DARING EXPLORER

Taranaki Daily News, 1 October 1929, Page 7

DARING EXPLORER

EDWARD JOHN EYRE HIS TRAVELS IN AUSTRALIA. AN HISTORIC JOURNEY MADE. Few stories throw up in such bold relief the indomitable spirit of man as that of the exploration of Australia. But perhaps the hero whose exploits most completely captured the popular imagination was Edward John Eyre, writes W.H.R. in the Melbourne Age. The son of a Yorkshire vicar, he spent his early days at Hornsea, some sixteen miles north-east of Hull, where he was born on August 5,. 1815. Yearning for a life of adventure, he determined on a military career, but, failing to Obtain a commission in the English Army, he emigrated in 1'833 to Australia, and .be; came a squatter on the lower Murray River. It was not long before he undertook his first travels in Australia, for now and then it fell to his lot to drive great herds of cattle to some distant coastal town. These journeys, which took him sometimes across a comparatively unknown wilderness, stimulated the desire for more daring travels, and in 1839, during one of his army expeditions, he discovered Lake Torrens. When he heard that an expedition was being fitted with a view to exploring the' northern interior of Australia, he at. once applied for the leadership, and. in spite of his youth and little experience, his request was granted. PERILOUS JOURNEY. In June, 1840, within a few. weeks of his birthday, he set out from Adelaide on his historic overland journey, accompanied by Edward. Scott, his t: young, active and cheerful’’ assistant, four other white meh, two native boys, and numerous horses and sheep. Before long the grassy ■ hills and watercourses.gave way to .wide stretches of stony ground, and the great problem of.finding water for themselves and food for'the. horses and sheep became a constant worry. /' . ■ ■ Eyre's' troubles arid difficulties increased as he went on, and after a while he had to send- Scott back to Adelaide for fresh supplies.. It was his custom to pitch his. camp near a spot where there was water for themselves and food for the cattle, and then go off with a native to find a suitable site for their .next stop. Sometimes he had to travel for days . before discovering what 'he wanted, and on one occasion, when his search failed, he and his. companions' found themselves miles away from their depot, and without a particle of food or drop of water to sustain them. Only one course lay open to them, and that was to return to camp as quickly as their exhausted horses could Jarry them. The impossibility of penetrating any •distance inland gradually forced Eyre •to change his plans. While it seemed at all feasible he persevered with the idea of exploring the interior, and .he postponed abandoning the project for as long as he dared. The decision to strike out in a fresh direction was finally forced on him following a doleful misunderstanding with some natives, which placed the whole of the party in extreme peril. Meeting these natives one day, he tried to discover from them where he could replenish his supply of water. The black men immediately offered to accompany him as’guides, and Eyre gratefully accepted.

In the belief that he had come to the end of his difficulties,' at least for a time, he shared the last precious drops of water between his men and horses, but to his horror the following day the natives took them to the sea, evidently under the impression that they had fulfilled their .mission. The melancholy truth was slowly borne upon the Englishmen. There had been a mutual misunderstanding. Luckily, before the end of the day Eyre stumbled on a spring, but he determined that as there was now no hope of his fulfilling his original plans, he could not subject his party to further dangers. The expedition was therefore broken up, and everyone, with the exception of Eyre, John Baxter (his overseer), and the three natives (Wylie had joined them since they started) returned to Adelaide. Eyre was grieved to part with Scott, but his' keen sense of duty left him no alternative.

CHANGES OF SUCCESS SMALL. The opportunity had now arrived for Eyre to prove the possibility of an overland route between South and West Australia. He knew that the chances of success were small, and before' asking Baxter. to share the trials of such a perilous undertaking he took him completely into his confidence. The loyalty of the overseer, however, did not waver. “There were still 850 miles of an unknown country to be traversed and explored,” Eyre* wrote. “The journey oefore us would of necessity be a long and harassing' one —one. of unceasing toil, privation and anxiety.” Yet he . was firmly determined “never to return unsuccessful, but either to accomplish the object in view, or'perish in • the attempt.” ' The scarcity of water was the greatest hazard from the first., and before they had been travelling a fortnight all the party were suffering intensely. Severe sand storms and the torment of biting flies added to the terrors of the parching thirst. More than once Eyre was tempted to leave the sandhills, but they were “condemned to live among them for the sake of procuring water.” At one stage they travelled 150 miles without finding a pool or well to assuage their thirst, and at times their strength was so reduced that they fell down in a state of complete exhaustion. Soon so'critical did their position become that Eyre was reduced to the most extraordinary means of obtaining the precious' water that was to them life itself. Once, when they had come to the end of their resources, he tore up the roots of a gum. tree and squeezed the moisture from these. For this piece of ingenuity he was indebted to tiie native boys. Later on he was reduced to collecting with a sponge and bunches of dried grass the early morning dew that appeared on the bushes. -- But when he had travelled a littleover 'the third of the distance, Eyre was beset with even greater perils. One night two of the natives fearing that they were being led to their doom, seized a rifle and killed Baxter, afterwards- escaping .with the guns and. as much food as they could carry. It was a night of horror for Eyre, and dawn brought with it the realisation that he was in the. midst of the desert, wita Only a native- boy and a companion. Although, despondent at the ill-for-tune that had overtaken the expedition,

Eyre pushed on to his goal with un- j diminished determination. Day after day he and Wylie struggled on under a scorching'sun, often with little to eat and nothing at all to moisten their parched throats. A good part of the journey had been covered, when to Eyre’s great relief and joy, he sighted a French whaling vessel. The captain proved himself a friend in need, and with his immediate wants supplied, Eyre ■started on the last stage of his travels I with renewed determination. ' Many more weeks of hardship and i suffering were experienced, .however, before a cry of joy- from the lips of Wylie announced that they , were in sight of the mountains that lay behind King George’s Sound. Eyre, and his faithful companion had by then strained the power of human endurance to the breaking point, but the knowledge that they had almost reached the end of their journey imbued them with sufficient I strength to carry them over the last I few miles, and on the memorable July j 7, 1841, they crawled into Albany. As an example of endurance, grit and reso 1 lution, displayed under the most dis- ; tressing circumstances, this journey of i Eyre's has seldom if ever been equalled I In 1845 he published an account of his travels under the title of “Discoveries in Central Australia,” and this book at once sealed his fame as an explorer. A year later he was made Lieu-tenant-Governor of New Zealand, afterwards going to the West Indies to be appointed Governor of St. Vincent, Antigua, and Jamaica. After holding the latter post for three years he was accused of cruelty in suppressing a negro rebellion, and was recalled to England • to stand his trial. Eyre, however, was not lacking in staunch friends and, with Caryle and Kingsley among others, rallying to his side, he was acquitted and granted a pension. After a long and peaceful retirement, he died on November 30, 1901. . - Thus passed the man who found a route from Adelaide to King George’s Sound, and proved in so doing that there were then,. as- always, Englishmen willing to face dreadful hardships in the sacred cause of science.