A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume II Part 19

Connexion I., the west extreme., N. 11 W.

Groote Eylandt, north-west extreme, N. 16 E.

Groote Eylandt, central hill., N. 87 E.

Groote Eylandt, a low projection, dist. 4 or 5 miles, S. 42 E.

In half an hour, the anchor was dropped in 11 fathoms, muddy bottom.

At the north-west end of Groote Eylandt is a bluff head, the termination that way of a range of woody hills from the interior, of which the highest is what was set under the name of Central Hill. On the west side of the island these hills do not come close to the water side, but leave a s.p.a.ce of increasing breadth to the southward, where the land is low, sandy, and sterile; and even the hills, though mostly covered with wood, had little of fertility in their appearance: the sh.o.r.e is partly rock, and in part sandy beach.

THURSDAY 6 JANUARY 1803

We had the wind light and variable in the morning, and proceeded to the southward very slowly. The sh.o.r.e trended S. S. E., for some time; and then turning westward to the south-west cape, it formed a bight in the low land three or four miles back, in which there seemed to be much shoal water. There is a sandy hill upon the south-west cape, and a rock lies close to it; and at three or four miles off the soundings were exceedingly irregular, jumping from 7 to 5, and 4 to 11 fathoms, on a rocky bottom. This irregularity, and the meeting of two tides, one from the north and another from the east, caused great ripplings in the water; and with the light winds, r.e.t.a.r.ded our progress round the cape. The extreme south-west point lies in lat.i.tude 14 15' south, and from six sets of lunar distances with stars east and west, the longitude would be 136 17' east; but according to the survey, 136 25' is the better situation. An amplitude at sunset gave the variation 1 9', with the ship's head S. E., or corrected to the meridian, 2 36' east. We anch.o.r.ed at dusk in 13 fathoms, muddy bottom, five or six miles to the south of the cape.

[NORTH COAST. GROOTE EYLANDT.]

SAt.u.r.dAY 8 JANUARY 1803

On the 7th and 8th, the winds hung between S. E. and N. N. E.; and the direction of the south side of Groote Eylandt being nearly east, it took us those two days and part of a third, to make the examination, though the extent be little more than twelve leagues. The land here is more sandy than on the west side, and the trees upon the hills are more thinly scattered and present a less agreeable foliage. No islands are laid down near the south side in the Dutch chart; but I counted eight scattered along it, of which the easternmost and largest is more than two miles long; and besides these, there are several rocks. The positions of these rocks and islets, with our courses and soundings amongst them, will be best seen in the chart.

SUNDAY 9 JANUARY 1803

In the afternoon of the 9th, we pa.s.sed round the south-east rocky point of Groote Eylandt, which lies in 14 17' south, and 137 2' east. The sh.o.r.e then trended northward, to a small cl.u.s.ter of rocks and islets three miles distant; and two miles further was another islet, behind which we anch.o.r.ed in 12 fathoms, coa.r.s.e sand, in a sandy bight of the great island; but the bight being exposed to south-east winds, and containing much foul ground, the anchorage was far from being good.

MONDAY 10 JANUARY 1803

In the morning, we steered out on the north side of the islet, between it and a low point two miles off, with a boat ahead; our soundings being 9, 6, 4, 2, 5, 8, and soon afterward 23 fathoms. The low point, which has several rocks near it, lies seven or eight miles northward from the south-east extremity of Groote Eylandt; from thence the sh.o.r.e trends westward about four leagues, and forms a large bight, mostly bounded by a sandy beach; but in the middle of it is a point with many rocks. On the west side of the bight, two or three miles back, are the same woody hills which seem to occupy all the middle of the island; and on this side they terminate to the north-east in a bluff. The depth of water at noon was 19 fathoms, and our situation and princ.i.p.al bearings were as under.

Lat.i.tude, observed to the north and south, 14 5' 31"

Longitude by time keeper and survey, 137 3 Groote Eylandt, low eastern point, dist. 4 miles, S. 1 W.

Groote Eylandt, woody hills, the north-east bluff, N. 64 W.

Groote Eylandt, furthest visible extreme, N. 6 W.

We were then steering across the bight before a south-east wind; but the depth of water becoming less, and the wind more dead on the sh.o.r.e, we hauled up N. by E. for the furthest land in sight. At three o'clock, a small opening was seen under the north-east bluff, but our distance of three leagues was too great to distinguish it accurately. Towards evening, when three miles from the sh.o.r.e, the sounding jumped from 9 to 4 fathoms, and we tacked to the south-east; and the night promising to be fine, anch.o.r.ed at dusk in 19 fathoms, mud and sand, with the north-east point of Groote Eylandt bearing N. 33 W., about seven miles (Atlas, Plate XV.); further out lay two small islands, and a hill upon the outermost was set at N. 10 W. The lat.i.tude of this anchorage was ascertained, from alt.i.tudes of two stars and the moon, to be 13 53 1/3'

south; and an amplitude with the ship's head N. E. by N., gave variation 2 57', or 4 4' east, corrected to the meridian.

