How Baxter Met His Death

On March 29, 1841, when Eyre was walking along the shore, many pieces of wreckage were passed, none of which seemed to have been washed up recently. By April 7, Eyre estimated they were half way between Fowler's Bay and King George's Sound. A return from an advanced camp was made to retrieve some of the buried provisions. 

About this time the party were using a good deal of stingray fish. At first they found it palatable, but afterwards it disagreed with them. Baxter, the overseer declared it made him weak and ill, and that he could not work while living on it. The black boys said the same. But I don't know if any credence can be placed on this last statement, for the natives have the happy knack of saying, " Suppose you no likem, me no likem." Recently a fisherman at Kangaroo Island became very ill after eating stingray fish. Eyre was thus forced into the position of killing a horse. 

On April 22, two of the black boys deserted their mates, thinking they could make their way westward, but by the 25th they had learnt their lesson and returned to camp. Wylie confessing that they were sorry for what they had done. Nearly the whole of April was spent in the halfway camp. 

On the 27th camp was broken up, and still a few more things were discarded. On that and the two succeeding days 53 miles were travelled. 

A storm was brewing on the evening of April 29, and the overseer suggested camping where they were, some large sheets of rock offering a suitable place to catch water, if the rain came. Eyre agreed to the proposition, much against his inclination, as he wished to travel throughout the night. 

Baxter asked Eyre which watch he would take in shepherding the horses, enabling them to feed without being tied up. Not being sleepy Eyre chose the first. He allowed the horses to roam until about 11 p.m., when he returned them camp ward. Hearing a shot, he called out, and getting no response, became alarmed and hurried to the camp, meeting Wylie on the way in great distress. The native could give no information beyond crying out, " Oh, masa, oh massa, come here." 

On arrival at the camp Eyre was horrified to see the overseer lying on the ground almost dead, and he soon passed away. By indications Eyre reconstructed the scene, and came to the conclusion that the native boys had started to plunder the stores ; on Baxter awakening and endeavoring to make them desist they shot him. Two of the natives then decamped, taking two rifles, bread, meat and other supplies. 

NATIVES EAT MURDERERS 

Eyre was now in a fearful predicament — one white man, one black boy and something like 600 miles to travel to bring them to King George's Sound. Baxter, the faithful servant and valued friend, was left where he had fallen, with a blanket enshrouding the body, the hard limestone crust pre vented Eyre from digging a grave. Eyre felt convinced that Wylie was a participator in the plan to rob the camp, even if not in the subsequent outrage, but Wylie would not admit it. 

The evening following the night of the tragedy, the two runaway natives approached the camp. Eyre endeavored to get them to return to wards Fowler's Bay, but they persisted in following westward. Eyre thought by travelling fast and continuously he would soon outdistance them. He never saw or heard of them again. If Mrs. Daisy Bates's version can be relied upon, the natives did not live very long to enjoy the fruits of their rash murderous attack, nor did they have a happy end. Mrs. Bates in a very fine article on 'Cannibalism,' which the ' West Coast Sentinel ' on June 1, 1928, reprinted from the ' Australasian,' said, " Some old natives of Eucla area remember their fathers' tales of the killing of Baxter, Eyre's companion, by the Port Lincoln natives, because their fathers told them they killed and ate the two natives. Strange natives were always killed and eaten."  Of course, Mrs. Bates erred in describing them as Port Lincoln natives ; bad as the local natives may have been, they were not responsible for Baxter's death: the tragedy occurred 200 miles west of Eucla. 

By May 8, Eyre was forced to kill another horse, but even in this predicament he had courage enough to send Wylie back on horseback to look for the Streaky Bay foal which had been overlooked. Wylie proved true to his trust, and came back in the, evening with the foal. How little it took to revive the fainting spirits ! 

On that day, while Wylie was absent, Eyre was collecting firewood, and saw a silver bark tea tree, another change in the vegetation indicating approach to a different class of country. On the 16th Mount Ragged bore W10N, and then a coarse kind of granite was reached. Later the trunk of a large gumtree was seen on the beach, and then came the pleasure of seeing a few drops of water trickling down the face of a large granite rock, the only approximation of running water seen since leaving Streaky Bay. 

