Page:History of West Australia.djvu/540

 Lindsay. Captain Lindsay, his father, was a widely-known trader between Dundee and Melbourne, and later became associated with the intercolonial trade between Adelaide and Western Australia. He had much to do with the early development of the colony's maritime trade, and enjoys the distinction of having taken the first steam launch over the bar of the Swan River at Fremantle. Towards the termination of his career he commanded the steamer Governor Musgrove, which, the property of the South Australian Government, conducted valuable surveys and general official maritime work for the sister colony. Perhaps the spirit of adventure—a survival of the Norwegian pirate kings—which dominated his father, was inherited by him, and was the inherent force which influenced the turns of his life. Born in 1856, he first attended school at Goolwa, and was afterwards placed under the Rev. J. Hotham, at Port Elliot. There the beginnings of his surveying and enterprising proclivities were fostered by actual knowledge of the means by which they might be carried into effect. When he was fifteen years old he left school, and entered as an assistant in a chemist's shop at Goolwa. The somewhat unromantic and sedentary nature of this occupation did not satisfy him, and his restless mind forced him to look for something fresh and exciting. He became associated with the office of a mining agent in Adelaide—a home of share dealing and speculation in Australasia. Even this did not prove sufficiently attractive, and twelve months later he joined the Survey Department of the South Australian Government. His first entrance to sparsely-settled country was made in Yorke Peninsula, where he was attached to an agricultural survey party, commanded by Mr. J. W. Jones. Next he was a member of a party in charge of Mr. C. H. Harris, which surveyed a road from Kingston to Border Town, a sequestered portion of south-eastern South Australia. Further experience in survey work was obtained in the Wirrabarra district as a cadet, under Mr. C. Wells. While a cadet he was given charge of a survey party in the northern areas, in the neighbourhood of Mount Remarkable. Two years of this work, in a way, completed his apprenticeship. In 1878 he was sent to the Northern Territory of South Australia, under Mr. G. R. McMinn, and during that gentleman!s extended absence he supervised the northern Land and Survey Department, and also the Public Works Department. A considerable portion of the Northern Territory, although one of the earliest parts of the Australian coast to be sighted by old world navigators, was, at this time, practically unknown, and even to-day much survey and exploration work requires to be conducted. While in charge of the Survey Department there Mr. Lindsay entered some of the pathless expanses, and, according to his bent, was ambitious to penetrate and explore them more fully.

In June, 1882, he severed his connection with the Government, and conducted private mining surveys in the Territory for twelve months. He then undertook an exploration trip for the South Australian Government into the ancient Arnhem Land. This coastal country was touched upon by navigators in the seventeenth century, and their reports of the country and the inhabitants were not at all encouraging. They described the country as barren and unfertile, and the natives as treacherous and vicious. The great Tasman was not pleased with what he saw of this portion of the Great South Land, and except for visits by Flinders, King, and a few other notable mariners, it has remained remote from the curious eyes of white men. The land in from the coast was thought to probably contain good pastoral country, but was still known to be peopled by dangerous and ferocious blacks.

To conduct an exploration party into such a country just suited Mr. Lindsay, and in 1883 he set out, accompanied by three white men, two black boys, and thirty-two horses. He was able to greatly add to the knowledge of the Government concerning Arnhem Land, and to inform them as to the utility of the country for white settlement. But the natives did their utmost to prevent his advance into their territory, and he had, on two occasions, to fight his way. The first was a somewhat exceptional instance of native courage. Throughout Australia the aborigines fear the darkness, believing that under its cloak grim spirits lurk, which are eager to do no end of harm. They therefore burn bright fires all night long, and remain within the range of light. If, by any chance, they stray beyond the illuminated boundaries they carry burning sticks in their hands, and fearsomely peer into the surrounding darkness for wandering spirits. Hence, for natives to attack an enemy at night is a most unusual occurrence. Evidently determined to dare the spirit-world, in order to fight an invader in the flesh, a large number of them attacked Lindsay and his men in camp. The isolated intruders, by constant firing of guns, succeeded in keeping the aborigines from getting within spear range. The only harm done was the loss of four horses.

While the explorers were near Castlereagh Bay, on the north coast, the blacks drove off all their horses. They left them about seven miles away, but it was a full week before the party were able to recover them. About 300 natives attacked them, and were driven off without loss or injury to the party. It is not a difficult matter to defeat these poorly equipped and ignorant enemies. And, after all, it is a natural, and in no way reprehensible, desire on the part of the latter to prevent the advance of these strange skinned men into the land of their birth. This was the first and only occasion that Mr. Lindsay was compelled to deliberately shoot the blacks, and he endeavoured, as far as possible, to secure his party's safety with a minimum loss of black life.

After five months spent in the Arnhem Land wilds, Mr. Lindsay returned to the central settlement at Port Darwin, whence he took steaner to Adelaide. He now, after a short holiday, went over to the west coast of South Australia to find a road from the coast to the Warburton Ranges. Succeeding in this, he again severed his connection with the Government, and journeyed to the north-east country—a span of weary miles. In 1884 he was on the Barrier Ranges just after the first discoveries of silver were made at Silverton, and he was in that place when the first silver was found on the famous Broken Hill fields. He already possessed some knowledge of minerals and geology, and during this period was able to greatly extend it. Still eager for the hard work of the explorer, in 1885 he organized an expedition, at his own expense, to explore the country between the overland telegraph line and the Queensland border. Starting from Hergott Springs, with seven men and twelve camels, he conducted a large amount of exploratory work, and reached the Barkly Table Land, where he made extensive surveys of run boundaries, and followed the McArthur River from south to north. During this expedition he discovered stones on the McDonnell Ranges, which were reported to be rubies. This discovery caused great excitement in the sister colony, some experts reporting the stones to be true rubies, others condemning them. Nothing is now heard of the McDonnell Ranges' rubies, although