Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Report on white men's graves in the interior', Transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 6, Appendix, lxi-lxx (B65.14.05). The report was read at the meeting of the society on 10 October 1864, the day given in the text.

In accordance with instructions received from the Exploration Committee, we have the honour to submit to the Royal Society the results of our inquiry into the evidence brought forward by Mr. W. G. Conn and Mr. W. Giles, at the meeting on 29th August last,

2

At the meeting on 29 August 1864, among the items 'laid on the table' was a letter 'from Mr. W. P. Giles, having reference to the discovery of graves supposed by the writer to possibly contain the remains of Dr. Leichhardt'. ('W. P. Giles' is William Ernest Powell Giles; letter is E. Giles to M, 3 October 1864.) The minute continues: 'Messrs. Giles and Conn, who were present, at the request of the President, gave a short account of the manner in which they had discovered the graves, their locality, appearance, construction, &c.' (Transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 6, Proceedings, p. li).

in reference to the supposed graves of white men found in longitude (approx.) 142deg. 35min. E., latitude (approx.) 28deg. 45min. S.

From the tracing of Mr. Conn's route, hereto annexed,

3

Map not published.

from the detailed account contained in the published letters of these gentlemen appended,

4

The letters were not published in the journal. There is a footnote at this point, marked by an asterisk: 'Vide Mr. Conn's letter to The Argus of January 20th, 1862, and to Dr. Mueller on September 5th, 1864, and Mr. Giles' letter to The Argus, in August 1864'. Conn's letter to the Argus (p. 7), written from Hay (NSW) on 13 January 1862, concerns who might be in the graves to which, while Conn was exploring 'north of the Darling', his Aboriginal guides had drawn his attention—graves that the guides claimed were of white men speared by Aboriginals. W. Conn to M, 5 September 1864, comments upon that letter. Giles's letter in 'Leichhardt's remains and white men's graves', Argus, 27 August 1864, p. 6, gives more details of the journey, and of the graves.

and from their explicit verbal and written statements, which the committee received, it is perfectly clear that the graves can in no way whatever be identified with those of any traveller known to have perished in or near the locality indicated, the burial places of Dr Becker

5

Ludwig Becker.

and some of his unfortunate companions at Bulla (a locality, moreover, also visited by Messrs. Conn and Giles), being the nearest to the spot where the graves of the supposed white men have been found.

We, however, cannot withhold our impression that the evidence of these graves really containing the relics of white men is solely based on the assertions of natives, who did not even themselves witness either the death or the burial of the supposed travellers. The young natives, who led Messrs. Conn and Giles to these burial places, may have received a misconstrued intelligence through the aborigines of other tribes on the subject, not having seen the parties of whites said to have succumbed in this locality under the hands of the savages; and, notwithstanding the emphatic denial by the black boys, that these graves were those of aborigines, we are inclined to regard them as such, these graves corresponding sufficiently, except perhaps in size, to ordinary native tombs, recorded by Mr. Augustus Gregory as seen in his expedition along Cooper's Creek.

6

There is another footnote at this point, also marked by an asterisk: 'Vide appended extract of A. Gregory's report, published in the papers of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, 1858, p. 677'. The extract was not published in the Journal. Gregory's report, dated 27 August 1858, was also published by the Legislative Assembly (A. Gregory (1858a)) and reprinted in A. Gregory & F. Gregory (1884), pp. 200-210. The final paragraph of the report describes aboriginal graves on Cooper's Creek as 'mounds of earth three to four feet high, apparently without any excavation, and surmounted by a pile of dead wood'.

Moreover, no signs of the employment of an axe or other European implement on the wood covering the graves, nor any other vestige giving a clue of Europeans having visited the locality, were observed.

Did not Messrs. Conn and Giles describe these graves as several years old, at the time they passed the spot in 1861, we would have been induced to consider the place as possibly covering the remains of natives, who were wounded when repelled by Mr. Wright, Dr. Beckler, and Mr. Hodgkinson,

7

William Oswald Hodgkinson.

in their attack on the camp at the Bulla,

8

During an attack on 27 April 1861; see despatch from W. Wright to the Secretary, Victorian Exploring expedition, 20 June 1861 (http://www.burkeandwills.net.au/Despatches/Wright/Wrights_Third_Despatch.htm accessed 31 October 2018)

an encounter which took place a few months before Messrs. Conn and Giles went to the Unutra Creek; and the account of this conflict might have been misconceived by the natives.

