The Secret River: Part 3: A Clearing in the Forest Summary & Analysis

In September of 1813, the Thornhills board the Hope and begin their journey to the Hawkesbury River. Sal sits with the new baby, Mary, held tightly to her chest. She looks back towards Sydney until it's out of sight and then down at her feet. Thornhill knows she's trying hard to not be sick, and loves her for being willing to come with him. When they reach the Hawkesbury River, Thornhill watches Sal and the children look at the surrounding hills with fear and wonder. He realizes how much he's changed since he first saw the river: it now represents hope to him. He tries to comfort Sal.

Dick asks if the savages will try to eat them, and Thornhill assures him that he won't let them. He glances at the gun wrapped in canvas. He'd bought it from a man in Sydney and when the man showed him how to use it, the kickback was enough to make him stagger. Thornhill thought he'd never be able to shoot a man, but thought that he'd earned the right to own a gun with his pardon.

Finally, Thornhill points to where they're going to settle. The tide turns, however, and Thornhill decides to fight the tide to get to land now rather than sleep in the Hope for the night. He snaps at Willie to help, and the boy obeys. When they reach the shore, Thornhill jumps out of the boat into the squelching mud and makes his way onto dry land. He steps lightly and is in awe of the fact that the land is his. Thornhill walks into a clearing and marks out the perimeter of a hut while a black bird watches and crows at him.

Thornhill, Willie, and Dick struggle to erect a canvas tent and manage to do so just before nightfall. When Thornhill goes back to the Hope to fetch Sal, he realizes that, although the journey from London to Sydney was certainly a longer one, this journey from Sydney to the river feels even further away. Willie coaxes his mother to stand by telling her they have tea and bread ready, and she finally allows them to help her, Bub, and Johnny out of the boat and onto dry land.

When they all reach the tent, Thornhill realizes how flimsy it must look to Sal, and realizes that she'll be on her own for a week at a time while he works up and down the river. The children look wary and skeptical of their new home. Thornhill knows that people can survive out here, but understands that Sal hasn't been far from real civilization before. Thornhill doubts that his family can actually be successful out here and looks at the sky. He thinks that the moon is the same one they saw in London, and tells Sal that this river is little different than the Thames. He begins to point to where different landmark buildings of London would be, but Sal says sadly that those buildings are still in London.

The family huddles close around the fire as night falls. Before sunset, Thornhill loads the gun. He wonders why it doesn't make him feel safe to have it. Thornhill studies the stars and Willie suddenly suggests that the natives might be watching them, though Thornhill quickly shushes him. When they go to bed, Sal snuggles close to Thornhill and he holds her until she falls asleep. As he lies awake, he thinks that he's finally lying on his own land.

At sunrise, Thornhill, Willie, and Dick walk down to a flat, clear strip of land by the river with only weedy daisies growing on it. Thornhill knows that what will make the land truly his is to plant corn there. When they get to the strip, Willie points out that someone's already been digging in the soil. Thornhill nearly cries, but steadies himself and inspects the patch. He realizes that it's not been dug in a neat square like someone with a pick or a hoe would dig, and the daisies are still lying on top of the soil.

Calmly, Thornhill tells his sons that moles or hogs must have dug up the dirt. Willie hears his father, but Dick says that savages planted the daisies while Willie tries to shush him. Thornhill thinks that Dick would be right, but it's common knowledge that the natives don't plant things, and that's one of the reasons they're called "savages." He tells Dick that the natives don't plant things and they go to work on the soil.

Hoeing is difficult. Thornhill sweats in the full sun, Willie hoes madly, and Dick dreamily scratches at one spot of dirt for minutes at a time. By afternoon, they've cleared a small square to plant corn. Thornhill sends the boys back to the tent for the seeds and sits down to admire his handiwork. Suddenly, he realizes that two black men are watching him. When he stands up, the two men step towards him with their spears. They regard each other for a minute until finally Thornhill approaches them and warily tells them to not spear him.

The older of the two black men begins to speak in his own language, gesturing at the land all the while. Thornhill listens for a minute, but soon feels angry and dumb. He loudly interrupts the man and calls him "old boy," speaking to him as he remembered rich people used to speak on the Thames. Thornhill laughs and tells the men he can't understand them. The men don't laugh with him, and when Thornhill gestures to the land around them and says that it's his now and the natives have "all the rest," the native men don't look or laugh. Thornhill thinks that his hundred acres are surely insignificant in the grand scheme of New South Wales.

