Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/221

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SPURIOUS REPORTS ABOUT CLIFFS OF SALT.

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must have crossed the mountains. But the proof fails. Wilson could converse with the natives, and native tribes communicated one with another, and thus, by the presence of a native of a distant tribe, Wilson might easily learn the broad fact that from the western slope of the mountains rivers flowed to the interior.

Wilson's statement that he had seen a mountain or cliff of salt deprives the whole of his tale of credit.^[1]

An account of Wilson's journey (in the spurious history ascribed to Barrington) stated that Governor Hunter, to deter the Irish from their attempts to walk to China, ordered four strong Irishmen to be selected and sent to explore the very worst and most dangerous parts of the country;" that three of them succumbed "at the foot of the first mountains;" that one went on with Wilson and the other guides; that the "face of a hill which appeared white proved to be a large cliff of salt, a sample of which they brought away;" that the Governor sent Hacking out to test the truth about the salt-hill, and that on his return Hacking "brought some samples of various veins of salt in different places of 10 to 12 feet deep."

The concocter of this tale was so ill able to make it coherent that a few pages later in the narrative we find that—

Hacking, when sent to the salt-hill last month, was accompanied by Wilson and another man, who were directed to penetrate as far into the country as the provisions they were able to carry would permit. They returned after an absence of three weeks, and said they had been 140 miles W. by S. from Prospect Hill. In their journey they . . . found more salt-hills."

↑ "It is possible that the story of the convict's journey grew or was distorted out of an expedient resorted to by Hunter to check desertions. He heard that about sixty of the transported "Irish defenders" who "threatened resistance to all orders were about to march to China. He "planted a party of armed constables" on whose vigilance he could depend, and "who secured a gang of about twenty." . . . "I spoke to them, but observing a considerable degree of obstinacy and ignorance about them, I conceived there could be no better argument to convince them of their misconduct than a severe corporal punishment, which was inflicted, and they have since been strictly looked after at their work. Some of these fellows had been provided with a figure of a compass drawn upon paper, which, with written instructions, was to have assisted them as their guide." He selected four of the strongest, gave them provisions, and despatched them with companions, so that they might prove their prowess in exploring. "The whole of the men returned with the soldiers, most completely sick of their journey."—Despatch, 1798.

[1] "It is possible that the story of the convict's journey grew or was distorted out of an expedient resorted to by Hunter to check desertions. He heard that about sixty of the transported "Irish defenders" who "threatened resistance to all orders were about to march to China. He "planted a party of armed constables" on whose vigilance he could depend, and "who secured a gang of about twenty." . . . "I spoke to them, but observing a considerable degree of obstinacy and ignorance about them, I conceived there could be no better argument to convince them of their misconduct than a severe corporal punishment, which was inflicted, and they have since been strictly looked after at their work. Some of these fellows had been provided with a figure of a compass drawn upon paper, which, with written instructions, was to have assisted them as their guide." He selected four of the strongest, gave them provisions, and despatched them with companions, so that they might prove their prowess in exploring. "The whole of the men returned with the soldiers, most completely sick of their journey."—Despatch, 1798.

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