Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/363

"but instead of five minutes they took no notice of him for a quarter-of-an-hour, when, after much dispute between the natives, they permitted him to sit down with them, but no one spoke to him or even answered his questions, except one young man, who was known to Barrallier's party, who treated Gogy with much civility, but all the others looked at him with the most savage stare."

Barrallier made several excursions from his depot at Nattai, communicating repeatedly with King. After a month's absence on his first journey, he wrote: "I see with satisfaction that the difficulties I have undergone, and which at present appear insurmountable, do not incline you to abandon the project." No effort had been spared,

"nor have we been stopped by the steep mountains and precipices we were obliged to pass to accomplish the mission you have charged me with; but at length, harassed with fatigue, our feet wounded, and tumbling the one over the other on rocks which appear to have no termination, and dispirited to find everywhere insurmountable opposition to our progress when we thought ourselves at the end of our travels, we were obliged, after journeying six days, to return, not having been able even to kill a fly. I do not believe there can be so barren a desert in any part of Africa as these mountains are—neither bird nor quadruped to be seen, but plenty of reptiles, amongst which are numbers of the most venomous serpents."

How far Barrallier pierced the mountains on his second journey can only be surmised. Ascent and descent of mountains, which stand like walls, magnify tenfold the labour of progress; and what the crow flies in one mile might involve many miles for the traveller. A knowledge of the map, and one glance at the country amongst the tributaries of the Wollondilly and the Cox, in the line which Barrallier took, will make the most daring admit that his task was impracticable. The one way by which the mountain fastnesses could be threaded was that adopted afterwards by Wentworth, Lawson, and Blaxland; i.e. following the sinuosities of the dividing ridge between two watersheds. There was an easier path for Barrallier to the southward, which was discovered by Hamilton Hume in 1814, but it was only to the west that in the early days attention was directed. On his second journey Barrallier wrote:

"Since I wrote last I have discovered another river which runs to the northward. After traversing the mountains seventy-four miles from Nattai in a due west course, I was mortified to find myself on the summit of a perpendicular mountain, from whence I saw a continued chain of mountains bounding the horizon thirty miles to the westward. At this time my courage would have forsaken me but for the sentiment of respect towards you. My companions appeared to have lost all courage or desire