Suddenly, Willie and Dick run down the hill with the corn seeds. They stop when they see the natives. Sal comes out of the tent and stops Bub and Johnny from following their brothers. She looks scared. Thornhill thinks that the natives look like they're waiting for something and wishes he'd bought beads to offer them before they left Sydney. Sal shouts to Thornhill to give them some of their pork, and yells to Willie to come and fetch it from her. Thornhill thinks that that's how she dealt with Scabby Bill, but these natives seem very different from him.

The natives accept the pork and some bread but still don't move. Thornhill mimes eating, but they don't eat the food either. The younger man puts the pork down and Thornhill wonders if he should give them some of the coins in his pocket. As he reaches into his pocket, he hears Willie yell at the older man to give the spade back. Willie rushes the man and wrestles with him for the tool, but the man pushes Willie off. The two face off and yell at each other in different, angry languages. Thornhill thinks that there are too many people and not enough language, and feels like he's lost control of the situation.

Thornhill yells "No!" and runs over to Willie. He slaps the old man's shoulder and continues to shout "No! No! No!" as he does. The old man's face closes as he reaches for his club, and the younger man lifts his spear. Thornhill hears others in the woods lifting their own spears. Sal cries out and then everyone falls silent. The old man grunts, drops the spade, and disappears into the forest. The younger man approaches Thornhill. Thornhill can see the stone and glass chips that make up the point of the spear. The man slaps Thornhill's shoulder, mirroring what Thornhill did to the old man, and then he gestures and speaks. Thornhill understands that he's telling them to go away. Then the man melts into the forest.

Bub asks why the natives didn't spear them, and Sal insists that the natives left once they gave them food. Thornhill thinks that Sal likely doesn't believe that, but he agrees with her anyway. The next morning, Thornhill crawls out of the tent to find it surrounded by spears stuck into the ground. He quickly gathers them up, but Willie sees. Thornhill assures Willie that if the natives wanted to kill them, they would've, but he feels hollow inside. He tells Willie that they shouldn't frighten Sal. Later, when they plant the seeds, Willie remarks that the shriveled seeds won't grow. Thornhill insists he doesn't care as long as he can lay claim to the land.

Sal soon creates a yard of sorts for the family where she cooks and mends clothes, and she doesn't leave it unless absolutely necessary. She begins keeping count of the days on a tree near the tent. Thornhill hears her telling Willie that they'll be here for 260 weeks. He hopes that she'll stop counting, but she never does. Thornhill understands that she feels like a prisoner, though neither of them will admit the truth of it. He doesn't want to say out loud that his dream is Sal's idea of a prison.

Within two weeks, the corn sprouts. Willie and Dick water the plants while Sal tethers Bub and Johnny in the yard to keep them from danger. Though she agrees to come down to the corn patch to admire it, Sal doesn't seem impressed. When Thornhill tries to offer her edible plants he finds, she refuses to try them and insists on waiting for the corn. Thornhill understands that she's going to wait her five years before they can return to London. In the mornings, she tells Thornhill her dreams of wandering around London. All the Thornhills feel watched, though they don't actually see any of the natives.

For the first few weeks, Thornhill and his sons perform hard labor to get the corn growing and begin to construct a hut. After two weeks, Thornhill decides to climb the ridge on one edge of his property. He looks forward to seeing all of his land laid out before him. However, he soon realizes that the ridge isn't an easy or straightforward climb. After struggling for a while, he settles for a flat rock at the base of the ridge. From there, he can see Sal washing clothes and Willie standing still instead of hoeing. Thornhill yells to Willie, but the vastness of the land swallows his voice and it doesn't carry.

Thornhill looks down at an ant and notices a freshly scratched line in the rock. He follows it and thinks that it must be the work of water and wind, though when he realizes that the lines make up a detailed drawing of a fish, he admits to himself that it's a drawing made by humans. The drawing is five yards long, and the fish looks very alive. As Thornhill walks around the fish, he notices another drawing overlapping the fish. Upon closer inspection, he realizes it's a drawing of the Hope. Thornhill makes an indignant noise, which the land also swallows up.

