Aboriginal people seemingly saved Mitchell’s life

Three days later, Aboriginal people seemingly saved Mitchell’s life. He is still out after dark and: “returned guided by the natives. It soon became very dark and but for the clever way the native boys kept up a light made of the stringybark which served for a flambeau we certainly must have found it extremely difficult to avoid the rocky precipice we past – on steep places they also set fire to the grass trees which immediately blazing up – gave a light to some distance around. We reached [camp]…very fatigued, the rain also having set in…Five of the road party were this night lost in one of the gullies in descending Warrawalong…they were heard cooying all night, but it was impossible for any one to find them” (Major Mitchell’s diary, 7 July to 21 August 1829, with courtesy of Ken Marhein and Carl Hoipo, Wollombi Historical Society).