The horse in earlier Blue Mountains exploration: George Caley
While Francis Barrallier (1773-1853) was toying briefly with the idea of using horses as part of a supply chain to provision his November 1802 expedition (Macqueen 1993, pp. 69-70), the botanist George Caley (1770-1829), son of a Yorkshire horse dealer, was also giving thought to the role horses could play in exploration. His correspondence with his employer Sir Joseph Banks gives some insight into his thinking.
Writing to Banks on 1 November 1802, a month or so after Barrallier had made a reconnaissance journey using two horses, Caley made the following remarks:
"[Barrallier] is upon the eve of setting off again with a larger party, and instead of horses he takes out two bullocks. ... I am so vain as to think that with another man besides myself, and a horse, that I can go further than what this party will, provided the weather is favourable. I have often lamented that being bred a horseman had been all lost labour in forwarding a pursuit in natural history, but at length I am undeceived, for as a traveller in this country it has given me an advantage over all others. When Mr. Barrelier (sic) returned I perceived his loss for the want of the like." (Macqueen 1993, pp. 70-71; Andrews 1984, p. 15)
Again, on 8 November 1802, he continued:
"Mr. Barrelier (sic) set off on his journey on Thursday last. They were 10 or 11 in number, and all had guns [and] a cart with two bullocks. This party, I understand, are likely to go a great way if we credit the report; but in my opinion it will fail, for they cannot go above 2 days' journey before they must part with the bullocks, and then every man must carry his own provisions, and he must be a very strong man that can carry 20lb extra of his gun, ammunition, etc. They talk of making stations in order to have supplies forwarded. Upon a horse I can take 100lb of food extra of all other articles for my pursuit. I am not afraid to travel by having only another person besides myself. By this I have not the encumbrance that will always be found in a large party." (Macqueen 1993, p. 71)
Caley's observations proved accurate for, having established his first depot at Nattai, Barrallier's planned supply line of depots failed to materialise and he and his men returned "footsore and short of provisions" (Richards 1979, p. 20) on 2 December.
Subsequent letters to Banks suggest Caley may have made a number of Blue Mountains excursions using a horse, though only one appears to have been documented. Lasting nine days, it occurred in February 1804 when he crossed the upper Nepean River and journeyed some distance into the mountains with one companion and a mare laden with provisions (Andrews 1984, p. 15). This was not, however, "the grand mountain journey" (Andrews 1984, p. 15) he was dreaming of and about which he had written to Banks almost a year earlier, on 13 May 1803, telling him that "next spring I mean to visit the ruggedest part of the Blue Mountains" and adding that "this will be a tract impassable for to take a horse".
His opinion on the horse's place in his own plans had clearly changed and the February 1804 expedition (and any others he may have made) did not persuade him otherwise for on 18 August 1804 he informed Banks: "In the course of a month I think of going a journey into the mountains for about a fortnight ... I have already travelled the ground that can be done with a horse." (Andrews 1984, p. 16) And again on 1 November 1804: "Upon the eve of going a journey ... Having tried every part to the westward for to penetrate into the interior with a horse but always having been prevented by very barren rocky ground I have now fitted myself out as well as the colony will afford for such a journey." (Andrews 1984, p. 17)
A day or two later Caley set out with three companions and a dog, equipped for about 20 days. In his journal he listed in some detail his provisions: biscuits, flour, rice, portable soup, pork, sugar, tea, "two fusees (small muskets] and a brace of large pistols", 20lb of ammunition, cooking utensils, compass, brush clearing implements etc. The total weight to be divided between Caley and his companions must have been at least 250lb and this was unlikely to have lightened as the expedition progressed because "as the food diminished the natural history collections took its place". (Andrews 1984, pp. 101-102)
When he returned, his comments to Banks (16 December 1804) on the conditions he encountered were blunt: "My journey to the Carmarthen Mountains was a very rough one. I was out three weeks which was as long as I was able to abide for the want of provisions. The roughness of the country I found beyond description. I cannot give you a more expressive idea than travelling over the tops of the houses in a town." (Andrews 1984, p. 24) Such conditions certainly seemed to confirm the unpracticality of a horse.
But could Caley have later changed his mind again? Though his expedition got bogged down in the Devil's Wilderness and failed to re-find the ridge that would have seen them into the Hartley Valley, Caley did report from the top of Mount Banks that "to the eastward very high land is seen" (Andrews 1984, p. 79) and found cause to reflect upon the possibilities such high land might offer for easier travelling (Andrews 1984, p. 81; Cunningham 1996, p. 118). Could he have thought more on this and not only seen the potential of the ridges but also renewed his faith in the value of the horse?
Though there is no evidence to substantiate it, is it possible that Caley met with Gregory Blaxland and discussed Blue Mountains exploration prior to his departure for England in May 1810? (Richards 1979, pp. 38-39) Sir Joseph Banks, after all, was a mutual friend (Blaxland, in fact, sent Banks a copy of his Blue Mountains journal in 1816). Blaxland also mentioned Caley by name in correspondence with Commissioner J. T. Bigge in 1819, though including him with others who had believed that a Blue Mountains crossing was impossible (Richards 1979, p. 175). While this might suggest that if indeed he had met with Caley their discussion was unfruitful, it should be remembered that by 1819 Blaxland was nursing a grudge against Macquarie. He was feeling badly treated and ignored and was playing up his achievements to Bigge, a ready listener to complaints against the Governor.
It has also been suggested that Caley met with William Lawson while the latter was in London between 1810 and 1812 ostensibly to act as a witness at the court martial of his superior officer, Lt. Col. George Johnston. The anonymous writer 'X.Y.Z', probably the tobacco merchant Thomas Horton James (Havard 1953), believed this and wrote in March 1827, in an article for Wentworth's The Australian, that: "no sooner [had Lawson] arrived from London where he had met Mr. Caley, and frequently discussed the practicability of a mountain pass, than he determined to set out on the expedition to find a passage over the Blue Mountains". (Jervis 1954, pp. 74-75) While there is no record of Lawson ever confirming James' statement, nor did he deny it.
Despite the lack of direct evidence, it is still interesting to speculate that, if such meetings did take place, issues such as ridges and packhorses may well have been discussed. For Caley's part, it is clear that he never lost his interest in the Blue Mountains, as can be seen from a letter he wrote to his friend George Suttor on 10 August 1812: "Oh! Botany Bay! I wish I could forget you! But this will never be the case as long as your mountains haunt me." (Webb 2009, p. 80)
© John Low