Discoveries in Australia Volume I Part 1

Discoveries in Australia.

by J Lort Stokes.

VOLUME 1.

INTRODUCTION.

I cannot allow these volumes to go before the public, without expressing my thanks to the following gentlemen for a.s.sistance, afforded to me in the course of the composition of this work: To Captain Beaufort, R.N., F.R.S., Hydrographer to the Admiralty, for his kindness in furnishing me with some of the accompanying charts; to Sir John Richardson, F.R.S; J.E.

Gray, Esquire, F.R.S.; E. Doubleday, Esquire, F.L.S., and A. White, Esquire, M.E.S., for their valuable contributions on Natural History, to be found in the Appendix; to J. Gould, Esquire, F.R.S., for a list of birds collected during the voyage of the Beagle; to Lieutenants Gore and Fitzmaurice, for many of the sketches which ill.u.s.trate the work; and to B. Bynoe, Esquire, F.R.C.S., for several interesting papers which will be found dispersed in the following pages.

Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S., also merits my warmest thanks, for the important addition to the work of his visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.

I have to explain, that when the name Australasia is used in the following pages, it is intended to include Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) and all the islands in the vicinity of the Australian continent.

All bearings and courses, unless it is specified to the contrary, are magnetic, according to the variation during the period of the Beagle's voyage.

The longitudes are generally given from meridians in Australia, as I much question whether any portion of the continent is accurately determined with reference to Greenwich. Sydney, Port Essington, and Swan River, have been the meridians selected; and the respective positions of those places, within a minute of the truth, I consider to be as follows:

Swan River (Scott's Jetty, Fremantle) 115 degrees 47 minutes East.

Port Essington (Government house) 132 degrees 13 minutes East.

Sydney (Fort Macquarie) 151 degrees 16 minutes East.

CHAPTER 1.1. INTRODUCTION.

Objects of the Voyage.

The Beagle commissioned.

Her former career.

Her first Commander.

Instructions from the Admiralty and the Hydrographer.

Officers and Crew.

Arrival at Plymouth.

Embark Lieutenants Grey and Lushington's Exploring Party.

Chronometric Departure.

Farewell glance at Plymouth.

Death of King William the Fourth.

For more than half a century, the connection between Great Britain and her Australian possessions has been one of growing interest; and men of the highest eminence have foreseen and foretold the ultimate importance of that vast continent, over which, within the memory of living man, the roving savage held precarious though unquestioned empire.

Of the Australian sh.o.r.es, the North-western was the least known, and became, towards the close of the year 1836, a subject of much geographical speculation. Former navigators were almost unanimous in believing that the deep bays known to indent a large portion of this coast, received the waters of extensive rivers, the discovery of which would not only open a route to the interior, but afford facilities for colonizing a part of Australia, so near our East Indian territories, as to render its occupation an object of evident importance.

His Majesty's Government therefore determined to send out an expedition to explore and survey such portions of the Australian coasts as were wholly or in part unknown to Captains Flinders and King.

H.M. SLOOP BEAGLE.

For this service H.M. Sloop Beagle was commissioned at Woolwich, in the second week of February 1837 by Commander Wickham, who had already twice accompanied her in her wanderings over the least known and most boisterous waters of the globe; first, in her sister ship of discovery, the Adventure, Captain King, and afterwards as first lieutenant of the sloop now entrusted to his command. Under Captain Wickham some of the most important objects of the voyage were achieved, but in consequence of his retirement in March 1841, owing to ill health, the command of the Beagle was entrusted to the author of the following pages; and as, by a singular combination of circ.u.mstances, no less than three long and hazardous voyages of discovery have been successfully completed in this vessel, some account of her here may not be wholly uninteresting. The reader will be surprised to learn that she belongs to that much-abused cla.s.s, the 10-gun brigs--COFFINS, as they are not infrequently designated in the service; notwithstanding which, she has proved herself, under every possible variety of trial, in all kinds of weather, an excellent sea boat. She was built at Woolwich in 1819, and her first exploit was the novel and unprecedented one of pa.s.sing through old London bridge (the first rigged man-of-war that had ever floated so high upon the waters of the Thames) in order to salute at the coronation of King George the Fourth.

VOYAGES OF THE BEAGLE.