Nevertheless, we recommend not only a close investigation of the spot indicated by Messrs. Conn and Giles, and the disinterment of the bones for scientific inspection, but more particularly that this inquiry should be connected with an interrogation of the natives occupying the surrounding country, in order to secure the fullest possible information on the origin of these burials.

Reflecting on the possibility that the graves noticed by Messrs. Conn and Giles might prove the burial places of white men, we are at once led to contemplate from whence and under what circumstances could the supposed travellers have reached that lonely spot, since no party, as far as we are aware, is missing in that direction.

According to Messrs. Conn and Giles' surmise, which is shared by Mr. John Neilson,

9

'Leichhardt's remains', Riverine herald, 7 September 1864, p. 2; see D. Lewis (2013), p. 210,

these graves might perhaps be the last resting places of some of Dr Leichhardt's exploring party, and hence we deemed it incumbent on us to weigh the whole evidence hitherto extant of the fate of that great explorer, in order to ascertain, in the first instance, how far it bears on the facts immediately before us.

In thus far extending our scope of action, we have moreover, been impelled by a deeply-felt persuasion that it is a holy duty of all Australia to leave nothing undone which might shed light on the destiny of one who stands second to none, and above most of the explorers of this country — a man who unfolded first to the astonished world the treasures and resources of a vast extent of this great continent, the richest dependency of the British Crown.

The first tidings of the recorded awful termination of Dr. Leichhardt's enterprise were obtained in 1850, by Mr. W. Ogilby, P.M.,

10

Error for Ogilvie; see 'The Leichhardt Association', Sydney morning herald, 12 September 1857, p. 4. William Ogilvie (the younger) of Gwydir was appointed a Police Magistrate in the general commission of the peace in 1851, proclaimed on 23 October 1851 and published on 25 October 1851 in New South Wales g overnment g azette, issue no. 122, pp.1721-6, at p. 1724.

at Surat, and Mr. Gideon Lang, now of this city, through a black-fellow, at Surat.

This latter had met a wild native, according to whose account a party of white men and two aborigines, corresponding exactly to the number of Leichhardt's party, had been massacred by the wild blacks, beyond the Maranoa. To accomplish their design, they had watched the party from the very moment of their arrival in the country of these tribes, had sent messengers ahead to arouse the neighbouring hordes of natives, had gradually closed upon them without Leichhardt and his companions having been seemingly aware of the impending danger, had finally and unobservedly surrounded them in large numbers, and in the dawn of morning, when the travellers were asleep, crept stealthily on the camp in the bend of a creek, threw a volley of spears on the previously ascertained positions of the sleepers, and killed all except one, who, resting a slight distance apart, had sprung up, fired one shot, and killed a native, but was then immediately speared. The oxen, horses, and mules, it is said, were then killed, the latter not without a desperate struggle to break their hobbles; but the native related, that two of the bullocks succeeded in breaking their hobbles, and that these were the only animals which escaped the slaughter. The savages perpetrating this destruction were beyond the intercourse of white men, and when plundering the camp left the tobacco and flour, then unknown to them, scattered on the ground, but displayed a particular eagerness to possess themselves of the bright red blankets, known to have been provided by Leichhardt for his party.

After hearing of this catastrophe, Mr. Lang at once resolved to set out from Mount Abundance, in long. 148deg. 40min. E., and lat. 26deg. 50min. S., where Dr. Leichhardt finally quitted the settlements, in order to test the truth of these tidings.

Mr. Lang took with him the man Walker, who afterwards was engaged for Mr. Hovendon Hely's party, and was accompanied by two stockkeepers and two blackfellows, the stockmen availing themselves of this opportunity to search for cattle. Mr. Lang, unable to pick up Leichhardt's then obliterated track at Mount Abundance, struck across to Sir Thomas Mitchell's Depôt Camp at the Maranoa, found on that river Mitchell's as well as Kennedy's tracks, but no traces of Leichhardt, and examined the Maranoa for seventy miles on both sides, without obtaining any further clue beyond some information from the natives, which corroborated circumstantially the first accounts received, and place the death-scene further to the westward. The two stockmen then determined to return, and Mr. Lang was reluctantly obliged to relinquish his search, being, like Walker, greatly reduced in strength by extreme hardships undergone immediately before they set out on this journey, although they calculated to be able to reach the place of Leichhardt's supposed fall in ten days from the Maranoa.