WYLIE'S GARGANTUAN APPETITE 

On the 17th, Cape Pasley and Point Malcolm were seen. On the 18th Wylie shot a young kangaroo, and returned at dusk. This boy had a wonderful appetite. For his evening meal he started with his ration allowance of 1½ lbs. of horse flesh, and a little bread. He was then able to thoroughly enjoy the titbits of the kangaroo — first the entrails, then the paunch, liver, lights, tail and two hind legs. Then followed a penguin that he had found dead on the beach, and after that he singed the hair off the kangaroo's hide and forced it down. He finished his meal with the tough skin of the dead penguin. Eyre ends the account of that by saying "He then made a little fire and laid down to sleep, and dream of the pleasures of eating, nor do I think he was ever happier in his life than at the moment." 

At Point Malcolm there were found traces of Europeans for on a teatree the following were cut " Ship Julian 1840," "Haws 1840," "C.W." and a few other letters that were not copied. Water was becoming more plentiful, the grass feed was gradually improving, and the trees were bigger. On May 30, they reached a pretty fresh water lake, the first permanent surface fresh water found since leaving Fowler's Bay, nearly 700 miles to the east. They still were about 300 miles away from King George's Sound. Eyre and Wylie were now suffering from wet and cold, against the dry and hot winds when leaving Fowler's Bay. 

June 2, 1841, near Thistle Cove, a sailing boat was seen in the bay, and then another. It requires the pen of Henry Kingsley, who wrote a most inspiring story in MacMillan's magazine of Eyre's trip, to describe the next few moments. Hastily lighting a fire, firing off the gun, and waving handkerchiefs. Eyre and his companion tried to attract the attention of the vessels, but all signals proved unavailing, and the boats gradually receded from view. However, a search of the ocean revealed to the westward the mast of a large ship. A ride through loose sand for six miles, in fear and trembling, for the ship might sail at any moment, a smoke fire was soon lit on the rocks, and it was not long before Eyre was shaking hands with Capt. Rossiter, the English commander of the French whaler Mississippi. 

The captain had only recently arrived from France, and the vessel had been only three weeks upon the ground that she had taken up for the season's whaling, which did not begin until the end of June. What a wonderful meeting, fully confirming that there is a Divinity which shapes our end, rough hew it how we will. Eyre remained on board until June 14, giving the horses a chance to recover. The French blacksmith shod the horses, French fashion, which did not at first appeal to Eyre. The captain provided sufficient provisions to carry the two wanderers westward. In return for which Eyre gave an order on Mr. Sherratt. The explorer states that he never heard whether the order was presented or the money collected. 

JOURNEY'S END 

During the stay on the boat, some natives were seen on the shore, and Wylie was able to converse with them. It does not require much stretch of imagination to picture Eyre's delight at the meeting with this boat, or his appreciation of the captain's hospitality, but we re-echo Eyre's words, "It gives me unfeigned pleasure to have it now in my power to record thus publicly the obligation I was under to Captain Rossiter." 

On leaving the ship, Eyre entered into a conspiracy with the captain, at the latter's request. It was arranged that if there were war between the French and the English, he was not to mention the fact that he had seen a French vessel on the coast. Quite how this promise of Eyre's could have been kept is hard to tell. On June 15, goodbyes were said to the French friends, and another start made westward; three days less than a year since leaving Adelaide, but in vastly different condition to that in which they had arrived at Rossiter Bay — as Eyre named the place — a short fortnight previously. This name is overshadowed by the name of Esperance Bay.

Compared with the past, the present route was easy going, but Eyre still had trouble of one kind and another, despite which there was no looking back. On July 4, they crossed the track of horses, the first signs of civilisation, and on July 7, 1841, they entered the town of Albany. They arrived back in Adelaide on July 26, after an absence of one year and 26 days. 

The next series of articles will deal with murders by the natives.