Discoveries in Australia Volume II Part 31

ISLAND OF KISSA.

We were beating to the eastward against a strong breeze and heavy swell from the south-east till the 25th, when we reached the small island of Kissa, off which we anch.o.r.ed, in 30 fathoms, a quarter of a mile from the sh.o.r.e, to the great delight of Mr. Earl's servant, who was a native of this place. His countrymen, on coming on board, received him with the most extravagant expressions of joy; and kept him up all night, relating the wonders he had seen since he left them; in doing which he talked to such a degree that when he came on board in the morning he could hardly speak from hoa.r.s.eness. We found the natives had been suffering most severely from famine, occasioned by a long-continued drought that had dried up everything on the island, to such an extent, that the rice crops, upon which they chiefly depend for food, had entirely failed; but of livestock we found no difficulty in obtaining an abundant supply, and at a very moderate price. A couple of fowls were purchased for two feet of thin bra.s.s wire, highly prized by the natives for making fishhooks (which they prefer to our steel ones) and bracelets. A large pig was obtained for two fathoms of white calico, and everything else in proportion.

VILLAGE OF WAURITI.

On landing, we were met by a chief who had seen Mr. Earl on a previous visit. He promised to procure chairs to carry us up to Wauriti, the princ.i.p.al village on the island; and, while waiting for them, came on board and dined with us, behaving with great decorum, and appearing much interested in all he saw. After dinner we found the chairs waiting for us on the beach, and proceeded to the village, ascending a deep ravine with a streamlet running down the centre, overshadowed by the most luxuriant foliage.

After emerging from this ravine we found ourselves near the highest point of the island, of which we had a good view. Every part exhibited abundant signs of industry and cultivation, although parched up from want of rain.

The chief of Wauriti received us with great hospitality, and offered refreshments of tea, rice cake, and a sort of beer, made from the Sago palm.

MISSIONARY ESTABLISHMENT.

He then escorted us round the village, which contains a very good church and schoolhouse, constructed under the direction of a Dutch Missionary, who had been for some years a resident on the island, with his family, and who appeared to have been very successful in converting the natives; but the distress occasioned by the want of rain was too great a trial of their faith; they declared that their old G.o.ds had sent the drought upon them as a punishment for deserting them, for they had never had such a visitation before Christianity had been introduced into the island. The poor Missionary's influence was over; he was obliged to quit the island, and went to Amboyna. A mile north of Wauriti we visited a smaller village inhabited by the descendants of some Dutch families, who had lived upon the island many years ago. They were quite different in appearance from the natives, and some of the women were very goodlooking. In returning to the ship, we examined an old Dutch fort built on the beach, but now in a very dilapidated state. It consisted simply of a square building, with bastions at the opposite angles. At sunset we made sail for Letti, off which we anch.o.r.ed the next day, in 13 fathoms; half a mile north of the Missionary establishment; where we found a resident minister and his family, and two others from another part of the island staying with them.

A visit from Europeans was, to them, an event of rare occurrence, and must have been an interesting break in their monotonous lives; they had been very successful in their labours, and had converted many of the natives. They had several establishments on the island; the one we visited consisted of a church, schoolhouse, and house for the missionary; the church had been built more than 100 years, and was a very substantial edifice. The school appeared to be well attended by the native children.

The island of Letti, which is about 10 miles in extent, had also suffered much from the want of rain, but was fast recovering its green appearance.

A high ridge of hills extends along the centre of the island from east to west; the sides of which, sloping gradually towards the sea, are covered with trees, and the whole island presents an appearance of great fertility. The anchorage off Letti, which we surveyed, is very good during the south-east monsoon, but affords no shelter when the wind blows in an opposite direction. There may be an anchorage on the south side of the island, which we did not visit, that would be available during the North-West monsoon.

SERWATTY GROUP.

After completing our survey at Letti we worked to the eastward, against the monsoon, keeping as close as possible under the lee of the Serwatty group, which enabled us to make a rough survey of the islands composing it. These proved to be very incorrectly laid down in the only chart we had, and from what we saw they require a far more detailed examination than we had time to devote to them; this would, I have no doubt, lead to the discovery of many anchoring-places, where vessels might carry on trade with the natives, with much greater ease and safety than they can do when obliged to stand off and on with the vessel while the boats are sent in to trade; since, by these means, the crew are necessarily divided, are liable to fall an easy prey to the natives, should the latter be inclined to treachery.

