A TALE OF THE KIMBERLEY COUNTRY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2355, 24 July 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

A TALE OF THE KIMBERLEY COUNTRY.

{Christchur'ch Telegraph,) One afternoon o.irly this week f called, in company with a well knowu newspaper man, on the governor of one of the N.S. Wales penitentiaries, orlong sentence gaols of the colony. My friend introduced me as from New Zealand.

" Indeed," said thonged and well known head of the establishment. " Do you know an old Jriond of mine named Smith T

I thought I had heard the name before, e\en in Maoriland, and told him all about the particular member of tins numerous family referred to. ] then said my friend had introduced me from New Zealand, but I was later from Western Australia.. -

" Ah," he said, " have you been to Kimberleyf

Not quite, but 1 know an much about it as most people." " Well, do you know, Ihave a wonderful story to cell about that quarter that will make your hair 'stand upon end with astonishment, I have~kept the secret, to which I was sworn, for ten years past, but as the person who swore me to secrecy in now dead, I consider that I, in reveling it, do not break my trust or honor—yes it is a very extraordinary story. Jf 1 show you a map of Australia can you point out the spot where the Kimburley field is situated i" I assured him that I could. He then took down from his library an old atlas and asked me to place my finger upon the spot, The map, which was one of the whole of Australia, must have been published fifteen to twenty years ago, as the north coast of Western Australia was a complete blank, and did not shew the rivers upon the Forrest track of 1875.1 had nothing, therefore, to guide me but the relative bearings from King's Sound and Cambridge Gulf. Howe.vai, judging the position of the goldfields therefrom, I placed my finger as requested upon the spot. " Well, that is really an extraordinary coincidence," said ■ the gaol governor. "Do you see that pencil mark?"

I had not previously done so, but upon examining the map more closely noticed a faint pencil line just where my fingtir-had been lifted from. (i That mark," said he, " was made in this room 10 years ago by a prisoner named Hume, a Scotchman, who was committed as an apprentice to Thunderbolt, the noted bushranger. He was a Victorian and knew the black fellows' lingo to perfection, and was as much as he could possibly be in the company of the. black fellows in the gaol—his fellow prisoners. He was, in fact more a black fellow than a European, and when breaking up firewood with them you could see Hume watching for the white grabs in the firewood and swallowing (hem quite as greedily as the black fellows, He came to me ono day and said he had a great secret to tell me that he had discovered in bis travels with the black fellows. I was very busy that dayand I told him that I could seo it would be a long story and asked him to tell it me some other day. Shortly after Hume was announced as desirous of seeing me, and was ushered into this very room. He said that before telling me the secret referred to I must swear fealty to the trust and not rsvea] it to a living creature. I did so holding up my right hand as requested. Ho then said ' I know where the remains of Leichardt are. 1 ' I then said ' Non aence,' and looked him hard in the fase knowing he got the name of the big-

»est liar in the guol, ' Where did you. i iud LelchardlVri'iiiaius I' •] discover- i 'A them where the sun sinks iu the ,r icean. No one has been therfr-'but t myself. I've, been among the blacks i since »iy boyhood.' I brought.down 1 this same atlas from my library, and t Dpenin'g outfthis same map asked him ] to point out where he had found Line- t hardt's remains. He, replied I don't | know anything about .■; inups,, but I i fQund therajn 4,Mv,Brn ; within night of 1 the sea where the sun sets in the ocean, i Following the coast line I asked him if it was in N. S. Wales, He said 'No, it was far away fromN.'S. Wales.' I carried my; linger round to York Peninsular, and said he would there see the,-sun setting in the West. He said ' No, it; was on the other side far away from; there,' I then :asked him where he hud come from. He answered,' Queensland, and had travel, led 10 or 80 miles.at about ten miles a day,' I followed the map across through Queensland, South and West tern Australia between 15 deg. and 20 deg. of south latitude, and said that would about agree, with his distance, and then the sun would set in the ocean. He then said 'be thought that would be about the place. Well, in a cavern thereabout, he said ' he had found a parcel, tied up in stringy bark, containing a telescope* charts, and sextant," ' But,' said I, 'granting that you did find these thing'!, how did you know that they bad belonged to Leiohardt]' 'Olaussen told me so,' he replied. 'And where did you see Olaussen ? 'At the River of Gold. He was an old man then, and the blacks were carrying him about—l know, continued he,' where there's a river of gold. I know a hill the whole side of which, has fallen out exposing one mass of white quartz, Pieces of gold are scattered around as big as ray list, in one place as big as a shoe trunk, 1 did not know it was gold at the time. Our tribe saw the remains of another tribe coming after us, so we made offfor our lives. I've seen gold since and know it was gold. I tried to break it up like brass, but could not break it up, It was as tough as lead.' I then asked him to mark with a pencil where the River of Gold was situated as compared with the position of the cavern where be had found the Leichardt remains, judging from the country ha had passed over and the time taken; he then marked the spot at which I had placed my finger, as being the position of the present Kirnburley rush. Hume told mo that in returning through N.S. Walos he was arrested as an accomplice of Thunderbolt, but knew nothing at all about him. The Governor told Hume that no doubt he would like to regain his liberty on the plea of going after Leichavdi'a remains. After his time was up, and Hume had left prison, he returned oue day, and again swearing the governor to secrecy said that-he could not. now that he was free, say as before, still, he wa6 about to leave, and would again find the Riverfof Gold. He left Sydney with that intention and perished on the way there. ■ I give youthe story as I got it from the governor of the gaol referred to, who stited to me that he believed Hume actually discovered gold when he professed to have done so. Ldo not pretend to be posted up in the evident* that has been brought to light regarding the efforts made to discover the Leichardt remains, and have not had time since to look up the matter, but was told by the newspaper man present before referred to (who will, no doubt, more fully enter into the subject in due couruo), that certain confirmatory facts appeared to lend credence to the story. Mr Hardman had similarly described a mountain containing silver ore in South Australia. He also mentions the existence of many caves near the coast-lines of Western Kimberley, at the entrance of one of which are some curious native drawings representing a hunting scene. Dr Olauesen, a Dutch doctor, accompanied by Leichardt. Dufour's name wa6 also mixed up in the subject, also Sturt's Creek, and Royal Commissioners who sat upon the inquiry, but 1 did not follow up the matter intelligently, farther than concerned " The River of Gold." Perth, W.A. T.M.