The death of Henry Bryan, the son of Rev Guy Bryan, Rector of Woodham Walter, in Essex.
This is a copy of a letter sent by Governor George Gawler to his brother-in-law Henry Cox.
Lat 34 Dec 20th 1839
My dear Henry,
Mr Bryan's youngest son Henry has unfortunately been lost in the woods on Saturday last the 13th inst, and notwithstanding the most persevering exertions to discover him, has not been found. Under such circumstances in this uninhabited country, there is not, speaking according to human probabilities, a hope of his safety, and I sit down with the most heartfelt regret to request you to break the heavy tidings to Mr and Mrs Bryan.
I never had so deep a regard for any young man that I had known for the same length of time, his character, looking at it with the severity of a Christian eye, was more faultless than that of any other individual of the same age with whom I had frequently to contemplate his daily conduct with surprise, asking myself the question - Does God intend such a boy to live.
Regard for him induced me at a time when every additional person beyond those absolutely required, was a very serious inconvenience, to bring him for his satisfaction on this journey.
The circumstances of his death or loss have been severely trying to several of us, though he has been the only victim of them - they are as follows.
Observations have combined to make it probable that to the northward of this point, at a distance of not more than 150 miles, there is a remarkable tract of country hitherto unseen by Europeans. Although it is not a part of my duty I thought it well to take the opportunity of riding for a few days to the northward to solve this question if it could be done with reasonable exertion - Captn Sturt, and Mr Inman were to accompany me with two more riding men leading pack horses laden with provisions and water. On the evening before we started, Henry Bryan begged earnestly to be allowed to lead one of the packhorses, instead of one of the men doing so - I was much pleased with his enterprising spirit - acceded to his request, and the next morning on coming in sight of a very high mountain before unknown to Europeans, I called it after him, Mount Bryan - The day was oppressive - we were travelling on an immense unsheltered plain continuing without apparent limitation, to the Northward, and the weather continuing very hot, I was coming to the conclusion of retracing our steps when, on passing a very slight undulation a magnificent range of mountains came in view to the eye and seen through the telescope clothed with wood and not more than 20 miles distant. Such a country could not but contain water, and through the greater part of a wearisome day, we pressed towards it - until in ascending a small hillock which placed us above the effects of refraction, the illusion was removed, the chain of mountains took its proper place still 30 miles distant from us - grotesque indeed in its outline, but so barren that the probability of finding water was too small to be pursued. While surveying the scene aboutus, smokes were observed to arise on Mount Bryan - smokes indicate natives, and natives indicate the neighbourhood of water - Our casks had leaked, the bung had escaped from one of them, and the consequence was that our stock of water was just exhausted.
The horses had had none on that day, and were consequently quite overdone. We were 60 miles from our camp - my desire was to return immediately and to make it in the night and the following morning, which I am persuaded we could have done, but the representations of my companions who were anxious to save their horses by the chance of water on Mt Bryan, induced me to go there - it was 15 miles from us and placed us at a distance of 65 miles from our camp. We arrived at its lower ridges long after dark - On the following morning, leaving Captn Sturt and Henry Bryan in charge of our provisions and packhorses, I and Mr Inman set out in search of the natives and water but after toiling over the spurs and through the gullies we could not discover them. We found a distinguished native fire and a ruined native hut, but this was all, and we returned to the party to say that no alternative remained but to press through the night for our station on the Murray - I am persuaded that there were natives and water in the mountain, and had I been alone I should have risked all chances to discover them, but I did not feel it right to throw away the lives of the party on such a probability.
We set off on Friday an hour before sunset - there was a clear plain of 15 miles before us, but our horses had been two days and a half, and we, one day without water. My plan was to press forward alone to reach the camp and send back water to the party, but Captn Sturt and Mr Inman pressed me to take Mr Bryan with me for the event of failure or an accident.
