Discoveries in Australia Volume I Part 5

We were much struck during our stay by the contrast between the natives here, and those we had seen on the Beagle's former voyage at King George's Sound. The comparison was wholly in favour of those living within the influence of their civilized fellow-men: a fact which may surprise some of my readers, but for which, notwithstanding, I am quite prepared to vouch. A better quality, and more certain supply of food, are the causes to which this superiority ought to be attributed: they are indeed exceedingly fond of wheaten bread, and work hard for the settlers, in cutting wood and carrying water, in order to obtain it. Individually they appear peaceable, inoffensive, and well-disposed, and, under proper management, make very good servants; but when they congregate together for any length of time, they are too apt to relapse into the vices of savage life. Among the many useful hints, for which we were indebted to Mr. Roe, was that of taking a native with us to the northward; and, accordingly, after some trouble, we shipped an intelligent young man, named Miago; he proved, in some respects, exceedingly useful, and made an excellent gun-room waiter. We noticed that, like most of the natives, he was deeply scarred, and I learned from him that this is done to recommend them to the notice of the ladies. Like all savages, they are treacherous--for uncivilized man has no abstract respect for truth, and consequently deceit, whether spoken or acted, seems no baseness in his eyes.

ANECDOTES OF THE NATIVES.

I heard an anecdote at Perth that bears upon this subject: A native of the name of Tonquin asked a settler, who lived some distance in the interior, permission to spend the night in his kitchen, of which that evening another native was also an inmate. It seems that some hate, either personal, or the consequences of a quarrel between their different tribes, existed in the mind of Tonquin towards his hapless fellow lodger; and in the night he speared him through the heart, AND THEN VERY QUIETLY LAID DOWN TO SLEEP! Of course in the morning no little stir took place.

Tonquin was accused, but stoutly denied the charge. So satisfied, however, was the owner of the house of the guilt of the real culprit, that had he not made his escape, he would have been executed red hand--as the border wardens used to say--by the man, the sanct.i.ty of whose roof-tree he had thus profaned. Tonquin afterwards declared that he NEVER SLEPT FOR NEARLY A FORTNIGHT, being dogged from place to place by the footsteps of the avengers of blood. He escaped, however, with his life, though worn almost to a shadow by constant anxiety. When I saw him some years afterwards, I thought him the finest looking native I had ever seen, but he was apparently, as those who knew him best reported him to be, insane. If not the memory of his crime, and the consequent remorse which it entailed upon him, perhaps the fugitive life he was compelled to lead in order to avoid the wrath of human retribution, had been used to make manifest the anger of Heaven for this breach of one of those first great laws of human society, which are almost as much instincts of our nature as revelations from the Creator to the creatures of his will!

SUPERSt.i.tIONS.

The natives have a superst.i.tious horror of approaching the graves of the dead, of whom they never like to speak, and when induced to do so, always whisper. A settler, residing in a dangerous part of the colony, had two soldiers stationed with him as a guard: upon one occasion five natives rushed in at a moment when the soldiers were unprepared for their reception, and a terrible struggle ensued: the soldiers, however, managed, while on the ground, to shoot two of them, and bayonetted the remaining three. The five were afterwards buried before the door, nor could a more perfect safeguard have been devised; no thought even of revenge for their comrades would afterwards induce any of the tribe to pa.s.s that fearful boundary.

Their most curious superst.i.tion, however, remains to be recorded; it is the opinion they confidently entertain, and which seems universally diffused among them, that the white people are their former fellow countrymen, who in such altered guise revisit the world after death.

Miago a.s.sured me that this was the current opinion, and my own personal observation subsequently confirmed his statement. At Perth, one of the settlers, from his presumed likeness to a defunct member of the tribe of the Murray River, was visited by his supposed kindred twice every year, though in so doing they pa.s.sed through sixty miles of what was not unfrequently an enemy's country.

Their religious opinions, so far as I have been able to obtain any information on the subject, are exceedingly vague and indefinite. That they do not regard the grave as man's final resting place, may, however, be fairly concluded, from the superst.i.tion I have just alluded to, and that they believe in invisible and superior powers--objects of dread and fear, rather than veneration or love--has been testified in Captain Grey's most interesting chapter upon Native Customs, and confirmed by my own experience.

THE EVIL SPIRIT.

I used sometimes to question Miago upon this point, and from him I learned their belief in the existence of an evil spirit, haunting dark caverns, wells, and places of mystery and gloom, and called Jinga. I heard from a settler that upon one occasion, a native travelling with him, refused to go to the well at night from fear of this malevolent being; supposed to keep an especial guardianship over fresh water, and to be most terrible and most potent in the hours of darkness. Miago had never seen this object of his fears, but upon the authority of the elders of his tribe, he described its visible presence as that of a huge many-folded serpent; and in the night, when the tall forest trees moaned and creaked in the fitful wind, he would shrink terrified by the solemn and mysterious sounds, which then do predispose the mind to superst.i.tious fears, and tell how, at such a time, his countrymen kindle a fire to avert the actual presence of the evil spirit, and wait around it--chanting their uncouth and rhythmical incantations--with fear and trembling, for the coming dawn.

I have preserved these anecdotes here, because I can vouch for their authenticity, and though individually unimportant, they may serve to throw additional light upon the manners, customs, and traditions of the Aborigines of Australia; but to all really interested in the subject, I would recommend a perusal of Captain Grey's second volume. I have as yet neither s.p.a.ce nor materials to attempt any detailed account of the customs, superst.i.tions, or condition of this strange people; but it would be impossible to pa.s.s them by quite unnoticed: nor can the voyager, whose chief object is to make their native land a field for the exertions of British enterprise, be wholly indifferent to the manner in which our dominion may affect them. The history of almost every colony, founded by European energy, has been one fearful catalogue of crime; and though by the side of the Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese, English adventurers seem gentle and benevolent, still cruelty and oppression have too often disgraced our name and faith.

