Adventures in Southern Seas Part 1

Adventures in Southern Seas.

by George Forbes.

INTRODUCTORY

In the year 1801 was found by the chief c.o.xswain of the "Naturalist" (a ship commanded by Captain Hamelin on a voyage of discovery performed by order of the Emperor Napoleon I), at Shark's Bay, on the coast of West Australia, a pewter plate about six inches in diameter, bearing a roughly engraved Dutch inscription, of which the following is a translation:

"1616

"On the 25th of October arrived here the ship 'Endraght', of Amsterdam; first supercargo Gilles Miebas Van Luck; Captain Dirk Hartog, of Amsterdam. She set sail again on the 27th of the same month. Bantum was second supercargo; Janstins first pilot.

"Peter Ecoores Van Bu, in the year 1616."

No connected account of the voyages of Dirk Hartog is extant, but the report of the discovery of this pewter plate suggested the task of compiling a narrative from the records kept by Dutch navigators, in which Dirk Hartog is frequently referred to, and which is probably as correct a history of Hartog's voyages as can be obtained. The aborigines of New Holland, as Australia was then called, judging by the description given of them by Van Bu, the author of the writing on the pewter plate, appear to have been a more formidable race of savages than those subsequently met with by Captain Cook on his landing at Botany Bay, and the dimensions of the tribe among whom Van Bu was held captive were certainly larger than those of the migratory tribes of Australian blacks in more modern times. The "sea spider" described by Van Bu in his second adventure was probably the octopus, which attains to great size in the Pacific. The "hopping animals" are doubtless the kangaroos, with which Australians are now familiar.

Captain Dampier, in 1699, first mentions the water serpents referred to by Van Bu. "In pa.s.sing," he says, "we saw three water serpents swimming about in the sea, of a yellow colour, spotted with dark brown spots.

Next day we saw two water serpents, different in shape from such as we had formerly seen; one very long and as big as a man's leg in girth, having a red head, which I have never seen any before or since."

From an examination of the Dutch records, it would appear that a ship named the "Arms of Amsterdam" drove past the south coast of New Guinea in the year 1623. This is, perhaps, the voyage described by Van Bu to the Island of Gems. The gigantic ma.s.s of ice seen by Van Bu in the South is particularly interesting, since it may have been the first sight of the ice barrier from which glaciers in the Antarctic regions break off into the sea.

The north portion of New Guinea was for the first time rightly explored in the year 1678, by order of the Dutch East India Company, and found almost everywhere to be enriched with very fine rivers, lakes, and bays. About the north-western parts the natives were discovered to be lean, and of middle size, jet-black, not unlike the Malabars, but the hair of the head shorter and somewhat less curly than the Kafirs'. "In the black of their eyes," says a report given of this voyage, "gleams a certain tint of red, by which may, in some measure, be observed that blood-thirsty nature of theirs which has at different times caused so much grief from the loss of several of our young men, whom they have surprised, murdered, carried into the woods, and there devoured. They go entirely naked, without the least shame, except their rajahs or petty kings, who are richly dressed. The heathens of Nova Guinea believe there is some divinity in serpents, for which reason they represent them upon their vessels."

The "Golden Sea-horse" is mentioned as one of the Dutch ships said to have taken part in the discovery of Australia between the years 1616 and 1624. Other vessels noted are the "Endraght", "Zeewolf", "Arms of Amsterdam", "Pera", and "Arnheim". All these vessels lay claim to having touched at the 'Great Southern Continent' as well as at the islands of the South Seas.

The 'Place of the Painted Hands', the objective of the third voyage of Van Bu with Dirk Hartog to New Holland, is referred to by the late Mr Lawrence Hargrave, who made a very interesting study of picture-writings discovered in Australia, in a collection of pamphlets ent.i.tled "Lope de Vega", now in the possession of the Mitch.e.l.l Library at Sydney. "There are picture-writings," he says, "which have remained for hundreds of years without any archaeologist discovering their meaning. They are not as ancient as those on the monuments of the Egyptians, but they are equally interesting. If they are read in the light of a message to posterity, they may yet reveal something of surprising interest. By whom were they chiselled? What is their meaning? The more recent discoveries show an oval encircling a cross--the symbol of Spanish conquest. On an ironstone rock-face on the Shoalhaven River are many 'hands.' These have been there to the memory of the oldest inhabitant. No aboriginal will go near them. Gold is still washed in this river, and possibly these hands, or fingers, refer to the days worked here washing gold, or to the number of 'quills' of gold obtained. You will understand these 'hands'

are not carved, but painted with some pigment that has withstood the weather for some hundreds of years."

