BY HON. A. NORTON. 3 



Before continuing the narrative, 1 may explain that 

 Mr. Jardine, the father of the explorers, was in 1864 Police 

 Magistrate at Rockhampton, and when the Northern 

 Settlement was decided upon, it was he who was appointed 

 to take charge of it. The selection was an exceptionally 

 good one, for Mr. Jardine had not only an extensive official 

 and military experience, but hfi was a keen sportsman, 

 and had a thorough knowledge of Australian bush life. 

 Before he came to Rockhampton he had livied in the 

 Wellington district of New South Wales, where he was 

 the owner of a cattle station, the management of which 

 was confided to his sons, Frank and Alick. Here it was 

 they became acquainted with the ways of bush life ; they 

 looked after the stock, and when cattle were sold, they 

 travelled with them to Bathurst and other places where 

 they had to be delivered to the butchers who supplied 

 beef to residents in the countrjr towns. But, apart from 

 the experience they, gained in thii^ way, they possessed 

 in a high degree that instinctive knowledge which enabled 

 them to travel through the trackless forest without deviating 

 from the direct course, a feat which to most persons is 

 impossible. The blacks who lived on the Upper Macquarie 

 River were comparatively civilized when the Jardines 

 lived amongst them, but the brothers were quite aliv^ 

 to the nec3ssity of avoiding everything which would bring 

 them into conflict with the treacherous savages through 

 whose country they must necessarily pass when travelling 

 through the unexploied forests of Cape York Peninsula ; 

 and they had too much discretion to provoke hostility 

 which would greatly add to the difficulties and dangers 

 they had to face in their northern journey. Mi*. Byerley 

 was under a misapprehension, therefore, when he spoke 

 of Frank owning to "a feeling of savage delight at the 

 prospect of having a shine with these wretched savages, 

 who, without provocation, hung on their footsteps, dogging 

 them like hawks all through the thickest of their troubles, 

 watching with cowardly patience, for a favourable moment 

 to attack them at a disadvantage." Indeed, tliroughout 

 the journey, when they were at times compelled to act in 

 self-defence, they allowed many of the aggressors to escape, 

 when they might have shot them down by dozens. 



