Journal of Landsboroughs Expedition from Carpentaria | Page 3

about a mile distant, with a strong wind and considerable waves against him.
On Saturday the 7th instant, while we were attending to the surviving horse of four which had been trampled down by the stronger horses among the floating empty water tanks, we had the great pleasure of seeing H.M.C.S. Victoria coming to our relief; and I can assure you we were very thankful, and our spirits much cheered by your telling us, after Captain Kirby had intimated to us that he had abandoned the Firefly as a total wreck, and in our presence told his crew that as shipwrecked mariners he had placed them under your charge, that you would do your best under the circumstances to enable us yet to start on our expedition from the Albert River in search of Mr. Burke and his companions, and with that view you would endeavour to get the Firefly afloat again, and have her refitted as a transport hulk for the conveyance of our party, horses, and stores; and if you did not succeed in that undertaking (which I hope you will pardon us all for having thought a most hopeless affair) you would in several trips transport our party, horses, and stores in H.M.C.S. Victoria.
Now that the great exertions made by you and your officers and crew in getting the Firefly afloat again, in refitting her, in embarking twenty-five of the horses, with our party and stores, and in transporting them safely to the Gulf of Carpentaria, has been crowned with success, allow me to congratulate you on those events, and to assure you that, these difficulties being overcome, I have now great hopes of carrying out at least satisfactorily, with the assistance of my brave, trusty, and zealous companions, the instructions of the Victorian and Queensland Governments, with those which I may receive from yourself.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
(Signed) W. LANDSBOROUGH,
Commander of the Victorian and Queensland Land Expedition.*
(*Footnote. Captain Kirby of the Firefly has since published a pamphlet in which he states that my party were at times in a great state of alarm, but in fairness to them I may mention that although they had frequently much reason to be so, I never saw them exhibit any traces of fear. He further states that from what he saw of them they showed great ineptitude for camping out. This is surely very unlikely as we were all old travellers, three of my party and myself had at one time been gold-diggers, a mode of life well calculated to give the necessary experience in this way. And as for Captain Alison, who had never been a gold-digger, I observed on the island that his tent was particularly well pitched.)
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(NUMBER 2.)
(COPY.)
Sweer's Island, 8th October, 1861.
To Captain Norman, of H.M.C.S. Victoria, and Commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition Parties.
Sir,
I have the honour to inform you of the following particulars with regard to the Albert River:
On Tuesday morning (the 1st instant) at 8 o'clock we reached the mouth of the Albert River, on the sandy beach of Kangaroo Point.* There were about a dozen blacks, who appeared friendly and kept speaking to us as long as we were within hearing; but none in the barge (not even the native troopers) understood them. With the exception of Kangaroo Point, on the east bank, the river has an unbroken fringe of mangrove to a point two miles in a straight line from its mouth, and an unbroken fringe to a point three miles in a straight line from the mouth on the other side of the river. Above these points the lower part of the river has (where the edges have no mangrove) fine hard sandy sloping banks which are well adapted for landing horses or goods. A short time before we reached the point, above thirteen miles in a straight line from the mouth of the river where we anchored for the night, we saw about six blacks, who were very friendly and followed us for some time. We found that the water was fresh when we reached Alligator Point, about twenty miles in a straight line from the mouth of the river; above this point the fringes of mangrove are scarce on the edges of the river, and back from the river there is rising ground, consisting of fine, well-grassed, and slightly timbered downs. On passing up the river, on the left bank, we observed a blackfellow asleep. At sunset we anchored at a point about twenty-six miles in a straight line from the mouth of the river, where a river from the southward, which Mr. Woods called the Barkly, joins the Albert River.
(*Footnote. Kangaroo Point would in my opinion be a healthy site for a township. The ground is sufficiently high along the shore at that place, and