Towards the close of the year 1825 she was first commissioned by Commander Pringle Stokes,* as second officer of the expedition which sailed from Plymouth on the 22nd of May, 1826, under the command of Captain Phillip Parker King; an account of which voyage, published by Captain R. Fitzroy, who ultimately succeeded to the vacancy occasioned by the lamented death of Captain Stokes, and who subsequently commanded the Beagle during her second solitary, but most interesting expedition--has added to the well-earned reputation of the seaman, the more enduring laurels which literature and science can alone supply.

(*Footnote. Not related to the author.)

DEATH OF CAPTAIN STOKES.

Though painful recollections surround the subject, it would be hardly possible to offer an account of the earlier history of the Beagle, and yet make no allusion to the fate of her first commander, in whom the service lost, upon the testimony of one well qualified to judge, "an active, intelligent, and most energetic officer:" and well has it been remarked by the same high authority, "that those who have been exposed to one of such trials as his, upon an unknown lee sh.o.r.e, during the worst description of weather, will understand and appreciate some of those feelings which wrought too powerfully upon his excitable mind." The constant and pressing cares connected with his responsible commanded--the hardships and the dangers to which his crew were of necessity exposed during the survey of Tierra del Fuego--and in some degree the awful gloom which rests forever on that storm-swept coast--finally destroyed the equilibrium of a mind distracted with anxiety and shattered by disease.

Perhaps no circ.u.mstance could prove more strongly the peculiar difficulties connected with a service of this nature, nor could any more clearly testify that in this melancholy instance every thought of self-preservation was absorbed by a zeal to promote the objects of the expedition, which neither danger, disappointment, anxiety, nor disease could render less earnest, or less vigilant, even to the last!

The two vessels returned to England in October, 1830, when the Adventure was paid off at Woolwich, and the Beagle at Plymouth; she was recommissioned by Captain Fitzroy--to whose delightful narrative allusion has been already made--on the 4th July, 1831,* and continued under his command till her return to Woolwich in November, 1836; where, after undergoing some slight repairs, she was a third time put in commission for the purposes of discovery, under Commander Wickham, her former first lieutenant; and shortly afterwards commenced that third voyage, of the toils and successes of which, as an humble contribution to the stores of geographical knowledge, I have attempted in the following pages to convey as faithful and complete an account as the circ.u.mstances under which the materials have been prepared will allow. Nor will the subject less interest myself, when I call to mind, that for eighteen years the Beagle has been to me a home upon the wave--that my first cruise as a Middy was made in her; that serving in her alone I have pa.s.sed through every grade in my profession to the rank I have now the honour to hold--that in her I have known the excitements of imminent danger, and the delights of long antic.i.p.ated success; and that with her perils and her name are connected those recollections of early and familiar friendship, to which even memory herself fails to do full justice!

(*Footnote. The Beagle was stripped to her timbers, and rebuilt under this able officer's own inspection: and among other improvements, she had the lightning conductors of the well-known Snow Harris, Esquire, F.R.S.

fitted to her masts; a circ.u.mstance to which she has more than once been indebted for her safety.)

ADMIRALTY INSTRUCTIONS.

The following instructions were received by Captain Wickham, previous to our departure from Woolwich, and under them I subsequently acted.

BY THE COMMISSIONERS FOR EXECUTING THE OFFICE OF LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, ETC.

Whereas his Majesty's surveying vessel, Beagle, under your command, has been fitted out for the purpose of exploring certain parts of the north-west coast of New Holland, and of surveying the best channels in the straits of Ba.s.s and Torres, you are hereby required and directed, as soon as she shall be in all respects ready, to repair to Plymouth Sound, in order to obtain a chronometric departure from the west end of the breakwater, and then to proceed, with all convenient expedition, to Santa Cruz, in Tenerife.

In the voyage there, you are to endeavour to pa.s.s over the reputed site of the Eight Stones, within the limits pointed out by our Hydrographer; but keeping a strict lookout for any appearance of discoloured water, and getting a few deep casts of the lead.

At Tenerife you are to remain three days, for the purpose of rating the chronometers, when you are to make the best of your way to Bahia, in order to replenish your water, and from thence to Simon's Bay, at the Cape of Good Hope; where, having without loss of time obtained the necessary refreshments, you will proceed direct to Swan River; but as the severe gales which are sometimes felt at that settlement may not have entirely ceased, you will approach that coast with due caution.