FUTURE PROSPECTS.

Thank Heaven, with many a doubt as to the time that must elapse ere that glad day shall come, I can look onward with confidence to a period--I trust not far remote--when throughout the length and breadth of Australia, Christian civilization shall attest that the claims upon England's benevolence have been n.o.bly acknowledged!

CHAPTER 1.4. FROM SWAN RIVER TO ROEBUCK BAY.

Sail from Gage's Road.

Search for a bank.

Currents and soundings.

Houtman's Abrolhos.

Fruitless search for Ritchie's Reef.

Indications of a squall.

Deep sea soundings.

Atmospheric Temperature.

Fish.

A squall.

Anchor off the mouth of Roebuck Bay.

A heavy squall.

Driven from our anchorage.

Cape Villaret.

Anchor in Roebuck Bay.

Excursion on sh.o.r.e.

Visit from the Natives.

Mr. Bynoe's account of them.

A stranger among them.

Captain Grey's account of an almost white race in Australia.

Birds, Snakes, and Turtle.

Move the Ship.

Miago, and the Black Fellows.

The wicked men of the North.

Clouds of Magellan.

Face of the Country.

Natives.

Heat and Sickness.

Miago on sh.o.r.e.

Mr. Usborne wounded.

Failure in Roebuck Bay.

Native notions.

CURRENTS AND SOUNDINGS.

The solemnities of Christmas, and the festal celebration of the New Year, beneath a cloudless sky, and with the thermometer at 90, concluded our first visit to Swan River. We left our anchorage in Gage's Road on Thursday, January 4th, devoting several hours to sounding between Rottnest and the main. We bore away at 4 P.M. to search for a bank said to exist about fifteen miles north from the middle of Rottnest Island, having from twenty to twenty-two fathoms over it. Near the position a.s.signed we certainly shoaled our water from twenty-eight to twenty-four fathoms, but no other indication of a bank was to be found.

Satisfied that we had now no further reason for delay, we kept away North-West with a fresh southerly wind, and the glad omen of a brilliant sunset.

January 5.

We were rather surprised to find by our observation at noon, no indication of a northerly current, though yesterday when becalmed between Rottnest and the main we were drifted to the northward at the rate of nearly two knots per hour. We sounded regularly every four hours, but found no bottom at 200 fathoms: the wind during the morning was light from South-South-West but during the night we had it fresh from South-East.

January 6.

We pa.s.sed, at midnight, within 60 miles of the position a.s.signed in the chart to the low coral group known as Houtman's Abrolhos,* and again sounded unsuccessfully with 200 fathoms.

(*Footnote. Subsequent observations placed these islands 30 miles more to the eastward than the position there a.s.signed them. Our track, therefore, was really 90 miles from them.)

We continued steering a northerly course up to the 9th, keeping within from 60 to 80 miles distance of the coast, and repeating our deep-sea soundings every six hours without success.

INDICATIONS OF A SQUALL.

The wind during each day was moderate from the South-South-West and South by West, freshening during the night from South, and South by East; a heavy swell was its constant companion, and the barometer fell to 29.75.

On the morning of the 9th, being in the parallel of North-west Cape, our course was altered to North-East by East; it blew hard during the night, and we had a disagreeable sea; but, as usual, it moderated again towards the morning.

We had shaped a course to make a reef in lat.i.tude 20 degrees 17 minutes, and named after its discoverer, Lieutenant Ritchie, R.N.; but owing to its being situated, as we afterwards found, half a degree to the eastward of its a.s.signed position in the charts, we did not see it.

At 4 A.M., and with 195 fathoms, we reached a bottom of sand, broken sh.e.l.ls, and coral, being then about 80 miles North-North-East from Tremouille Island, the nearest land. Steering East by North 1/2 North for 31 miles, brought us to our noon position in lat.i.tude 19 degrees 20 minutes South, longitude 116 degrees 16 minutes East, and into a depth of 120 fathoms, with the same kind of bottoms. South-South-West, 17 miles from our morning position, Captain King had 83 and 85 fathoms; from this we may suppose the edge of the bank of soundings, extending off this part of the coast, to be very steep. These soundings, together with those of Captain King, as above, may give some idea of the nature and extent of this bank, which seems to be a continuation of the flat extending North-North-East 40 miles, connecting Barrow and Tremouille Islands with the main: its outer edge being kept heaped up thus steeply by the constant action of the current sweeping round the North-west Cape.

DEEP SEA SOUNDINGS.

We continued steering East and by North 1/2 North, and at sunset, 14 miles from our noon position, the water had deepened to 145 fathoms, bottom a fine white sand and powdered sh.e.l.ls. Before we were 50 miles from our noon position, we could find no bottom with 200 fathoms.

January 12.

We made but slow progress during the night, and felt delay the more tedious from the eager anxiety with which we desired sight of the land where our duties were to begin in earnest. We were not successful with our soundings till 6 P.M., when we had the same kind of bottom as before described, with 117 fathoms: 15 miles East by North 1/2 North from our noon position, which was 220 miles West by South from Roebuck Bay: 30 miles in the same direction from our noon position, we shoaled our water to 85 fathoms, the ground retaining the same distinctive character. We had the wind from South-West to South-East during the afternoon, but at 6 P.M. it chopped round to North-North-West, when, too, for the first time, we perceived lightning to the South-East--Barometer 29.92; thermometer 85.

January 13.

The preceding indications of the coming squall, which had given us full time for preparation, were realized about one o'clock this morning, when it reached us, though only moderately, from South-East. It was preceded by the rise and rapid advance of a black cloud in that quarter, just as Captain King has described.