Ferdinand von Mueller

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Letter not found. The text given here is from Argus, 24 April 1865, p. 6, under the heading: 'Is it probable that Leichhardt or any of his party still survive?' A copy, apparently an offprint, is among the WA Colonial Secretary's files, State Records Office, Perth, Acc. 36, vol. 905, f. 172, while another copy was transmitted to the Colonial Office as part of Governors Despatch 92, 25 July 1865 (National Archives, London, CO 309/73, p. 94). There is another copy among the Petermann archives (Sammlung Perthes Archiv, SP A ARCH PGM 328, Forschungsbibliothek Gotha der Universität Erfurt).

TO DR. MUELLER.

PER FAVOUR OF THE ARGUS.

My dear Sir,—As the committee of ladies have expressed a strong desire that I, as an old explorer and frontier squatter, with considerable experience of wild natives, should give my opinion as to the fate of Leichhardt, I feel it a duty to comply.

The account of the destruction of Leichhardt and his party, given in 1849 and 1850, by the wild blacks beyond the Maranoa, was so clear and circumstantial, that I was firmly convinced of its truth. So firm, indeed, was my conviction that your very able lecture, even with the full knowledge I had of your experience as a traveller, produced very little effect, and I still regarded your proposed expedition as a mere ebullition of benevolence, purely sentimental and likely to lead to a waste of brave men's lives in a hopeless search after dead men's bones. Since, however, I have been induced carefully to reconsider the whole case, it has presented a very different view, and it now appears to me not only possible but very probable that Leichhardt or some of his party may still survive.

My reasons for coming to this conclusion I shall state in detail under three heads.

Was Leichhardt and party cut off, as reported to and by the blacks on the Maranoa in 1849 and 1850?

The blacks, in the minute account they gave of their following up of Leichhardt's party, the arrangements between the tribes on the route, the accumulation of their numbers, and their final attack and destruction of the whole expedition — man and beast — except two bullocks, at a waterhole between 200 and 300 miles north and west of the head of the Maranoa, was so exactly in accordance with the known facts as well as the habits of Leichhardt, that it amounted to the strongest circumstantial evidence, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary was almost universally received as positive proof.

There was, however, another hypothesis advanced by Mr. Isaacs, of Gowrey, a squatter on the Darling Downs, a companion of Leichhardt in one of his expeditions, who, on my return, expressed to me his disbelief of the blacks' account. His view was this. That the blacks are inveterate gossips and boasters, and talk over the most trifling details of their proceedings — even their day's hunting. That the attack had no doubt been intended, arrangements made among the tribes, the party watched as related, and every detail of the attack provided for: that it had been talked over incessantly, every man and tribe boasting what they would do, and as it passed from tribe to tribe the intention would come to be stated as a fact; that quite as circumstantial accounts had come in of the destruction of a former expedition of Leichhardt's, as well as private squatters' expeditions, without any attack having been actually made, and that this last report was not proof; that out of such a number, some of the cattle must have escaped, and if so near, must have come in to the settlements. This I knew was quite in accordance with the habits of the blacks; but in face of actual evidence from various directions and tribes, as circumstantial as blacks could give, it was at that time a mere unsupported supposition; now, however, the lapse of fifteen years has placed Mr Isaacs' hypothesis on a very different footing: — 1st. It has been ascertained that the language of the tribes far beyond the locality of the reported massacre is almost identical with that of the Maranoa tribes. 2nd. That the squatters have for years had sheep stations far beyond the Maranoa, with the blacks, then wild, in their employ. 3rd. That frontier squatters in search of sheep-runs, with blacks speaking this widespread dialect, have, according to their wont, explored for hundreds of miles around and beyond the locality of the alleged massacre; that when blacks have once been allowed to "come in" and live with the whites all past offences are condoned, so that the very people who committed the murder would have told all about it; and, lastly, that the locality of such a massacre, marked as it would be by the bones of seventy bullocks and horses, would be known to all the blacks for a great distance around. From this I argue, that if the Maranoa blacks were in 1849 and 1850 in such direct communication with the tribes who committed the murder, as to give an account so circumstantial as they gave me, and afterwards Mr. Hely, the place and every circumstance must inevitably have been communicated to squatters years ago; and, therefore, as no such information has ever been given, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that Leichhardt's party was not cut off, as reported by the blacks in 1849, nor anywhere within reach of the present white settlements.

Second.—In what direction is he likely to have gone, and to be still, if alive?

He has been traced by marked trees along Cooper's Creek, to the junction of the Alice; from that he crossed over to the Flinders, and followed it down to the camp and marked tree found by M'Intyre, about 20°S. lat., 142°E. long. As there were no settlements on the north and west coasts where he could get assistance, there was no inducement to go round nearly 3,000 miles, when he could cross the continent in half the distance, and gain the object of his ambition — a solution of the question of our interior geography. It was his declared intention to go no further north than to find a practicable route round the north of Sturt's Desert. It is now known that a large tributary of the Flinders, the Cloncurry, flows from the west upon or very near this parallel; also we have good reason to believe, from the accounts of the different explorers since, that the country to the westward is practicable; and there is every probability that he carried out his intention, made his westing in about the twentieth parallel, and then struck south-west for Swan River, probably when in about 30° E. longitude. In this case all the exploring parties must have crossed his track without observing any of his camps; but, as they did so at right angles, the chances were against their seeing any marked trees, and it forms no proof that he had not passed. It appears most probable that the party either perished or are in captivity in that great ocean of unexplored country between that point and Western Australia.

Third.—What are the chances of any of the party still surviving?

