as a wild man. " Nevertheless, for 10 years," his interviewer tells us, "he wandered with his faithful companion over that vast wilderness, still hbping faintly. His great and final effort was a long journey from 15deg N. latitude to 25deg, marching pretty near due south. At this point he encountered Giles' exploring expedition, which, mistaking him for a savage, not unnaturally greeted him with a volley of lead. After that he gave up the attempt as really hopeless, returned to the north, and for 20 years remained on the lovely heights in the Northern Territory of South Australia, about 22deg south of the line. Then his wife died, and on her deathbed advised him to: steer south-west if he ever wished to see Christians again. He did, and caine out at Coolgardie." In London, " the dialects of the cannibal tribes with whom he lived tripped easily from his tongue," but he .spoke English much better than French, explaining this by Baying thai he always conversed with his native wife in English, "as that language waß universal in Australia."—Press