The poor boy accompanied me most cheerfully, he had been resting all day and did not appear to suffer from the subsequent exertion. He brought me the pulpy but bitter fruit of the mesembryantheumum and the little berries of the exocarpi - and ate plenty of them himself - he made many observations about our course, appearing to recollect its striking features well, and calculated our distances with much precision. On Saturday morning about eight o'clock my horse would not go out of a walk and Henry Bryan proposed to me to press on with his horse which did in a manner trot, leaving him to ride quietly in at a walk on mine - we were not more than 12 miles from the camp. The route was a perfect plain without impediments of any kind but scattered pine tree bushes which prevented a long view - It was of the utmost importance that I should go in as quickly as possible, Captn Sturt, Mr Inman and the attendant could not have been by that time above halfway across the plain, and their safety appeared to depend on having a supply of water sent out to them. Bryan was active, cheerful and too intelligent for doubt to rest upon his ability to follow a compass track for 12 or 14 miles especially in a country with which he was generally acquainted and has traversed two days before - I therefore took his offer, gave him a compass, telling him that I considered the true course to be South East but that I recommended South South East as it was better to strike the river below the Bend than above it, and after remaining with him a quarter of an hour to eat some berries of the exocarpi with some bread went on - I saw him follow me and thought he might keep my horse tracks which were very plain in the sand. An hour afterwards, one of those fearful hot winds which sometime visit our climate came on, very oppressive, for as long as they last, in Adelaide, but in pine desert insupportable. With the most powerful sense upon my mind of the importance of proceeding, I could not do so, but from utter impossibility to sit on the horse under its influence after the preceding causes of exertion, I lay down at the foot of a tree and could only reach the camp at daylight the next morning, the horse failing as well as I. To my very great joy Captn Sturt and Mr Inman with the attendant had just arrived - they had kept their strength to travel through the preceding day by killing a horse and drinking his blood - They had not seen Henry Bryan and alarmed by his absence I sent out several parties of those who had remained at the camp, in search of him - on that day (Sunday) without any effect. My apprehension was not so much with regard to his strength as that he might have struck the river too low down and have fallen into the hands of troublesome natives - he had been resting, as I before observed, on Friday and appeared throughout our journey active and cheerful.
On Monday Captn Sturt and Mr Inman with a very intelligent native went out and tracing back my tracks to the point at which we parted followed his to a place about 6 miles further on, at which he also appears to have lain down under the exhausting effects of the heat; and most unfortunately to have parted with his horse - His track after leaving me had been much to the southward of the extreme course that I gave him - His horse with the tether rope dragging after him, had here gone off directly westward, while a pencil note from him, left under his saddle, declared intention of going South South East and his footmarks were traced a few paces in that direction but then ceased to be visible. From Monday to Thursday the greatest exertions have been made to discover him - Captn Sturt Mr Inman and the black followed down his proposed course to the river which, notwithstanding his first deviation to the Southward, is struck about seven miles below the camp - boats went down the river and returned, for twenty miles - land parties crossed the bush in all directions - all of them lighting fires, firing shots, or placing notes of direction on trees in prominent places.
All these exertions I most deeply grieve to say were without effect. The horse might have been traced to any distance, but the footsteps of man were not to be distinguished - the proof that he was not with the horse was that its tether rope was dragging after it, and the saddle, bridle, blankets etc, all these things that Bryan must have laid down upon and with, were left under the tree with his pencil note. It is to be feared that the same tendency to a southerly course continued, and this course, running parallel to the river would only plunge him into an arid labyrinth of wood.
