Cooper's Creek
by Alan Moorehead
The Other Pioneers
Desert Wanderers
When the bookstore gets a particularly interesting book, it goes into my reading stack. One item currently in the stack is Alan Moorehead's "Cooper's Creek." I was interested in it because my primary focus in the bookstore is the history of Pioneer Oregon. The Australian adventure took place during the same era and had numerous similarities and marked differences. It was similar in that it is the story of mostly English pioneers and their descendants working their way across an unknown continent. It was different, at least it seems so to me because everything in Australia was simpler than North America. Perhaps I am being unfair here, but the Americans had the Spanish empire to the south and the French to the north while Australia was isolated from other contenders. In addition, going by Moorehead's book, the Australian natives were both more primitive and less threating than the North American native tribes. On the other hand I get the impression that the Australian interior is bigger and more desolate than the central US.
Pioneers
Could be very stupid
A recurring theme in the literature of exploration is the struggle with scurvy. For those who are not familar with the disease, it is a dietary deficiency that can be extremely painful, debilitating and ultimately fatal. It is caused by a lack of vitamin C in the diet. In many historic cases, this disease should have been avoidable. Moorehead's book clearly states that there were natives living in the region where they made a camp. These natives had been living here since time immemorial so obviously there was a source of vitamin C in their diet. It very likely was something, like insect larvae or kngaroo placenta, that would be highly unappetizing to European tastes but still much better than suffering the revages of scurvy which even when not fatal often left its victims suffering life-long debilities. That vitamin C deficiency was the cause was known from the middle of the 18th century so they knew the cause of their distress. It seems very strange to me that explorers would suffer for months without ever considering the fact that natives were not suffering from scurvy and therefore they must have some source of dietary vitamin C. Maybe you had to be there.
The Book
Itself
I started reading this partially because I had read Moorehead's "The White Nile" which I found fascinating. I am only about half way through this one but I do not find it quite as engaging as the saga of Kitchener in Khartoum simply because that is one of the great epics of the Victorian British Empire. On the other hand, I know almost nothing about Australian history so proportionately I am learning much more from the current work. Moorehead is an experienced professional and the book is clear, readable and thorough.