CHAPTER XXXIII 



KENNEDY'S EXPEDITION, 1848, continued 

 THE FORLORN HOPE. FROM THE PASCOE TO CAPE YORK 



KENNEDY AND PARTY, WITH SEVEN HORSES, LEAVE PASCOE CAMP, 13 NOVEMBER, 

 1848. His JOURNALS LOST. JACKEY-JACKEY'S ACCOUNT OF THE 40 DAYS' JOURNEY. 

 FLOUR SOON EXHAUSTED. DRIED HORSEFLESH AND NONDA FRUIT. LUFF LAME. 



COSTIGAN ACCIDENTALLY SHOT. THE THREE WHITE MEN LEFT AT WHAT KENNEDY 

 MISTOOK FOR BLIGH's PUDDING-PAN HlLL. A HoRSE KILLED AND THE FLESH 



DIVIDED. A LIVE HORSE LEFT WITH THE THREE MEN FOR FOOD. KENNEDY 

 AND JACKEY-JACKEY CONTINUE NORTHWARD JOURNEY. HORSE BOGGED IN SWAMP. 

 (ENTERING ON THE " WET DESERT " ?) KENNEDY BOGGED. KENNEDY ILL. 

 JACKEY-JACKEY CARRIES HIM FROM CAMP TO CAMP, HIDES HIM FROM THE BLACKS 

 AND SCOUTS FOR FOOD. PAST THE REAL PuDDING-PAN HlLL. JARDINE RlVER ? 

 SCRUBS AND BOGS. JACKEY-JACKEY BOGGED, WITH HIS HORSE ON HIM. KENNEDY 

 SAVES HIM. THE HORSE DIES. HENDERSON RIVER ? MOUTH OF ESCAPE RIVER. 

 ALBANY ISLAND IN SIGHT. UP ESCAPE RIVER. NUMEROUS BLACKS, WHO PRETEND 

 FRIENDSHIP. A SLEEPLESS NIGHT. BLACKS APPEAR IN FORCE AT DAWN. THEY 



DOG THE TWO MEN ALL DAY AND AT DuSK SPEAR KENNEDY, WHO DIES, AND 



WOUND JACKEY-JACKEY. THEY ALSO SPEAR THE LAST Two HORSES. JACKEY- 

 JACKEY BURIES KENNEDY AND STEALS AWAY, EVADING THE ENEMY. STRUGGLES 

 ON, STARVING AND DAZED. REACHES PORT ALBANY (ajRD DECEMBER, 1848). 

 SEES THE " ARIEL " AND is TAKEN ON BOARD. 



KENNEDY, accompanied by COSTIGAN, DUNN, LUFF and 

 JACKEY-JACKEY, LEFT THE PASCOE DEPOT on i$th November, 

 1848. On 22nd December, JACKEY-JACKEY, the sole sur- 

 vivor of the party, having been forty days on the journey, 

 ARRIVED AT CAPE YORK and he was taken on board the " Ariel " on 

 the following morning. The " Ariel " sailed the same evening 

 bent on relief, and Dr. ADONIAH VALLACK, who was on board, 

 committed JACKEY-JACKEY'S DEPOSITION to writing. This deposi- 

 tion is a document of the utmost value, not only because it is almost 

 the only record of Kennedy's last journey, but also because it throws 

 light on the aboriginal mind and its limitations. I have myself on 

 many occasions been under the necessity of eliciting information 

 from aboriginals, and my experience is that a very short course of 

 interrogation is sufficient to confuse and give them brain-fag, 

 which generally ends in sulks, so that it is difficult or impossible to 

 obtain from them a consecutive tale. Jackey-Jackey's " State- 

 ment " is a marked instance of this limitation, and it is evident that 

 Dr. Vallack, tactful as he was, gave up the attempt to pin the hero 

 of the tale down to dates. Moreover, the poor fellow was DIS- 



227 



