THE ALLEGED LEICHHARDT RELICS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 5938, 19 February 1881, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ALLEGED LEICHHARDT RELICS.

The following communication, signed with the initials " W.F. 8.," appears in the Brisbane Courier : - :

As the public mind ia considerably exercised just now concerning the fate of Leichhardt, allow rue, through your columns, to draw attention to a few facts. In the year 1865, two horses were found on Dismal Creek, a tributary of the William Eiver. These horses were Bubsequently brought to Brisbane,- and identified by the person who sold them to Leichhardt when starting on his' last expedition. In the year 1873, Mr R. Goodfellow, an old Northern man. and afterwards prospector of the Coen River saw a dead tree branded LL, with some other brands that were indistinct.- This tree was seen on a tributary of v the William Eiver. A bush-fire was-ragin* at time; and the day afterwards. When Mr Goodfellow returned to the spot, he found the tree had been burnt. Twenty-five mile 3to the north-west of this place Mr Goodfellow and - his mate (Mr Randle) came across an old camp of white men, where, for a space of a hundred yards in all directions the trees had been felled by European axes and tomahawks. The creek on which the camp was situated empties itself into the Cloncurry River, about five miles above the site of the old Chinamen's garden. In the wet season of 1877 Mr Richard Scarr and myself, in the course of a prospecting tour, visited the top camp, Cloncurry, where we found four men at work, who informed us that a few days previously their camp had been robbed by the blacks, but that they had eventually induced them to come in, and at one time had some dozen orso of them around the hut; amongst them was a half-cast man about 28 years old. The names of two of the men were Jack Towers and 'Adam Phillips, who are both to be found in the neighbourhood of the Cloncurry now. In October, 1879, Mr R. Goodfelloir, when looking for horses on one of the western tributaries of the Leichhardt, came, across a half-cast- gin, with European features and red hair, who had with her a halfcast piccaninny. The gin appeared to be about 25 years of age, and from the imperfect information Mr Goodfellow was able to obtain from her, he understood that her country lay.furtherwest. A man named Samuel Edwards, better known in the North as "Sam the Tracker," who is at present enjoying. the; hospitality of Mr Bernard, told 'me, that in . the year 1871, when crossing the Leichhardt River in company with some other men, he surprised a mob of niggers, amongst whom was a half-caste. .. This man Sam endeavoured to cut out from the mob, but the blackfellows succeaafally, prevented him. Mr R. H. Sheaffe, the present member for the Burke,- who was the pioneer squatter on the head of the Cloncurry, when out cattle-hunting on the William River, during a mid-day camp, saw some niggers, amongst whom was an old fellow who spoke broken" Eng--U°Vfc^^~-ira-^new--thft ngq-nf tnharrn. ana mentioned the words white man and flour bag. The above facts are indisputable ; and I am of opinion that any traces of Leichhardt will be found on the Gulf waters. His endeavour was to penetrate to tho western, but being beat for water he struck to the north towards his old trail to Port Essington, and there perished in one of three ways—either the whole party were swept away by a flood, in which oase we should not be likely to find any buried jounals; or they may have, died from thirst, which is unlikely; or some of them may have been " rubbed out" by the niggers, in which case, which .to my mind is the most probable, the survivors would have lived with the blacks, and been the proximate cause of the halfcastes which have been so frequently seen. Without wishing to doubt the fact of Mr Skuthorpe's finding certain relics and journals, I may be allowed to suggest that he is mistaken as to their identity.