The various traders we met with, during this, as well as on our former visit to the islands, all agreed in warning us against the inhabitants of Timor Laut and Baba, as people not at all to be trusted. It is much to be hoped that if Port Essington should ever become a place of much trade, that these people will be more civilized, as from the easy communication, in either monsoon, Timor Laut will be much frequented by the settlers at Port Essington, in order to procure the tropical productions abounding there, which they would not find on the Australian coasts. The Arrou islands, for the same reason, will hold out great inducements to traders, as the timber found there is infinitely superior, for most purposes, to any found on the Cobourg peninsula.

RETURN TO PORT ESSINGTON.

As our provisions were running short, and the time had arrived when we were expected to return to the settlement, I had not time to stop to examine several places I wished to see, particularly the southern part of the island of Timor Laut, where from information we received at Banda, a very large and secure harbour is said to exist, available in both monsoons. The island of Serra was another point, as it is stated to be a very good place for obtaining supplies.

In crossing over to Australia we saw Timor Laut, off which we experienced a very fresh South-East breeze and a heavy sea, which continuing to prevail with a strong current setting to leeward, we were in consequence eight days reaching Port Essington, where we found that all had gone on well during our absence.

CHAPTER 2.11. PORT ESSINGTON AND THE NORTH-WEST COAST.

Appearance of Settlement.

Effects of climate.

Native mother.

Trade in teeth.

Maca.s.sar Proas.

Lieutenant Vallack visits the Alligator Rivers.

Interview with Natives.

Prospects of Port Essington.

Lieutenant Stewart's Route.

Climate.

Remarks of Mr. Bynoe.

Harbour of refuge.

Sail from Port Essington.

Sahul Shoal.

Arrive at Coepang.

Timorees.

Sail for North-west Coast.

Strong winds.

Cape Bossut.

Exploration of North-west Coast.

View of Interior.

Birds.

Solitary Island.

Visit the Sh.o.r.e.

Amphinome Shoals.

Bedout Island.

Breaker Inlet.

Exmouth Gulf.

Arrive at Swan River.

PORT ESSINGTON.

The period of our arrival at Port Essington had been looked forward to by all with deep interest, and, I may say, some anxiety. Two years had elapsed since our last visit, and various and contradictory were the reports in circulation respecting the welfare of the settlement. We were accordingly truly rejoiced to find it in a state of prosperity that will ever reflect the highest credit on the hardy few who have laboured so earnestly for its welfare. It was an emblem of the rapidity with which, in young countries, it is possible to recover from any disaster, that the trees which had been uprooted, shattered, and riven in fragments by the hurricane of 1839, were for the most part concealed by the fresh foliage of the year; there was scarcely anything left to commemorate that dreadful visitation, but the tombs of twelve brave fellows, of the Pelorus, who lost their lives at the time.

There was a care-worn, jaundiced appearance about the settlers, that plainly revealed how little suited was the climate for Europeans to labour in; and yet there had been, I was told, no positive sickness. The hospital, however, had been enlarged, and rendered a very substantial building. Captain Macarthur had built a strong and well-contrived blockhouse, of the excellent kind of wood, a species of teak, before alluded to. A new garden also had been laid out, in which the banana and pine, besides many other tropical fruits, were flourishing. The arrow-root and sugar-cane grown here are allowed by those who have seen these plants in the West Indies not to be surpa.s.sed in excellence; and the cotton from Pernambuco, and Bourbon seed, has been valued in England at sixpence-halfpenny a pound. The colonists were beginning to understand the seasons; they had taken out of the ground sweet potatoes nearly sufficient to last them until the next crop. This was the first time they had been tried. I have never seen any in South America half the size. In short, I may say that the settlement was fast approaching the state in which was that at Raffles Bay when it was abandoned.

Considering the few days given to sporting, our game-book contains a very tolerable list, comprising seven kangaroos, twenty quails, ten ducks, seven pigeons, two pheasants, and two ibises.