TUESDAY 11 JANUARY 1803

We had the wind at N. W. in the morning, and steered close to it on the larbord tack, until noon; when the hill on the outer north-east island, bore S. 89 W., nine or ten miles. The lat.i.tude of the hill is 13 38', and from six sets of distances of stars east and west of the moon, its longitude would be 136 36'; but from the survey and more numerous observations, it is 137 0' east.* After a calm the sea breeze came in, and our course was directed for the north-east point of Groote Eylandt; at sunset we approached a rocky islet three or four miles from the point, and anch.o.r.ed under it in 6 fathoms, sandy ground, with the point bearing S. 5 E., and the furthest visible part, very low and sandy, S. 63 W.

five or six miles. On the other side, the north-east islands extended from N. 32 E. to 39 W., with many small rocks scattered along them; the nearest of which, a split rock, was distant a short mile.

[* The apparent error of 24' in the first longitude, is greater than should exist in the mean result of six sets of distances. There is an interval of three days in the observations of the moon at Greenwich with which these distances were compared; and it seems probable that a great part of the error might arise from that cause.]

WEDNESDAY 12 JANUARY 1803

In the morning we steered close to a N. N. W. wind, for the low sandy point, where the sh.o.r.e was found to trend southward; and five or six miles to the west there was other land, moderately high and in some places cliffy, which took nearly a parallel direction; and the bight between them ran so far up towards the north-east bluff of the woody hills, that a junction with the small opening seen on the outside appeared to be probable. A shelving spit extended out from the low point, and on opening the bight our soundings decreased from 6 to 2 fathoms, which made it necessary to tack; and the wind being adverse to pa.s.sing within the north-east islands, if indeed there be water enough for a ship, which seemed doubtful, we steered out by the way we had come in.

Having little wind, the isles were not pa.s.sed till late in the evening, and from the same cause not much progress was made to the westward next day [THURSDAY 13 JANUARY 1803]; but the land was better distinguished than before, and many straggling rocks and two islets were seen to lie off the north end of Groote Eylandt. In the morning of the 14th [FRIDAY 14 JANUARY 1803] we weathered all these, and on the wind dying away, anch.o.r.ed in 11 fathoms, blue mud; the outer _North-point Islet_, which lies in 13 37' south and 136 45' east, then bore E. 3 S. five miles, and the furthest extreme of a higher cliffy island, S. 38 W. three miles.

I went in a boat to this last island with the botanical gentlemen, intending to take bearings from the uppermost cliffs; but the many deep chasms by which the upper parts are intersected, made it impossible to reach the top in the short time we had to spare, and a few bearings from the eastern low point were all that could be obtained. This was called _Chasm Island_; it lies one mile and a half from a low point of Groote Eylandt, where the sh.o.r.e trends southward and seemed to form a bay, into which I proposed to conduct the ship.

We found upon Chasm Island a fruit which proved to be a new species of _eugenia_, of the size of an apple, whose acidity of taste was agreeable; there were also many large bushes covered with nutmegs, similar to those seen at Cape Vanderlin; and in some of the chasms the ground was covered with this fruit, without our being able, for some time, to know whence it came. Several trees shot up in these chasms, thirty or forty feet high, and on considering them attentively, these were found to be the trees whence the nutmegs had fallen; thus what was a spreading bush above, became, from the necessity of air and light, a tall, slender tree, and showed the admirable power in nature to accommodate itself to local circ.u.mstances. The fruit was small, and not of an agreeable flavour; nor is it probable that it can at all come in compet.i.tion with the nutmeg of the Molucca Islands: it is the _Myristica insipida_ of Brown's _Prodrom.

Nov. Holl._ p. 400.

In the steep sides of the chasms were deep holes or caverns, undermining the cliffs; upon the walls of which I found rude drawings, made with charcoal and something like red paint upon the white ground of the rock.

These drawings represented porpoises, turtle, kangaroos, and a human hand; and Mr. Westall, who went afterwards to see them, found the representation of a kangaroo, with a file of thirty-two persons following after it. The third person of the band was twice the height of the others, and held in his hand something resembling the _whaddie_, or wooden sword of the natives of Port Jackson; and was probably intended to represent a chief. They could not, as with us, indicate superiority by clothing or ornament, since they wear none of any kind; and therefore, with the addition of a weapon, similar to the ancients, they seem to have made superiority of person the princ.i.p.al emblem of superior power, of which, indeed, power is usually a consequence in the very early stages of society.