Thornhill looks around and sees no one watching him, but he realizes that even though the land may seem empty, the drawings are proof that this place is populated. He turns to watch Sal again and thinks that he'll tell her about the fish someday, but not yet. He begins to realize that once you start keeping secrets from someone, it's easier to keep doing it than to stop.

On their fourth week on the Hawkesbury, Smasher Sullivan arrives with a housewarming gift of rat poison, a keg of lime, and oranges from his tree. His dog follows him up to the half-finished hut. Sal greets Smasher as though they're old friends and offers him all the hospitality she can, while Thornhill only sits down to be pleasant. Smasher tells them how he was convicted and sent to New South Wales. Sal tells Smasher her story and shows him her marks on the tree. Thornhill realizes how lonely Sal is, but thinks that he hadn't thought to ask her about it.

When Dick gets tired of holding Mary, Sal takes her and sends Dick to play. With the children gone, Smasher begins talking about the natives and regales them with tales of their viciousness. Sal becomes quiet and holds Mary tightly, while Thornhill tries to give Smasher a hint to stop talking. Smasher continues to talk about his guns and his dogs, which he trains to attack only natives. Finally, Thornhill puts the cork in the rum bottle and Smasher finally shouts goodbye and leaves. Both Thornhill and Sal can't seem to shake the violent stories.

Later that night, when the lamp goes out, Sal forces herself to laugh and asks Thornhill if Smasher is just exaggerating. Thornhill insists that he surely is, but thinks about the hands and the flayed man he saw his first time up the river. Sal is quiet for a minute and then says she didn't like how Smasher spoke about having guns and whips around to teach the natives lessons. She makes Thornhill swear he'd never do that. Thornhill thinks of watching Collarbone hang and how he lied to Sal that the death was clean. He assures her he'd never be so violent and Sal falls asleep immediately.

The hut proves a difficult structure to erect. As Thornhill fights the difficult earth to build it, he discovers that he's actually capable of building things. He finishes the hut in the fifth week on the Hawkesbury and has cleared a larger corn patch by then, too. The hut makes the place seem more human, though it's so crude it barely keeps the wilderness out: one morning, a black snake crawls out of Willie and Dick's mattress. They all watch it go silently, and then Sal tells Willie and Dick to patch the gaps in the walls after breakfast. Sal insists that they don't have to do an impeccable job since they'll be leaving soon, but Thornhill wonders if five years is going to be enough.

Thornhill encourages Smasher to tell others on the river that his family enjoys company, so one Sunday, several neighbors arrive. Smasher arrives first, followed by a man named Sagitty. Sagitty had once had a wife and children here in New South Wales, but they all died. He farms wheat and raises hogs, though he insists that the natives steal from him constantly. Though Thornhill bristles when Sagitty says he "learned them a lesson,” he understands that theft on the scale he describes isn't a small matter.

Sagitty and Smasher exchange knowing looks as they talk about the natives. Thornhill tries to change the subject, but Smasher dreamily says that killing the natives is like killing flies. Sal stops in her tracks. Smasher notices and insists he doesn't actually kill the natives, but Thornhill knows he's lying.

A man nicknamed Spider arrives with Loveday. Thornhill hopes the conversation will turn away from killing the natives, but it only becomes more intense. Spider insists that the natives are vermin, and tells the group that they kill white people and eat them. Loveday regales them with a tale of being speared in the hip and even shows them the scar. Thornhill laughs with the others, but hopes that Sal will think that these are stories and not factual. The widow Mrs. Herring arrives. She tells Sal that because she lives alone, she gives the natives what they want and turns a blind eye when they steal. She insists that she has enough supplies to not need to make trouble.

Smasher notices Blackwood coming up the river. Smasher and Sagitty exchange a hard glance as Blackwood walks up with a keg of his homemade rum. When he arrives, everyone becomes quiet and sober. Thornhill thinks he barely knows Blackwood. Even though he worked with him for a year, Blackwood had discouraged Thornhill from visiting him on the river.