Their provisions also at the time were exhausted. If the same high-minded energy evinced spontaneously on this occasion by Mr. Gideon Lang, had inspired others to imitate his example, the fate of one of the most glorious explorers of Australia would doubtless long since have been ascertained.

Mr. Lang, who verbally narrated these recorded facts to Dr. Mueller, felt at the time, and is still satisfied that Leichhardt and his companions perished under the circumstances related by the natives; and when it is remembered that Leichhardt started with seven horses, twenty mules, and fifty oxen, as the animals of burden, the travelling pace of which would necessitate his stages to be so short as to permit the swift natives to collect around him; that long subsequently Mr. Walker found the natives on the Patrick River in possession of axes; that Mr. Isaacs, a former companion of Leichhardt, and many others, were informed of that unfortunate traveller's intention to bend his course to the Alice; and when, moreover, we consider the atrocious disposition of the natives of the whole district about Mount Abundance, and west of it, where many Europeans were killed by them, and even many stations were abandoned at the time as untenable, we must admit that Mr. Lang was fully justified in arriving at the conclusions he drew from the information originally and soon afterwards obtained by him from the natives.

The fact of the blacks pointing rather to the west than north-west as the locality in which the encounter took place, does not, in our opinion, much invalidate the evidence, because the hunting-ground of their western neighbours would likely extend through several degrees of latitude, and they would only perhaps be generally aware of the travellers being destroyed in the territory of the western tribes.

The Government of New South Wales, having obtained, through Mr. Lang and through other sources, this information of the probable fate of Dr. Leichhardt, promptly despatched a party, under the command of Mr. Hovendon Hely, to investigate more closely these sad circumstances. This inquiry was instituted by Mr. Hely undoubtedly with a deep appreciation of the duty devolving on him at the occasion; and although the results derived from his journey materially strengthened the evidence obtained through Mr. Lang, Mr Hely failed to ascertain with absolute certainty the fate of the missing explorers, and it is only to be regretted that this gentlemen's

11

gentleman's?

researches were not followed up immediately after his return, before the vestiges of the lost party faded away.

Mr Hely reported, under date 22nd July, 1852, from Surat the results of his mission.

12

There is a footnote at this point, marked by an asterisk: ' Vide papers of the Legislative Council of New South Wales'. Hovendon Hely's report is accessible in the reprinted version, 'Council Paper, Fate of Leichhardt, Report of Hovendon Hely Esq.', Empire (Sydney), 13 August 1852, pp. 2-3.

The evidence thus gained left unfortunately hardly any doubt that the poor explorers had all lost their lives by a brutal and treacherous attack of the natives, although a series of circumstances, which are best learnt from Mr. Hely's report, prevented that gentleman from reaching the locality where the death-scene took place, and although he found the accounts of the blacks as regards the precise spot of the catastrophe to be greatly at variance. It is easily understood why the natives, whilst without hesitation they generally admitted the destruction of the party, and brought to bear an undeniable amount of corroborative and circumstantial evidence on the facts, were naturally reluctant to lead the friends of the fallen men to a place where the contemplation of the spot of horror, and of the relics of the unfortunate victims, might so easily arouse in the white men feeling of the most intense indignation and of fervent vengeance. Hence Mr. Hely was readily enabled to find two of Dr. Leichhardt's camps at the sources of the Warrego and Nive, bearing as marks XVA in the lower portion of a capital L, but was constantly deceived by the blacks in their statements about the spot of the massacre. Had the guides acted otherwise, they would indeed have exposed themselves, and this without protection, to the retaliation of those tribes whom they had, may it be with ever so much justice, accused; thus the natives, ever eager to gain rewards from the travelling party, conducted it to Sir Thomas Mitchell's depôt, and other spots, and finally vanished secretly. The inscription on each of the two Leichhardtian camps found by Mr. Hely has never yet been satisfactorily deciphered, and although, by the subsequent discovery of two other trees during Gregory's and Walker's expeditions, indicating camps of Leichhardt about 80 and 87 miles further to the north-west, the interpretation of these marks became of less importance, and although no interpretation is likely to shed any light on his fate, there is still attached a melancholy interest to these, as some of the very last signs we have of his movements. We wish, however, to observe that the Rev. W. B. Clarke, the venerable and ever active geologist of New South Wales, has sought to elucidate these figures as indicative of Kennedy's camp, in a letter (published in the Sydney Morning Herald of August, 1858),