We have all rested content under the conviction that, as none of them have ever appeared, the whole party must have perished together by one of several ways:—Ist. By thirst, as Captain Sturt's party so nearly did through his only water-hole drying up, when hemmed in by everything drying up before and behind him. This is not at all likely with Leichhardt. There is a very simple method, which I have seen repeatedly, and Leichhardt must have known, whereby the blacks in that droughty country draw off into a tank the last water in a drying-up hole, leaving the sediment and scum. What would keep the seventy cattle a fortnight would sustain the human party a year, and we may be certain Leichhardt would save the water in the last extremity, even at the sacrifice of his cattle. 2nd. By thirst also, through not finding water where expected on their route; but this is simply impossible. Unless when following a watercourse, Leichhardt would, and in fact did, ascertain that there was water ahead before moving such a party. If they did move, and were disappointed, they would at once fall back on the last water. 3rd. That they may all have died, like Burke and Wills, of sheer starvation; but that is not at all probable. Leichhardt, in one of his last letters, remarked that, whatever might befall him, he would never die of starvation in the bush; and with his experience of the means of subsistence and health in daily use by the natives, he was quite justified in saying so. Unless cut off by a sudden attack, of which, since the report of the Maranoa blacks is disposed of, there is not even a rumour, the only danger was that pointed out by M'Kinlay, that he was caught in such a flood as that of the Darling last year, when the country was covered for thirty to forty miles on either side, without a sign of rain on the plains. The flood, however, must have been very sudden indeed, and in the night, if he could neither reach a sandhill, build a platform in a tree, as I have known done, or cut bark canoes; they may possibly have lost their cattle and outfit in this way, but very improbably their lives. The only tittle of grounds for the supposition of such a disaster is in the two graves upon Unutra Creek, in lat. 28°S. and 140° E. lon., pointed out to Mr. Conn and his party in 1861 as those of two white men of a party coming from the north killed by the blacks. I attach no weight to these graves, for this reason among others—that the natives there are in immediate communication with the tribes of the Paroo and Warrego, and it would have been heard of long ago; but as the locality lies on the outward track of a searching party, it would be well to ascertain whether they are white men's graves, and whether they had any connexion with Leichhardt. Taking every risk and contingency into account, it appears to me extremely improbable that the entire party should perish; and as they were all young men, it is not only possible but probable that some of the party still survive, and are living with some native tribe.

To this several objections have been urged; the first being that if alive they must have appeared somewhere: but to this I decidedly demur. First, Leichhardt may have died leaving no survivor able to guide them back, or with influence to induce them to face the return journey; or Leichhardt may have been left with a very few men and without horses, which may have perished of thirst, as before described, or from starvation, as we know cattle, horses, and sheep to have done when hemmed in by floods upon small sandhills on the plains. With horses they might certainly return, as once in the saddle they are as in a castle, if they only keep a sharp look-out not to be cut off in scrubs or bends of rivers, and keep clear of black camps at night; but for a small party on foot, loaded with arms and ammunition, collecting their food from day to day, and liable to be run down and attacked by every tribe whose country they pass through, I think it almost impossible, and that they must have joined some tribe. Once adopted, their escape would be extremely difficult, but upon this point I cannot do better than quote Mr. Lockhart Morton:—

"If he or any of his party is alive, it is doubtless under the protection of some tribe of blacks. If, as a last resource, from loss or death of animals, the party joined a tribe of blacks, it would be almost impossible for any of them ever to escape. The tribe they had joined would not willingly let them go, and all attempts to pass through the territory of other tribes would be extremely hazardous. Anyone who knows the ferocious habits and customs of Australian savages must be aware of this. In the account given by Morrell of his escape from the tribe he had been with for seventeen years near the mouths of the Burdekin, we have proof of the difficulty he experienced in getting away even to communicate with white men located within a few miles of him."

It will naturally be said, if the blacks are so ferocious they must all be murdered; but though all wild blacks will, if they can safely, kill all strangers, white or black, crossing their country, a man or a small party may, with ordinary prudence and tact, succeed in being adopted into a tribe, and be as safe as wild blacks ever are. They might join a tribe when too few to be formidable but too strong for an attack without preparation to be safe, stay, keeping a very sharp look-out until the natives got accustomed to them, giving them fishhooks, tomahawks, and all they could spare, providing their own food and giving no trouble; or join, like Burke's party, so weak as not to excite apprehension, and without blankets, tomahawks, &c., to excite cupidity. King was kindly treated; Morrell lived with natives seventeen years; Buckley, in Port Phillip, thirty years;

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John King (1838-72), James Morell, William Buckley.

a deserter in Moreton Bay fourteen years; a runaway prisoner there eleven years; Kangaroo Jack, on the Upper Murray, about the same; and, there is no reason whatever why Leichhardt's party, or some of them, may not have done the same.

To conclude—1st. The party was not cut off, as reported in 1849, but got safely about 1,000 miles upon their journey, and how much further we know not; 2nd. It is extremely improbable that the whole party perished; 3rd. That the party may have lost their horses, and been so reduced in numbers, strength, and outfit that they could not return through strange, and therefore hostile, tribes; and adopted their only resource joined a tribe of natives, from whom they could not escape. The probability therefore is, that some of them survive, who, after waiting year after year, with vain hope and sickening heart for the relief that never came, have sunk into despair and drag on a wretched existence, without a hope of ever again seeing friends or home.

It is deeply to be regretted that the question was not raised years ago; but now since you have brought it forward, and it has been so nobly taken up by the ladies of every denomination, I hope that all with a spark of generosity will contribute; and that all the colonies will regard it as a duty to assist in releasing, from an otherwise hopeless captivity, any who may still survive of Leichhardt's party.

St. Kilda, April 20.