The natives in the neighbourhood of Port Essington are, like all others on the continent, very superst.i.tious; they fancy that a large kind of tree, called the Imburra-burra, resembling the Adansonia, contains evil spirits. Here, also, as I have elsewhere observed, they fancy that after death they reappear as whites; the bones of the dead are frequently carried from place to place.

The reader will remember the native named Alligator, whom I have mentioned on a previous visit to Port Essington. I witnessed in his family an instance of affection for a departed child, which, though it exhibited itself in this peculiar manner, was extremely touching. The wife had treasured up the bones of the little one, and constantly carried them about with her, not as a memento mori, but as an object whereon to expend her tenderest emotions, whenever they swelled within her breast.

At such times she would put together these bones with a rapidity that supposed a wonderful knowledge of osteology, and set them up that she might weep over them. Perhaps, in her imagination, as she performed this melancholy rite, the ghastly framework before her became indued with the comely form of infancy; bright eyes once more sparkled in those hollow cells, and a smile of ineffable delight hung where, in reality, was naught but the hideous grin of death. I exceedingly regret that the mother who could feel so finely was some time afterwards over-persuaded to part with the bones of her child.

I may here mention that the medical officer of the settlement was in the habit of extracting teeth for the natives, who found the European method much more easy than their own mode of knocking them out. The supercargo of a vessel, learning this fact, was anxious to become a purchaser of teeth to some extent for the London market, being persuaded that they would find a ready sale among the dentists; and it is more than probable that many of our fair ladies at home are indebted for the pearls on which the poets exhaust so much of their fancy to the rude natives of Australia.

Among the information I gained during this stay at Port Essington respecting the Maca.s.sar people, who periodically visit the coast, was that of their discovering a strait leading into the Gulf of Carpentaria, behind English Company's Islands. Pa.s.sing Cape Wilberforce, called Udjung Turu, or Bearaway Point, they continue their course down the Gulf to the Wellesley Islands, named by them Pulo Tiga, or The Three Islands; this is the usual southern limit of their voyage. The Maca.s.sar proas that visit Port Essington, amounting in one season to fourteen, usually brought for barter tea, sugar, cloths, salt-fish, rice, etc. Several of the nakodhas, or masters, have expressed a wish to abandon fishing, and occupy themselves only in trade, if there is sufficient encouragement held out to them.

During our stay a report was brought into the settlement by the natives that there was a large vessel wrecked on the mainland, near the Alligator Rivers, which was accompanied by so many details of place and circ.u.mstance that Captain Stanley was induced to send Lieutenant Vallack, of the Britomart, away in the decked tender to procure information, and to render all a.s.sistance in his power. He was accompanied by several of the Port Essington natives; and on arriving at the Eastern River, found that there was no foundation for the report. But having got so far away from the settlement, he ascended the river some little distance, and towards sunset came on a tribe of natives. The anchor was let go, and signs were made to induce them to approach, for some time without success. At last, however, encouraged by seeing so many of their own countrymen, two or three of the more courageous ventured to draw near.

The scene that followed was a curious ill.u.s.tration of the slight communication that exists between natives of different tribes, and also of the great difference in their language, as the strangers could hold no conversation with the people from Port Essington, who, when they found their own dialect was not understood, tried to explain themselves in such few words of broken English as were then used at the colony, and seemed very much surprised at their want of success. A large mess of boiled rice, which had been prepared by way of a feast for the newcomers, was then produced; but it was not before they saw their countrymen eagerly devouring it that they could be induced to eat, as they evidently did not know what it was. The result of Lieutenant Vallack's visit is hostile to the idea entertained that clothes given to natives at Port Essington pa.s.s into the interior, which I always much doubted. Had the fence before alluded to by me been run across the neck, and an out-station formed there, we should have had further acquaintance with the natives of the main, besides other advantages that would necessarily have accrued.