13

'Leichhardt and the desert', Sydney morning herald, 24 August 1858, pp. 4-5; Clarke's argument is based on analyses of reports of marked trees.

in which he with the warmth of personal friendship for Leichhardt, cherishes the hope that evidences so contradictory as those hitherto obtained leave still ample room for the opinion of Leichhardt's not having ended his luminous career under the circumstances related by the natives.

We have appended to this report a valuable memorandum from Mr. Giles,

14

Memorandum not printed in journal. There is a footnote marked with an asterisk: 'Vide letter to Dr. Mueller, dated 3rd October 1864.' See E. Giles to M, 3 October 1864, which contains sketches of the marks discussed.

in which he demonstrates from experience, how part of the inscription of one of the trees might have become obliterated by the overgrowth of bark. Otherwise it is difficult to understand why two camps of Leichhardt should bear precisely analogous distinctive marks, unless we suppose that the Roman letters were intended for the day of a month (April

15

There is a footnote at this point, marked by an asterisk: 'Leichhardt left Mount Abundance early in April, 1848'.

), and that evidently an error had been committed in fixing the date of one of the camps. Mr. Giles deserves much credit for the vivid interest he evinced throughout this inquiry, and we share the hopes of his experienced fellow traveller Mr. Conn, of seeing Mr. Giles's services secured for any future enterprises to be organised to find vestiges of Leichhardt, and simultaneously to examine the graves at Unutra.

Mr. Gideon Lang entertains the opinion that, whilst the numerals indicate the number of the camp, the A, as a convenient letter, was added to distinguish the place from others Leichhardt might be encamped at in any retrograde direction and possible return journey.

Most important seems to us the assertion of one of the fugitive guides to another of his race, that Mr. Hely had still to cross four creeks; next, a large plain of three days' travelling distance; and then again three creeks, before he would arrive at the spot where the disaster occurred.

The discovery of the extensive natural distribution of gold through South-east Australia at about this period absorbed universal attention, and diverted the thoughts of all colonists so much from other subjects as to render it not surprising when we find that for several years no further direct efforts were made to fully solve the mystery which involved Leichhardt's fate; the more so, since in 1855 and 1856 the expedition sent for geographical discoveries by the Home Government through tropical Australia was in the field;

16

North Australian Exploring Expedition.

for it was thought that fortunate events might bring its movements in contact with the traces of the last explorers. No further tidings, however, having been obtained, the Government of New South Wales, in 1858, entrusted the command of a special search expedition to Mr. A. C. Gregory, with the hope that the well-known skill and experience of that tried explorer would dispel the mystery. But, although this expedition solved some interesting problems in the geography of Australia, it left that of Leichhardt's fate unsolved; still, Mr. Gregory discovered, not distant from the junction of the Alice River with Cooper's Creek, a marked tree indicating a Leichhardtian camp, in lat. 24deg. 35min. S., and long. 146deg. 6min. E., the huge but simple L being evidently intended as a conspicuous lasting mark by the unfortunate traveller to signify the spot where he intended to leave the line of Cooper's Creek, the letter measuring fully eighteen inches in length.

17

The extracts were not printed in the journal. There is a footnote, marked by an asterisk: 'Vide appended extracts of Gregory's journal printed by order of the Legislative Council of New South Wales'. See A. Gregory (1858a).

From the discovery of this L, the only one which at the time extended our knowledge of Leichhardt's movements, the inference has been drawn that the accounts given by the natives of the destruction of Leichhardt beyond the Maranoa were unreliable or truthless.