Smasher says loudly that the natives stole from him the night before. As though he didn't hear, Blackwood motions to Thornhill's cornfield and notes that he dug up the daisies. Blackwood explains that the roots are edible, like yams, and the natives gave him some when he first arrived. Mrs. Herring agrees that the daisies are sweet, and Blackwood tells Thornhill that once you dig up the daisies, they won't grow back and the natives will go hungry. Sagitty angrily insists that the natives don't farm, but Blackwood speaks over him and says that there was a meeting a while ago between the Governor and one of the natives who spoke some English, and they shook hands that no more white settlers can claim land past a certain point of the river.

Smasher yells that the natives are dishonest thieves, and Blackwood insults Smasher's own honesty. Blackwood turns to Thornhill and tells him again that he needs to remember that when he takes a little, he has to give a little back. He gets up and leaves, and the rest soon follow. Thornhill wonders if Blackwood's advice is a warning or a threat, but he knows it's better than any advice from Smasher.

Before the Thornhills left Sydney, Thornhill had applied for convict servants. Five weeks after moving to the river, he receives word that he's been assigned two. Thornhill worries about leaving his family alone for a week, but he and Sal know he has to go. As he leaves, he waves to Sal and thinks of how vulnerable Thornhill's Point is.

On the wharf, Thornhill remembers what it was like to emerge from the dark ship years ago. Thornhill is unpleasantly surprised to find that the captain who brought him to New South Wales on the Alexander is there, assigning convicts to free men. When the two men look at each other, the captain recognizes Thornhill and insults him. Thornhill tries to look stony, but realizes that he'll always be known as a felon even if he's free now. 

Thornhill gets one of the last picks of the convicts. He chooses a man called Ned because Ned reminds him of Rob, and after he has chosen another man, the man excitedly introduces himself as Dan Oldfield, Thornhill's childhood friend. Dan happily cries that London sends its regards, but Thornhill mildly tells Dan to call him Mr. Thornhill. Dan's face falls.

Thornhill realizes that, to men like the captain, he and Dan are one and the same, and he begins to understand that there's no future for the Thornhills back in London. He remembers how he himself avoided men who'd been to New South Wales as though they were diseased, and realizes that nobody would trust him to be honest. Further, his children would carry the same curse. He understands that the Hawkesbury River is the one place where everyone is equal and can forget their pasts.

When Thornhill returns to the river with Dan and Ned, Sal insists that Dan call her Mrs. Thornhill. She uses fancy language she heard rich people use to tell him so. Thornhill wonders at the pleasure he experiences bullying Dan. He thinks that he didn't know he could be a tyrant, and gives Sal the gifts he brought from Sydney: an engraving of London Bridge and some chickens. Sal nearly cries at the engraving.

At breakfast the next morning, Thornhill watches Dan eye the cliffs and surrounding forest. He waits until Dan looks at him to say that the savages are out there, and he won't make it the 50 miles back to Sydney if he runs away. Thornhill then tells Dan and Ned to start building a lean-to at the back of the hut so they can sleep separately from the Thornhills. Ned soon shows that he's useless, and Dan struggles to chop wood and fight the flies in the hot sun. Finally, Dan pleads for a break, but Thornhill refuses. Dan looks for a moment like he's going to refuse to work, but finally turns back to his task. Thornhill strolls around in the shade with a flywhisk.

That night, Dan and Ned crawl into the lean-to, and Thornhill notices that Sal is smiling. He tells her that they'll fix up the hut and she won't want to leave, and Sal laughs at the joke. They have sex, and Thornhill thinks that New South Wales is taking over and taking them in a new direction. Sal doesn't pinch the candle to save the wick for another day.

When the hot weather starts, Sal's breasts become painful and baby Mary frets. Sal wakes one morning with hard breasts and a fever, so Thornhill fetches Mrs. Herring. Mrs. Herring insists that Sal must keep nursing and use poultices on her breasts. Thornhill worries Sal will die as she lies ill for days. He finally goes upriver to fetch a real surgeon, but the surgeon refuses to help. Thornhill knows it's because Sal is the wife of a felon. Finally, Sal asks Thornhill to bury her facing north towards London.

Their neighbors on the river bring gifts of food and alcohol, but Sal doesn't begin to look better until Blackwood arrives with jellied eels. The day after, Sal is sitting up when Thornhill wakes. She looks much better and asks Thornhill if they've been making the marks on the tree. Though Thornhill assures her they've been making them, he's disappointed that the marks were her first thought.