The Malays locate the Male and Female Islands visited by Van Bu, an account of which appears in many ancient ma.n.u.scripts from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, as being the islands of Engarno, to the south of Sumatra. Marco Polo speaks of them in his voyage round the world, undertaken in 1271, and both Spanish and Dutch explorers refer to them in the accounts of their travels of more recent date.

In "The Discovery of Australia" (a critical doc.u.mentary and historic investigation concerning the priority of discovery in Australasia by Europeans before the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in the Endeavour in the year 1770), by George Collingridge, may be found accounts of Spanish and Portuguese attempts at settlement upon the Great Southern Continent--'Terra Australis'.

Staten Land was the name first given to New Zealand in honour of the States of Holland, and the monstrous birds seen there were probably the now extinct moa. The Cannibal Islands are doubtless Fiji. The data and references to chronicles in this work are genuine, and the result of a careful study of rare and (in some cases) unique books and ma.n.u.scripts in the Mitch.e.l.l Wing of the Public Library at Sydney, said to be the most comprehensive collection known of accounts of discoveries in South Seas.

G. F.

ADVENTURES IN SOUTHERN SEAS

CHAPTER I

I FALL INTO CAPTIVITY

Let those who read this narrative doubt not its veracity. There be much in Nature that we wot not of, and many strange countries to explore.

The monsters who roamed the earth in ancient times, as their fossil bones attest, are still to be seen in those regions. .h.i.therto unvisited by white men, and in the fathomless depths of uncharted seas leviathans find a home.

Peter Ecoores Van Bu was born upon the island of Urk, in the Zuider Zee, in the year 1596, and was brought up a fisher-lad until the coming to the island of a priest, to whom my parents, ambitious for my advancement, entrusted my education in the arts of reading and writing, accomplishments in little vogue at this time. Hence it comes that I am able to set down here a record of perils and adventures by sea and land which may prove entertaining reading to those who have never travelled beyond the limits of their own countries.

My parents, who had stinted themselves to provide my education, placed me when I was eighteen years old in a merchant's office at Amsterdam, where I became acquainted with Dirk Hartog, a famous navigator, who, a year later, invited me to become his secretary and engraver of charts on board the ship "Endraght", being then commissioned for a voyage of discovery to the South, and having obtained a reluctant consent from my master, De Decker, the merchant, to Hartog's proposal I gladly abandoned the office desk for the sea.

The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 had given rise to a theory that a vast continent known as Terra Australis existed in the South, and Portuguese and Spanish ships had made report from time to time of this southern land. It was to confirm or dispel this belief that the voyage of Dirk Hartog was made.

For many months after leaving Amsterdam we sailed south, touching at some islands to obtain vegetable food and replenish our water-casks.

Worn out with hardship, our crew more than once showed signs of mutiny.

Sometimes for weeks together we lay becalmed in the tropics, when the air hung like a pall of vapour from the sky, and the pitch boiled and blistered in the seams of the deck-planks. In other seasons we were driven by storm and stress. But at length, in spite of every obstacle, an unbroken coast stretched before us far as the eye could reach. For three days we sailed past verdure-covered hills, white, sandy beaches, and bluff headlands, until Hartog felt a.s.sured the Great South Continent was at last in very truth before him.

The day upon which Hartog determined to land was bright and fine; the place a sandy beach upon which the waves broke in frothy spume. We were all keen to be ash.o.r.e after so long a spell of the sea, and I reckoned myself in luck to be chosen as one of the boat's crew to land the captain.

"Let Peter come," said Hartog when the boat was alongside. "I would have him engrave a plate to be set in some safe place, so that it may be known that I, Dirk Hartog, landed here, to any who may come after me."

When we had come to the sh.o.r.e Hartog, taking the boat's crew with him, set off inland, leaving me to my work. The plate was soon finished, when I fastened it to a rock out of reach of the waves.

It bore the following inscription:

"1616

"On the 25th of October arrived here the ship 'Endraght,' of Amsterdam; first supercargo Gilles Miebas Van Luck; Captain Dirk Hartog, of Amsterdam. She set sail again on the 27th of the same month. Bantum was second supercargo; Janstins first pilot.

"Peter Ecoores Van Bu, in the year 1616."

I engraved the date upon which the ship was to sail according to directions given me by the captain, though whether the "Endraght" did sail at that time I cannot say, by reason of an adventure which befell me.