It would have been a source of deep gratification to the committee, if in endeavouring to penetrate this chaos of conflicting evidence they could give their concurrence to this inference.

But on reflecting how vague all information in this sad event of Leichhardt's death has proved throughout, as far as the indication of the spot is concerned, we think that the discrepancies of some of the statements may be reconciled by the vagueness characteristic of the ideas of savages on distances, numbers, and time; hence we had arrived at the conclusion, that the various accounts given to Mr. Hely by the natives, as far as they admitted generally the annihilation of Leichhardt's party, were thereby not invalidated; and we even conceived that the locality referred to by those natives on whose statement Mr. Hely could place most dependence, is still quite within the reach of the spot where Mr. Gregory discovered the huge L. In this conclusion the committee has subsequently been strengthened by the testimony kindly proffered by Mr. Gideon Lang, who, after a lengthened conversation with several natives in 1851, calculated the distance of the spot where the tragical occurrence took place still to be ten of his days journey from the head of the Maranoa.

We are not surprised at Mr. Gregory having found no further indications of Leichhardt's presence on the spot; that gentleman visited the locality ten years after the last explorers, and found the banks of Cooper's Creek for nearly a mile on either side bearing the vestiges of one of those tremendous inundations, the torrent of which would probably carry away any relics of a river-camp, or bury them in the subsiding débris.

No additional disclosures concerning Leichhardt were obtained until the year 1861, when the services of Mr. Frederick Walker were secured by the Exploration Committee of this Society, to conduct one of the expeditions in search of Mr. Burke and his companions.

18

Robert O'Hara Burke, leader of the Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition, 1860-1.

On the way to the Gulf of Carpentaria, diverging to Cooper's Creek, he found seven miles below the Leichhardtian camp discovered by Gregory, another tree bearing a smaller L, testifying to Leichhardt's presence.

19

The extracts were not printed in the journal. There is a footnote marked by a dagger: 'Vide extracts from his journal appended'. For a report of a second L tree, see Walker (1863), p. 133.

We fully acquiesce to the sagacious explanation of Mr. Walker, who points to the probability of Leichhardt having been compelled to retrace his steps to the river and descend along it until he could skirt the scrubs, which, to a party so peculiarly fitted out as his in regard to animals of burden, would prove still more impervious than to any other expedition since in the field in that direction. If the vestiges of tracks noticed by Mr. Walker on the Patrick River,

20

F. Walker (1863), pp. 135-6.

about sixty miles north of Leichhardt's last known positions, can in future be connected with any camps in the vicinity, we would have proof of considerable weight that the universal accounts given by the natives of the destruction of the party further south could not be true, unless we admit the great improbability of Leichhardt's having fallen back on Cooper's Creek for water, after an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate northward, or his having retraced his steps for any other reason unknown.

The supposed tracks of Leichhardt indicated still further north on Mr. Walker's chart, and recorded in his journal, lead seemingly to the tree marked L by Mr. Landsborough (in lat. 22 deg. 45 min S., near the Thompson River),

21

Qld. The extracts were not printed in the journal. There is a footnote: at this point, marked by an asterisk: ' Vide Landsborough's journal, p. 90'. See Landsborough (1862).

a point reached by that traveller anterior to his most creditable Carpentaria expedition.

22

See chart of routes of Walker and Landsborough, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231412875 (accessed 31 October 2018).

On the other hand, this would give no clue to the statement of a native woman, who was understood by Mr. Walker to have seen white men W.S.W. of the Barkly River,

23

Walker (1863), p. 140.

Burke and Wills' track being distant about two hundred and eighty miles in that direction.

This closes our inquiry into the more or less tangible evidence of Leichhardt's fate—an inquiry which necessarily was surrounded with difficulties, and which will continue unsatisfactory as long as it mainly rests on the fluctuating traditions of the natives and on positive testimony so faint.