Adelaide Jan 5th 1840 -
Deficiency of provisions made it dangerous to remain on the Murray beyond Friday the 20th inst and on Saturday the 28th Guy Bryan had heard of his brother's loss by a message sent in with my desperation, and went out to meet us but missed us on the way and being quite unable to do anything by himself came back to Adelaide - He, poor fellow is of course most deeply afflicted, and it has been most difficult to restrain him from going to seek his brother. To have attempted this in the worried state of mind which he was for a considerable time, would have been his own loss. No reasonable probability of his brother's safety remained when I left the Murray. If he had made for the river we must have heard of him, and not making it before Saturday he could not then have existed - there is just the lingering almost miraculous possibility that he might have struck the river below our search, but in that case he knew that the boats were to go down to the Lake and he would have kept the bank to watch for there supported by bread which he had with him and wild berries of the exocarpi, fruits of the mesembryantheumum and nuts of the fusanus all of which abound. The natives in that quarter are most friendly and I am certain would have assisted him - the boats however saw no trace of him, and I mourn to say that I, Sturt, Inman and all who know the country have lost every hope that he will ever reappear alive.
His brother tells me, what I did not know before, that he was subject to dizziness in the head - English pocket compasses are somewhat difficult to use in this hemisphere as they are balanced for a northerly dip he was aware of this fact, but dizziness in the head, if he was attacked by it as an effect of heat and debility, might have rendered him incapable of correcting the error, and have thrown him continually into false bearings. In this manner alone I can account for his loss.
While on the Murray, I offered a reward of 50 pounds for his discovery - I would have offered more had I not have been sure that this would be sufficient to induce any one who were likely to be affected by such motives, to use their utmost exertions - I have since offered 80£ for the discovery of his remains to which his brother has added 100£ - but in such a wilderness the discovery must be an event more of providence - human intelligence is vain.
I beg you and especially Mr and Mrs Bryan to pardon the hurried manner in which I fulfill this most and ...... duty. At the Murray I was surrounded with anxieties, and here I am with distractions the arrears of 5 weeks' public business. The blow has been very severe to poor Maria - she however still has hope - but she is looking for the power of God rather than to the circumstances of the case.
To me these weeks have been very bitter, but I have known their object, and that I needed such to quicken a faith which trials of a public description had already begun to shade. Why poor Henry Bryan was made a sufferer in them I know not, but I can only hope and that with very strong confidence, that it was because God loved him and God took him.
I know not one young man of nearly his age for whom in such a case I could hope with the same confidence - This was a strong comfort to one from the very .... that I began to doubt of his temporal safety. I most sincerely hope it may be so to Mr and Mrs Bryan - I assure you I do not attempt to comfort at the expense of ...
I had intended to send you a description of our survey but must defer it - I can only say that it fully comes up to expectations - very good land - magnificently wooded and watered - it will however be some time before population comes up to it - but as we have already increased it by 50 per cent we can afford to wait.
The Colony prospering - good understanding rapidly increasing.......
Believe me my dear Henry,
Your very affectionate brother,
George Gawler
Henry Bryan's horse eventually made its way back to Adelaide with hoofs grown to enormous length and "turned up like skates". No trace of Bryan's body was ever found.
Copied by Eardley W H Bryan from a photocopy of Col Gawler's letter, which is in: Library Museum & Art Gallery Archives of South Australia. 2nd May 1990.
Henry Bryan left a note with his clothes which were found in the search for him, but no further trace was found
Interesting articles:
Old Bryan Wills. Will of Sir Thomas Bryan
Baron Bryan
"Baronia Anglica Concentrata"
Sir Guy Lord Bryan, K.G. from a book named "Knights Of The Order"
Bryans in "Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries."
Early Bryan Knights from Knights of Edward I, Vol 1
"History of Dorset" Woodsford
A De Bryan pedigree, from my father's cousin
Extracts from "Pedigrees from the Plea Rolls" (Wrottesley)
Various Bryan entries from Poole, Dorset, Library
More Bryan entries from various books in Poole Library
Baron Bryan from "Burke’s Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages", 1883
Letter sent by Col Gawler to his brother-in-law concerning Henry Bryan's death (Mount Bryan, S. Australia)
Diary of Col Gawler's daughter, Julia, describing the expedition when Henry Bryan died
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