A sea breeze had sprung up from the eastward, and the ship was under way when we returned on board at three in the afternoon. At five we hauled round Chasm Island with 12 fathoms water, which diminished gradually as we proceeded up the bay, to 4, where the anchor was dropped on a muddy bottom; the south-west end of Chasm Island then bore N. 16 E., three or four miles, and the cliffy end of a smaller isle on the west side of the entrance, N. 29 W. two miles and a half; and except between these two bearings, we were sheltered from all winds. The situation of this bay in Groote Eylandt, led me to give it the name of _North-west Bay_. It is formed on the east and south by that island; and on the west by a separate piece of land, five or six miles long, which, in honour of the n.o.ble possessor of Burley Park, in the county of Rutland, I named _Winchilsea Island_; and a small isle of greater elevation, lying a short mile to the east of the ship, was called _Finch's Island_.

SAt.u.r.dAY 15 JANUARY 1803

Early next morning the botanists landed on Groote Eylandt, and I went to Finch's Island with the second lieutenant, to take bearings and astronomical observations. From the western head, I saw that the bay extended six or eight miles above the ship, to the southward, and that the southern outlet, beyond Winchilsea Island, was about one mile wide; but the whole seemed to be too shallow for any thing larger than boats.

Amongst the bearings taken from this station, those most essential to the survey were,

Groote Eylandt, the woody north-west bluff, S. 56 46' W.

A distant wedge-shaped rock, the N. E. bluff, N. 59 55 W.

Chasm I., the steep west end, N. 3 51 E.

And from another station, half a mile to the E. S. E., I set Groote Eylandt, the central hill, at S. 14 27' E.

This bearing and that of the north-west bluff, formed connecting links in the chain of longitude round the island.

SUNDAY 16 JANUARY 1803

Next day the botanists landed upon Winchilsea Island, and further astronomical observations were taken upon that of Finch; where also a part of the ship's company went to divert themselves, and to wash their linen; and in the evening, we prepared to quit North-west Bay.

A close-grained sand stone, nearly resembling that of Pellew's Group, seems to form the basis of Groote and the neighbouring islands; we found also coral, ironstone, and quartz. In many places, quartz in almost a crystallised state was sprinkled in grains through the sand stone, and in others, the sand stone itself was partly vitrified. Wherever we landed, the surface was so entirely composed of stone and sand, that the idea of any kind of cultivation could in no wise be a.s.similated with it; the hills at a little distance from the water side were, however, well covered with wood, and it is not improbable, that there may be vallies in the central parts of Groote Eylandt possessing some degree of fertility.

The central hill, which is six or eight hundred feet in elevation, appeared to be not so much as three leagues from the head of North-west Bay, and I was desirous to have made an excursion to the top, to see the interior of the island; but the state of the ship being such as to press us forward with all practicable haste, it was not attempted; nor did I stop to examine particularly the head of the bay, since it appeared to be shallow, and of little interest to navigation.

The wood on Groote Eylandt was mostly composed of different species of _eucalyptus_; the trees were small, and might do for fire wood and very common purposes, but did not seem calculated for any superior use. Chasm Island was the sole place where the nutmeg was found, though in general, the gleanings of the botanists were tolerably fortunate. None of the native inhabitants were seen, nor any kangaroos or other quadrupeds; and birds seemed to be scarce. Small quant.i.ties of water, deposited in holes of the rocks by the late rains, were useful to the seamen for washing their clothes; but we did not find any from which a ship could be supplied, nor were there any beaches convenient for hauling the seine.

The _lat.i.tude_ of Finch's Island, from a meridian observation to the north and south, is 14 43' 31" S.

_Longitude_ from six sets of distances of the sun east of the moon, taken by myself, 136 38' 47", and from twelve sets by lieutenant Flinders (see Table V. of Appendix No. I), 136 23' 38"; but there being no observations of the moon at Greenwich within two or three days, the longitude from survey and the position of Caledon Bay afterwards fixed, is preferred, and is 136 36' 53" E.

_Dip_ of the south end of the needle, 39 22'.

_Variation_ of the theodolite, 3 6' east.

The variations of the surveying compa.s.s, from amplitudes taken near different parts of Groote Eylandt during the circ.u.mnavigation, were these:--

Near the main, opp. the S.W. Pt., head E. by S., 0 43', cor. 2 44' E.

Near the south-west point, S. E., 1 9 , cor. 2 36 Off the east side, N. E. by N., 2 57 , cor. 4 4 Near the north-east isles., N. W. by W., 3 33 , cor. 1 58 Off the north end, S. W. by W., 5 51 , cor. 4 14