At Swan River, you are to land Lieutenants Grey and Lushington, as well as to refit and water with all convenient despatch; and you are then to proceed immediately to the north-west coast of New Holland, making the coast in the vicinity of Dampier Land. The leading objects of your examination there will be, the extent of the two deep inlets connected with Roebuck Bay and Cygnet Bay, where the strength and elevation of the tides have led to the supposition that Dampier Land is an island, and that the above openings unite in the mouth of a river, or that they branch off from a wide and deep gulf. Moderate and regular soundings extend far out from Cape Villaret: you will, therefore, in the first instance, make that headland; and, keeping along the southern sh.o.r.e of Roebuck Bay, penetrate at once as far as the Beagle and her boats can find sufficient depth of water; but you must, however, take care not too precipitately to commit His Majesty's ship among these rapid tides, nor to entangle her among the numerous rocks with which all this part of the coast seems to abound; but by a cautious advance of your boats, for the double purpose of feeling your way, and at the same time of surveying, you will establish her in a judicious series of stations, equally beneficial to the progress of the survey, and to the support of your detached people.

Prince Regent River appears to have been fully examined by Captain King up to its freshwater rapids, but as the adjacent ridges of rocky land which were seen on both sides of Collier Bay, were only laid down from their distant appearance, it is probable that they will resolve themselves into a collection of islands in the rear of Dampier Land; and it is possible that they may form avenues to some wide expanse of water, or to the mouth of some large river, the discovery of which would be highly interesting.

As this question, whether there are or are not any rivers of magnitude on the western coast is one of the princ.i.p.al objects of the expedition, you will leave no likely opening unexplored, nor desist from its examination till fully satisfied; but as no estimate can be formed of the time required for its solution, so no period can be here a.s.signed at which you shall abandon it in order to obtain refreshments; when that necessity is felt, it must be left to your own judgment, whether to have recourse to the town Balli, in the strait of Allas, or to the Dutch settlement of Coepang, or even to the Arrou Islands, which have been described as places well adapted for that purpose; but on these points you will take pains to acquire all the information which can be obtained from the residents at Swan River.

Another circ.u.mstance which prevents any precise instructions being given to you on this head, is the uncertainty that prevails here respecting the weather which you may at that period find in those lat.i.tudes, and which it is possible may be such as if not altogether to prevent the execution of these orders, may at least cause them to be ineffectually performed, or perhaps lead to a waste of time, which might be better employed on other parts of the coast. If such should eventually be the case, it would be prudent not to attempt this intricate part of the coast during the prevalence of the north-west monsoon, but to employ it in completing the examination of Shark Bay and of Exmouth Gulf, as well as of other unexplored intervals of coast up to the 122nd degree of longitude; or, with a view to the proximity of one of the above-mentioned places of refreshment, it might, perhaps, be advisable, if compelled to quit the vicinity of Dampier Land, to devote that part of the season to a more careful investigation of the low sh.o.r.es of the gulf of Carpentaria, where it has been surmised, though very loosely, that rivers of some capacity will be found.

The above objects having been accomplished (in whatever order you may find suitable to the service) you will return to the southern settlements for refreshments; and then proceed, during the summer months of fine weather and long days, to Ba.s.s Strait, in which so many fatal accidents have recently occurred, and of which you are to make a correct and effectual survey.

But previous to your undertaking that survey, as it has been represented to us that it would be very desirable for the perfection of the Tidal theory, that an accurate register of the times and heights of high and low-water should be kept for some time in Ba.s.s Strait, you will (if practicable) establish a party for that purpose on King Island, and you are to cause the above particulars of the Tides there to be unintermittently and minutely observed, and registered in the blank forms which will be supplied to you by our Hydrographer. If, however, circ.u.mstances should render this measure unadvisable at that island, you will either choose some less objectionable station, where the average tide in the Strait may be fairly registered; or, if you can employ no permanent party on this service, you will be the more exact in ascertaining the above particulars at every one of your stations; and in all parts of this Strait you will carefully note the set and strength of the stream at the intermediate hours between high and low-water, and also the time at which the stream turns in the offing.

The survey of Ba.s.s Strait should include, first, a verification of the two sh.o.r.es by which it is formed; secondly, such a systematic representation of the depth and quality of the bottom as will ensure to any vessel, which chooses to sound by night or day, a correct knowledge of her position; and, thirdly, a careful examination of the pa.s.sages on either side of King Island, as well as through the chains of rocks and islands which stretch across from Wilson's Promontory to Cape Portland.

This survey will, of course, comprehend the approach to Port Dalrymple, but the interior details of that extensive harbour may be left to the officers employed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, provided you can ascertain that it is his intention to employ them there within any reasonable time.