As it seemed extremely probable that the course of events would not again permit the Beagle to visit Port Essington, we naturally experienced some regret on our departure, and were led to speculate, with interest, on its future destiny. A young settlement, so remote and solitary, cannot fail to awaken the liveliest sympathy in the voyager. How small soever may be the circle of its present influence, the experience of the past teaches us confidently to expect that wherever a knot of Englishmen locate themselves, there are deposited the germs of future greatness. For Port Essington, a sphere of action, of great extent and importance, appears marked out by the hand of nature; though, to a careless observer, unskilled in discerning the undeveloped capabilities of geographical positions, it may appear in the light simply of an isolated military post. And, certainly, whatever may be its actual resources, little or nothing has, as yet, been done to ascertain them. We are still reduced to base our opinions on conjecture and hypothesis; we know nothing of the amount of commerce that might be carried on with the islands of the Indian Archipelago--nothing of the productions of the mainland--nothing of the extent to which colonization might be carried in the neighbourhood. Without data of this kind it is impossible, with any pretensions to accuracy, to estimate the probable future importance of our settlement at Port Essington, the value of which does not depend on the fertility of Cobourg Peninsula, any more than that of Gibraltar on the productiveness of the land within the Spanish lines. Victoria, if we regard its own intrinsic worth, might be blotted out of the list of our possessions without any material detriment to our interests; but its importance, as a commercial station, is incalculable. It is, indeed, to the country behind--at present unvisited, unexplored, a complete terra incognita--and to the islands within a radius of five hundred miles, that we must look if we would form a correct idea of the value of Port Essington to the Crown. At present it may seem idle, to some, to introduce these distant places as elements in the discussion of such a question; but no one who reflects on the power of trade to knit together even more distant points of the earth, will think it visionary to suppose that Victoria must one day--insignificant as may be the value of the districts in its immediate neighbourhood--be the centre of a vast system of commerce, the emporium, in fact, where will take place the exchange of the products of the Indian Archipelago for those of the vast plains of Australia. It may require some effort of the imagination, certainly, to discover the precursor of such a state of things in the miserable traffic now carried on by the Maca.s.sar proas; but still, I think, we possess some data on which to found such an opinion, and I am persuaded that Port Essington will ultimately hold the proud position I predict for it.

As steam communication, moreover, must soon be established between Singapore and our colonies on the south-eastern sh.o.r.es of Australia,*

this port, the only really good one on the north coast, will be of vast importance as a coal depot.

(*Footnote. By this arrangement Sydney could be brought within nearly sixty days of England.)

As I have already observed, however, little pains have been taken to ascertain all the capabilities of the place, and to extend our acquaintance with the country behind. No European has ever yet penetrated any great distance beyond the neck that connects Cobourg Peninsula with the mainland; and even the report of the existence of the settlement has scarcely travelled farther. At least in 1841, when Lieutenant Vallack visited one of the Alligator rivers he found the natives completely ignorant that we had established ourselves in their neighbourhood.

From the account of Lieutenant P.B. Stewart,* of which I have given a brief abstract above, it appears that there is some good land on the Peninsula, though such is decidedly not the case near the settlement.

(*Footnote. This officer has since forwarded me his route. It appears that on leaving Victoria he proceeded to the south-west side of the Peninsula, and followed the sh.o.r.e to the neck, when taking an east direction he crossed it, and then pursuing a northerly course made his way to Middle Head, on the side of the harbour opposite the settlement.

The frequent opportunities Lieutenant Stewart had of determining his positions by cross-bearings of the islands, leave no doubt as to the correctness of his route.)

The reports of late sent in respecting the climate have, in some measure, been unfavourable; and, as I have observed, the appearance of the garrison was rather sickly; but may not this arise partly from the indifferent manner in which they are housed? Small, low, thatched cottages, in a temperature much too warm for Europeans to labour in constantly, are apt to engender disease. There is, besides, a mangrove swamp immediately behind the settlement, which at present decreases its salubrity. With regard to the range of the thermometer, it has been known as low as 62 degrees, and it is never so high, by ten or twenty degrees, as I have seen it in South Australia during the hot winds: the average, however, is about 83 degrees. The fact that the site of Victoria lies so far from the entrance of the harbour is injurious to its prosperity, as it prevents many vessels from calling, and deprives it of the breezes that constantly prevail on the coast, and would of course conduce to its healthiness.*