3-074-997 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Ride Across Australia - sketches by Mr. A. J. Vogan, 1890. '1. Camped for the Night. 2. A Strange Nightcap, for Protection against Natives. 3. Crossing the Cooper River, near Windora. 4. The Settler's Altar: The Rain Gauge. 5. A Stockman's Grave in the Bush. 6. Just in Time; Man Dying of Thirst at a Dry Water-hole. Mr. Vogan...is exploring a part of the vast interior of Australia, which has hitherto been quite beyond the region of journalistic and artistic visitations...[He travelled with] drovers returning to a cattle-station...One of...[whom] told how he and a native black "tracker" once made search for a missing stockman, a "boundary rider," near Windora, coming upon him just in time to save his life: the poor fellow was dying of thirst beside the dried-up water-hole that he had sought; but a draught from the canvas water-bag carried by the black man restored his strength...[They saw] the grave of an unfortunate stockman who was slain by the natives in 1875: his name is scratched on the top of a kerosene tin...The tale of his violent death so much affected the mind of one of the travellers that, in lying down to sleep at night, he would cover his head with a bucket, as a protection against the sudden blow of a marauding black man's club'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.