In furnishing our report, we have not quoted verbally all the statements bearing on the subject, but appended quotations from various documents. We found it hopeless to bring to bear on Leichhardt's fate, the statements recorded by Mr. M'Kinlay during his skilful and daring expedition,

24

The extract was not printed in the journal; there is a footnote: marked by a dagger: ' Vide his journal, p. 10' (i.e. McKinley (1863).

which informs us of human remains interred at Lake Massacre, and not yet fully identified with those of Gray's of Burke's expedition. We are of course equally unable to bring within the reach of our investigation the record of the famous J. Macdouall Stuart, of having crossed what appeared horse tracks before he reached Tennant's Creek, near Macdouall Range, in latitude (approx.) 19 deg. 30 min. S., and long 134 deg. 25 min. E., or the vague tradition of Western Australia natives, according to which, white travellers coming from the east had perished on a lake in the inland wastes of that colony.

But as long as all such accounts reawaken our thoughts of the missing travellers, we are earnestly and ever anew reminded that we have not fulfilled the dictates of humanity and of gratitude to one of the early pioneers of Australian discovery, whose name will ever be identified with the history of this country.

The spot where, in his philanthropic endeavour to expand our knowledge and to widen the area peacefully conquered for civilization, Leichhardt is said to have sunk, is almost now within the reach of settlement; and what to those who formerly went on his path proved unattainable, is a task now portrayed readily to be accomplished. We would therefore recommend that the localities on Cooper's Creek, which bear the last indisputable marks of Leichhardt's movements should again be examined, and that a party sufficiently strong to resist any attempted attacks should scrupulously, through reliable interpreters, interrogate the natives, to set the question finally at rest, whether Leichhardt and his brave little band met their death on the spot originally recorded, and if this should be affirmed, to secure such relics of the perished travellers as will place the fact of their annihilation beyond doubt. The forbearing and judicious manner in which Mr. Hovendon Hely acted towards the natives must have inspired them with confidence that his followers will deal with them in the same clement spirit; and whilst now more than sixteen years have elapsed since the probable destruction of Leichhardt's party, it is likely that the perpetrators of the murderous deed will now display no greater reluctance to reveal the features of the sad tragedy than the natives of the Bogan, when questioned, to narrate the circumstances under which Richard Cunningham lost his life.

25

See the report of Lieutenant Zouch, dated Bathurst, 7 December 1835, in Favenc (1888), pp. 407-8.

If this recommended inquiry verifies our just fears, one duty alone remains to be performed—to mark by a monument the spot which must be holy to all of us and all future generations, and which would ever remain a historic landmark. If, however, and let us cherish the hope, the destruction of the poor explorers on that spot can be disproved, we ought not to rest until, by successive and systematic inquiry amongst the native tribes, we learn what became of the lost men, should it involve a sacrifice ever so great; for whenever Leichhardt's fall beyond the Maranoa should be disproved, the assumption that he and his faithful followers number with the dead could likewise no longer be vindicated on any tangible ground, and we could no longer dispute the possibility of any of the unhappy men still having lingered on from one tedious year to the other for relief, and to have lingered in vain. The improbability of such a fact is great indeed, but its absolute impossibility, from evidence hitherto extant, cannot be demonstrated, and future ages will then pass on Leichhardt's contemporaries their judgement. Those on whom the burden of exploration has fallen heaviest amongst us have earned almost throughout but poor rewards for their self-sacrificing labours. But let it not be said of us, in addition, that we have been unconscious of our duties towards humanity.

And here we must contend, that on the rising colonial community, occupying the vast extent of a magnificent land which poor Leichhardt under so many privations discovered, so lucidly described, and so faithfully mapped (and which now yield millions annually, to a highly prosperous population), more particularly devolves the duty of initiating the final steps for disclosing Leichhardt's fate; moreover, the country to be traversed, for instituting at least the earlier of these inquiries, lies within the precincts of Queensland, a colony deeply indebted to Dr. Leichhardt.

By patient perseverance the fate of Leichhardt can now be ascertained, if the inquiry is supported by the resources which this great country can well afford to devote for an object so noble.

Future generations ought to have no cause or opportunity to cast on the present citizens of Australia, the reproach of having been unconscious of the claims of Ludwig Leichhardt—a man who has never yet been replaced among us—a man of imperishable greatness.

26

The many unsuccessful attempts to find traces of Leichhardt are examined in Lewis (2013); for a discussion of the response to this report see pp. 207-10.

Melbourne, October 10, 1864.