Discoveries in Australia Volume II Part 32

(*Footnote. The following remarks from Mr. Bynoe, on the climate of Northern Australia, corroborate the views put forward in the text:

I find on a reference to the Medical Journals, as well as to a Meteorological table kept by me during a period of six years, on the coasts of Australia, and under every variety of climate, that we had no diseases peculiar to that continent, and I am led to believe it a remarkably healthy country. On the North and North-west coasts, where you find every bight and indentation of land fringed with mangroves, bordering mud flats, and ledges formed by corallines in every stage of decomposition, with a high temperature, no fevers or dysenteries were engendered.

Our ship's company were constantly exposed, in boats, to all the vicissitudes from wet to dry weather, sleeping in mangrove creeks for many months in succession, pestered by mosquitoes during the hours of repose, yet they still remained very healthy; and the only instance where the climate was at all prejudicial (if such a term can be applied) was in the Victoria River, on the north coast, where the heat was, at one period, very great, and the unavoidable exposure caused two of the crew to be attacked with Coup de Soleil.

Our casualties consisted of two deaths during our stay on the Australian coast, one from old age; and the other, a case of dysentery, contracted at Coepang.

It may not be uninteresting to state, that from the time that Port Essington was settled in 1838, up to the period of our last visit to that military post, and for some time after, no endemial form of disease had manifested itself, and the only complaints that the men had been suffering from were diseases such as were usually to be met with in a more temperate clime, and those were few. But we must take into consideration their isolated position, the constant sameness of their life, their small low thatched cottages, mostly with earthen floors; their inferior diet, and also the absence or scantiness of vegetables.

Most of the men, moreover, experience a constant yearning for home, which, yearly increasing, terminates in despondency, and leaves them open to the attacks of disease. s...o...b..tic symptoms were at one period very prevalent, arising princ.i.p.ally from the poor form of diet; similar cases occurred in a former settlement on that part of the coast, from the same causes; but although Port Essington has been of late visited by sickness, I do not consider it by any means an unhealthy spot.)

Considering Port Essington as a harbour of refuge for the crews of ships wrecked in Torres Strait, it is certainly far removed from the scene of distress; and looking upon it in this light only, a military station at Cape York would probably be attended with greater benefit and less expense, though, as it might be expected to meet with annoyance from the natives of the islands in Torres Strait, who are badly disposed and wander over a great s.p.a.ce in search of plunder, the party should not be very small. There is, moreover, no real harbour; but, at the same time, as the post would be on a low narrow projection, with a seabreeze sweeping over it in either monsoon, it would doubtless be cooler than at Port Essington.

I may observe that the only instance that came under my immediate notice of the benefit of a harbour of refuge on the north coast, was that of a vessel wrecked too far to the westward to reach Cape York, the crew of which arrived at Port Essington in their boats.

It was in some measure at the request of the surgeon, in order to alleviate Mr. Fitzmaurice's great sufferings by a little rest, that our stay was lengthened to September 7th, when we left in the morning.*

(*Footnote. While steering North by East 1/2 East for Point Record, we discovered a bank of 4 1/2 fathoms, with 7 and 8 on each side. When just off it, to the northward, in 7 fathoms, the west extreme of Point Record bore North 19 1/4 East, and its east extreme North 35 1/4 East, and the north-east end of Spear Point North 59 degrees West.)

SAHUL SHOAL.

By noon we had cleared the heads of Port Essington, and a course was then shaped for the supposed Sahul Shoal, the northern and central parts of which we pa.s.sed over without finding any remarkable decrease in the soundings.*

(*Footnote. This clearly proved that our knowledge of the extent of the Sahul Bank was very imperfect. It appears that between the lat.i.tudes 11 degrees 0 minutes South and 11 degrees 25 minutes South, and the longitudes 125 degrees 20 minutes East and 125 degrees 50 minutes East, there are no less than six patches of coral known, of 12 and 16 fathoms.

