Scots pioneer subject of novel

Camerons of the Glen, a historical novel about Scots pioneer Donald Angus Cameron, by Donald Offwood will be launched at the Lakes District Museum tomorrow night. Cameron was one of the first European men to explore Lake Wakatipu and he and his brothers took up a large block of leasehold land in the Nokomai and Nevis Valleys, south and east of Kingston. He also owned the 29,000-acre Closeburn station, near Queenstown. Today, we publish an edited part of the chapter dealing with the family's activities in 1859 . . .

Alexander (Wee Sandy) had arrived back from Scotland about May 1859 with his father Ewen, brother Angus and sister Margaret Jean and they had gone up to the Cameron enclave at Penola (Australia), just in time to catch up with Donald on his sheep buying expedition.

Donald chartered the Peregrine Oliver, a full-rigged barque, commanded by Captain Rippon, to take the sheep across to the Bluff, in two trips.

The sheep were dipped and allowed to dry at Limestone Ridge for 10 days before they were driven to Robe.

The first flock were boarded at Robe, the town at Guichen Bay, South Australia, which had become second only to Port Adelaide as an international sea port.

It was the nearest port to Alexander Cameron's property, Limestone Ridge.

They sailed on June 21, 1859, and although the weather remained calm for their voyage across the Tasman Sea to Bluff, a considerable number of the sheep died of suffocation in the hold of the ship, probably due to the fumes from their dipping having not fully dispersed during the holding period.

The active ingredients in sheep dip were arsenic, tobacco, sulphur and soda. They arrived at the Bluff on July 5 and of the 2060 loaded only 765 live sheep were unloaded at Bluff.

Accompanying Donald on the voyage were his brothers Sandy, Angus and John, as well as Angus Macdonald. One of the other passengers on the ship was Donald Hay, who was coming to New Zealand to look for sheep country.

Two horses and six bullocks were also shipped without loss. A year's stores to sustain them were also unloaded. These survivors were ferried across the harbour to Te Wais Point for a three-month quarantine period.

A camp was established with two 12 feet by 10 feet tents about a mile inland from the shore. It had to be inland as the dogs were kept busy stopping the cattle from drinking the sea water, which they had never seen.

Donald's brother Sandy remained in charge of this camp and sheep, awaiting the arrival of the second shipment.

Surveyors were busy to the west of their camp cutting their way through the scrub at Greenhills to form the track from Bluff to Invercargill.

Across the estuary at Bluff, the only real building was the hotel of "Surely, Surely Macdonald." Donald paid 14/- a sheep and paid the shipping company £1100 for the two voyages.

The total cost of buying and shipping his sheep and other animals across the Tasman came to £4,012, which was paid for in cash as £1,500 by Donald Cameron, £200 by Angus Macdonald and £2,312 by Angus Cameron, while Uncle Alex also held a loan interest in the venture. According to his notebook, Donald sold his brother Angus various essential supplies on June 20, 1859.

Angus purchased on account, one pair of boots at £1/2/-, one pair of trousers at 9/-, a blue shirt at 3/6 and half a pound of tobacco for 2/-. John Cameron was similarly kitted out on the same day, also buying a felt hat for 6/-.

He also purchased a pair of canvas trousers for 5/- on July 11 and a monkey jacket in September 1859 for £1/10/-. John repaid Donald Cameron £1 of this debt in cash at Riverton on September 27 and the remaining 10/- on 3 October, also at Riverton.

Angus returned to Australia for a second shipment of sheep, which departed from Guichen Bay with 1516 sheep, six bullocks and five horses.

Only 494 sheep and five bullocks were unloaded on August 19. From their original purchase of 3592 sheep in South Australia, only 1259 were landed safely at Bluff, but more losses were to come.

While the sheep were in quarantine, Donald Cameron and fellow passenger on the S. S. Peregrine Oliver, Donald Hay, set out for Glenquoich and a further exploration of the mountains to the east of Lake Wakatipu.

In the winter of July 1859 they crossed the Hector Mountains and further explored the Staircase and Nokomai country.

When they had completed this winter ramble, Donald Cameron returned to Invercargill to meet up with his quarantined sheep while Donald Hay proceeded on to Riverton.

At this small port, Hay bought a pony, saddle and bridle, gun, ammunition, provisions, a tomahawk, a quart pot, a calico oil cloth and a single blanket. He then returned to Glenquoich and the south end of Lake Wakatipu.

He had heard that a previous party had left a moki (a Maori canoe of bound reeds) there and to his joy he discovered it hidden in some bushes.

He proceeded to enlarge and strengthen it with dried sticks from the local flax bushes, cut some oars and installed two forked sticks into the side of the moki to give him some rowlocks, the Maori owners not using oars.

It was August, still winter in the mountain valleys by anyone's standard, when he left his pony with his friend William Cameron and set out on his lonely voyage of discovery.

With William an interested spectator, he put all his provisions into his little vessel and saying farewell, paddled up the west side of the lake, dwarfed by the towering mountains above. At the end of his first day he beached his moki at Halfway Bay and managed to shoot a Maori hen (weka), which he reported as very savoury.

The next morning he crossed to the other side of the lake, probably rather nervously, in his little moki. When conditions allowed he used his single blanket as a sail to assist his progress.

On the eastern side he discovered a small cave with three sticks tied in flax, which indicated he wasn't the first man to find shelter in the cave. Long icicles were hanging from the rocks; it was still winter.

Paddling along the eastern shore of the lake, he eventually came to Frankton Arm and found the start of the Kawarau River, which drains the lake. After pulling his vessel up onto a beach by this lake exit, he lit a fire from dry driftwood and camped for the night.

That night a thunderstorm in the basin sent great rolling peals of thunder echoing around the snow-clad mountains, of which he reported later, "It was awe-inspiring, but I was quite reconciled to my fate, what ever it might be, so long as I used all caution within my power under the circumstances to preserve my life."

The next day he left the shelter of Frankton Arm and paddled back across the lake until he rounded the point at Hidden Island.