When I had finished my work I began to think in what manner I might employ myself until my companions returned, and, perceiving a grove of trees not far distant from where I stood, I determined to rest a while in the shade. As I penetrated these silent forests I beheld sights wholly novel. Parrots and paroquets flew among the trees, as also large white birds with sulphur crests, the like of which I had never seen before. Presently I came to a stream which took its course through a valley, and, kneeling, I was about to quench my thirst when I felt a hand upon my shoulder. Springing to my feet, I was confronted by a band of savages, many of whom held their spears its though about to strike.

They were all quite naked, their bodies marked with white streaks. I tried to make them understand I came as a friend, and endeavoured to retrace my steps to the open, where I hoped my shipmates might see me and effect a rescue, but I now perceived that whichever way I turned my path was barred by these wild men. The savages now began to jabber to each other in a jargon which I could not comprehend, and presently two of them laid hold of me, one by each arm, and in spite of my protests and such resistance as I made, forced me through the scrub inland. Some of the tribe followed, others went on ahead, flitting like shadows among the trees, the journey being performed at a rate which made it hard for me to keep pace with them.

All day we continued to penetrate the bush toward the interior of the country, and just before dark we came to a native village, where we found the tribe a.s.sembled at their camp fires. There must have been several hundred blacks in this camp, and many gathered round to look at me, although they did not appear to regard me with as much curiosity as might have been expected, from which I conjectured that white men were not unknown to them.

After a meal of fish and wild duck, together with a pasty kind of bread made from the bulrush root, which I found palatable, I was permitted to lie down in one of their gunyahs upon a bed of freshly-picked leaves, where, in spite of my anxieties, I soon fell asleep.

Toward morning I awoke to a full conviction of my sorry plight. The camp was in darkness, save for the glow of the fires and the light of the stars, which shine with a wonderful brilliancy in these southern skies. The cry of some night bird came from the bush beyond the camp.

All else was still, but a crouching form at the entrance to the gunyah warned me I was a prisoner. There was no need, however, to set a guard upon me, for without a guide I knew I could never reach the coast, so that even if I succeeded in making my escape from the savages, I must perish miserably in the bush.

My thoughts now turned to home and friends whom it seemed unlikely I would ever meet again. Dirk Hartog and the crew of the "Endraght", though rough as became the hardy lives they led, had always shown a kindly disposition toward me. They would miss me, and speak of me perhaps, until, in the changing events of their adventurous career, I would be forgotten. My parents also would mourn me as dead. But there was one at Urk who would miss me more than friends or parents; Anna Holstein, to whom I had plighted my troth, and to whom I looked to be wed on my return. Anna was above me in station as the world goes. Her father was the Governor of Urk, who would not willingly give his daughter in marriage to a poor lad such its I. But who in love is wise?

Who reckons worldly wealth when love, the spirit and spring of the universe, awakens in the soul? Like birds who call their mates with love-learned songs, Anna and I loved each other, so that nothing bid, death could part us. I had promised Anna I would return rich from my voyage as others had done, when her father might be the more inclined to look with favour upon my suit. Well--here was the and of my promises, and my hopes--death, or, still worse, life among a savage and barbarous people.

CHAPTER II

THE BLACK CANNIBALS OF NEW HOLLAND

On the morning after my capture by the black cannibals of New Holland, at daybreak, I was driven, out of the gunyah in which I had pa.s.sed the night, to be looked at by the tribe, who had now collected in great numbers, and who encircled me with a ring of hazel eyes. Their complexion was black, their hair woolly, and many of them were quite naked, as though they lived in a state of brute nature. There did not appear to be anyone in recognized authority among them, for they all talked their outlandish jargon at the same time, and, presently, they began to search me for such small articles of personal property as I possessed. My engraving tools and a sailor's sewing kit, given me by Anna, were taken from me, but to my great good fortune they did not rob me of my dagger-knife, or my flint and steel which lay concealed in the inner pocket of my leathern belt, nor of a lock of Anna's hair which I carried in a silken bag round my neck; and in the possession of which I found much comfort in my present predicament. My clothes did not interest my captors, and I was thankful not to be deprived of them.

I was now startled to observe that some of the natives carried at their girdles a human skull, but I subsequently learned that these trophies were not, as I had at first supposed, the result of a ma.s.sacre, but were the drinking-cups of these people, who appeared to be the most debased in the scale of humanity I had ever encountered.