THE FORLORN HOPE 229 



near Shelburne Bay. MR. KENNEDY CALLED IT PUDDING-PAN HiLL. 1 We left some 

 horse meat with the three men at Pudding-Pan Hill and carried some with us on a 

 pack-horse. Mr. Kennedy wanted to make great haste when he left this place, in 

 order to get the doctor to go down to the men that were ill. This was about three 

 weeks after leaving Weymouth Bay. 2 ONE HORSE was LEFT with the three men at 

 Pudding-Pan Hill, and WE (Kennedy and myself) took with us THREE HORSES. 3 The 

 three men were to remain there until Mr. Kennedy and myself had gone to and 

 returned from Cape York for them. Mr. Kennedy told Luff and Dunn when he left 

 them, if Costigan died they were to come along the beach till they saw the ship, and then 

 to fire a gun ; he told them he would not be long away, so it was not likely they would 

 move from there for some time. They stopped to take care of the man that was 

 shot ; we (me and Mr. Kennedy) KILLED A HORSE for them before we came away. 

 Having LEFT THESE THREE MEN, we camped that night \2ist November} where there was 

 no water 4 ; next morning Mr. Kennedy and me went on with the FOUR HORSES 5 : 

 two pack-horses and two saddle-horses ; ONE HORSE got BOGGED in a swamp. We 

 tried to get him out all day, but could not ; we LEFT HIM there, 6 and camped at 

 another creek 7 [22nd November]. The next day Mr. Kennedy and I went on again, 

 and passed up a ridge very scrubby and had to turn back again, and went along gulleys 

 to get clear of the creek and scrub. 8 Now it rained and we camped 9 [zyd 

 November} ; there were plenty of BLACKS here, but we did not see them, but plenty 

 of fresh tracks, and camps, and smoke. 10 Next morning we went on and camped at 



1 It is clear, from subsequent events, that Kennedy was mistaken in his position 

 and believed that he was at the Pudding-Pan Hill of the Charts (named by Bligh) when 

 he was actually 50 miles south of it. As far as appearance goes, any one of the 

 numerous fragmentary Desert Sandstone tablelands might be supposed to bear a fanciful 

 resemblance to an inverted " pudding-pan." All the known circumstances are in favour 

 of Kennedy's so-called Pudding-Pan Hill being west of Cape Grenville. The probability 

 is that it was the " Sandstone Table " sketched by me on 25th February, 1880, in 

 12 i' S. lat. and 142 34' E. long. Jackey-Jackey's petulant remark : " Mr. Kennedy 

 called it Pudding-Pan Hill " was evidently his reply to cross-examination when the spot 

 where the men had been left had become the question of the hour in the minds of the 

 officers of the relief ship. 



2 Jackey-Jackey has accounted for only nine days. They probably seemed like 

 three weeks to him, and his arithmetic was defective. 



3 Jackey-Jackey breaking down under the strain of prolonged cross-interrogation 

 and his memory and arithmetic hazy. He states on the 2ist no doubt correctly 

 that he and Kennedy left the so-called Pudding-Pan Hill with two pack-horses and two 

 saddle-horses. 



4 Say near Middle Peak, 11 56' S. lat., 142 52' E. long. 



5 They left the Pascoe with seven horses. One was killed on igth November, one 

 live horse and one which was killed for food were left with the party at the so-called 

 Pudding-Pan Hill on 2oth. Four were now left to go on with Kennedy. 



6 This leaves three horses alive. 



7 Say n 47' S. lat. and 142 50' E. long. 



The description of this country, with its bogs and scrub, corresponds with that of 

 the country where my own party were in great difficulties from the same cause (involving 

 starvation for the horses) between Camps 51 and 55, ist-6th March, 1880, and where the 

 Jardine Brothers had experienced similar difficulties between their Camps 71 and 77, 

 I7th-23rd January, 1865. The " ridge very scrubby" may have been the same on 

 which Jardine's 74th and 75th Camps and my 5ist, 54th and 55th were situated. 



9 This camp was probably west of Helby Hill, near Jardine's 77th and my 52nd 

 Camp. The " gulleys " to which the travellers doubled back " to get clear of the creek 

 and scrub " were probably heads of my " Captain Billy's " and " Camisade " Creeks. 



10 The Herald reporter obtained a significant addition to Jackey-Jackey's story 

 (Sydney Morning Herald, 6th March, 1849) : " Mr. Kennedy once got into a bog, after 

 leaving Pudding-Pan Hill, up to his shoulder, and was ' like a pig in the mud,' Jackey 

 says. He lifted him out. . . . After Jackey had taken Mr. Kennedy out of the bog 

 between Shelburne Bay and Escape River, they SPELLED FOR SEVERAL DAYS, he was so 

 ill, and Jackey says he carried him often on his back not far ; only half a mile at a 

 time. . . . Sometimes Jackey carried Mr. Kennedy from place to place when he was ill, 

 out of the way of the blacks, and, as he terms it, ' planted ' him." It may be con- 

 jectured that this " spell " of several days took place at the camp of 23rd November. 

 We may suppose that perhaps for three days (24th, 25th and 26th) Jackey-Jackey was 

 busy collecting food, evading the blacks, and from time to time carrying his enfeebled 

 master to new hiding-places. 



