The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-30

width of the river, I found it a difficult
matter to keep IN the channel where the
current was, so 1 gave up the steering
| paddle to Yamba, who seemed instinc-
| lively to know what course to take.
Some distance from the mouth of the
| river De ROugemont and his wife landed
on large island inhabited by number
| of natives, who gave him a dug-out canoe
to take the place of his raft. THENCE he
| ton in which he believed Cape York to
! lie.
At length they fell in with a mall vessel
| carrying Malay beche de mer expedi-
ton. The fishermen received them hos
| pitably and offered to carry them back to
Kopang in the Dutch Islands. At this
point, however, De Rougemont's black
! wife refused to accompany the party
| through fear of the Malays, and rather
than desert her De Rougemont gave up
this opportunity of rescue. This was
about the year 1868.
Captain Davis, the commander of the
| Malay vessel, informed De Rougemont
that he would be likely to find white men
at Port Darwin, between 300 and 400 miles
away. De Rougemont accordingly set out
in his canoe to reach Port Darwin. After
travelling forward for two weeks, and
| when he believed that he must be close
to Port Darwin, terrific storm arose
which swept the canoe out OF sight OF
land and nearly cost the lives of its &C.
cupants. In the course of the storm they
were evidently swept past Port Darwin,
for after sailing on for many days more
they came In sight of familiar land and
found themselves once more on the shores
of Cambridge Gulf, the identical point
from which they had started.
The natives welcomed them back with
every sign of delight, and De Rouge
mont was careful not to explain to them
that his return was Involuntary. For
long time after this bitter disappointment
he remained among his Cambridge Gulf
friends, always keeping a sharp lookout
for visiting ships and making several
short exploring expeditions along the
coast, but not attempting another trip
across the continent.
Some months afterward De Rougemont
determined to make another strike for
civilization and set off due south, not
knowing that this direction would take
him directly into the unexplored heart of
the continent. On this trip many Won
ders were encountered, including rain
storm which brought down live fish,
countless horde of rats, which devastated
all the country it passed over, and cave
full of immense snakes. There were also
MANY narrow escapes from death at the
hands of hostile natives.
On one occasion, believing that native
chief meditated treachery, DE Rouge
mont and his wife left the camp which
they had constructed and slept in the
bush In the morning they found a mum
Der of spears sticking through the bark
sides of the camp in the place where
they would have slept ordinarily.
Month after month the Journey was
continued in a southerly direction. 1t was
impossible to travel due south, but they
followed a zigzag course from water hole
to water hole after the manner OF the ma
tives. ,.o,, ,,o,,.hs ~
and while travelling in company with
small party of blacks De Rougemont
this time he was naked like the savages,
and so tanned and Drowned by exposure
to the weather that IN fb ne n has
excitement, however, he rushed toward
the white men, who promptly fired upon ,
his party 1 alu ener assumes the entire
blame saving that he would doubtless
have done the same thing under ike CIR
Two or three weeks after this encounter
De Rougemont and his wife came across
another white man, who had lost ms rea-
son and was wandering aimlessly ABOUT IN
the desert. This man lived with them for
some two years, recovering his mind nm
ally, just before his death sni SUI TO
Gibson and that he had been member
of the Giles expedition a..
+bare was apparently no hope of reaching
civilization by following an overland
route, De Rougemont determined to settle
down among the friendly blacks and If
necessary end his days there. To this
decision, he says he was moved largely by
the pleadings of his native wife, for
sincere affection. He therefore settled
down in the mountainous region near the
center of the continent and ultimately be
came king or ruler over a number of large
tribes In this manner he lived out the
next twenty years of his life, and would
probably have ended his days there had
not an epidemic of influenza swept over
the continent and carried away his wife
and children.
Being thus left alone De Rougemont
decided to make one more attempt to
reach civilization and leaving his noun
tain home set out toward the southwest
In this as in previous journeys, he was
unable to follow a direct line, but had
to go hither and thither with the tribes
that he met in his journey. After a
time he came across tree marked For
rest" evidently the name Of an explorer