It is my belief that the whole of this shoal, if it merit the name, lies between the lat.i.tudes of 11 degrees 15 minutes South and 11 degrees 35 minutes South, and the longitudes of 123 degrees 35 minutes East and 124 degrees 15 minutes East.)

ARRIVE AT TIMOR.

The winds were singularly light from the eastward, until we approached Timor, the South-West end of which we saw in the morning of the 15th,*

when, after pa.s.sing through Samow Strait,** we anch.o.r.ed in 13 fathoms off Coepang; the flagstaff of Fort Concordia bearing South-South-East a quarter of a mile.

(*Footnote. In pa.s.sing the north-east end of Rottee a good lookout was kept for a 5-fathom patch, laid down in the Admiralty Chart as lying four miles east of it. Nothing, however, could be discovered of it; and close to the place we had 50 fathoms. In Flinders' Atlas we find 50 fathoms marked on this spot; and it is probable that the mistake has occurred in copying, the 0 being left out, and the s.p.a.ce dotted round, to draw attention to the supposed shoal-water.)

(**Footnote. The tides in Samow Strait run from one to two knots an hour, eight hours to the northward, and four in the opposite direction. The time of high-water at Coepang at the full and change is half-past eleven, when the rise is twelve feet. On the north side of Timor, between it and Ombaye, the current sets to the westward at the rate of from two to four knots an hour, in the south-east monsoon; but close to the Timor sh.o.r.e it sets to windward. Ships make the pa.s.sage to the eastward during its prevalence by keeping close to the north sides of the Lomblen, Pantar, and Ombaye Islands, where they find a favourable current, and winds from the southward drawing through the straits separating the islands. There is no anchorage between Pantar and Ombaye; but on the south side of Timor, at the mouth of the Naminie River, and twenty-five miles further eastward, and also at the east point, inside the small island of Pulo Jackie, there are good anchorages in from 10 to 15 fathoms. The southern coast of Timor is washed by heavy surf in either monsoon.)

Arrangements were immediately made for watering the ship, by having the barecas filled and carried to the boats by persons from the sh.o.r.e, thereby saving our crew from exposure in this, I believe at all times, unhealthy climate. When our stock was completed, with the additional casks procured at Port Essington, we had sufficient for eighty days.

We found the Resident, Mr. Gronovius, as usual, very communicative; he was much astonished at the size of some bananas I gave him from Port Essington.

TIMOREES.

I may take this opportunity of giving some additional information respecting the Timorees. It appears that after killing an enemy they, like the New Zealanders, preserve the head by baking it; and, during meals, place food in the mouth of their bodiless foe. On the death of a Rajah, a favourite slave or two is killed and buried with him; some weapons, also, are laid in the grave, in order that the deceased may not want for anything in the next world; this clearly shows that they have an idea of a future state.

The mode in which trade is carried on with the wild natives of Timor is extremely singular. The goods intended for barter are left in parcels on the sh.o.r.e; the natives come down and place against them, generally, bees'

wax, and a kind of cotton cloth, to the amount which they conceive to be the value, when they also retire. The trader returns, and if satisfied, takes the native's goods, leaving his own; if not, he goes away without touching either. The natives again come down and weigh the relative value of the heaps of merchandize, and either consent to the proffered bargain or take away their own property. Neither party ever comes in sight of the other; and the strictest honour is preserved in the transaction. Most of my readers will recollect that a similar method of trading is attributed to one of the nations of antiquity.

A tribe of Sumbawa,* who call themselves the Danga people, have a custom worth mentioning. They are the only tribe on that island not Mahomedans, and worship the evil spirit, to appease whom they frequently leave a roasted pig, with rice, at a well near a tree, a species of wild mango; the priest, of course, reaps the benefit of this pious offering. A similar custom prevails among the natives of Eastern Patagonia.

(*Footnote. I may here mention, that when the great eruption took place on this island, the report of it was heard at Maca.s.sar, nearly three hundred miles distant, and the motion was felt by the ships at anchor there.)

SAIL FROM COEPANG.

By the morning of September 24th the rough charts were completed, and tracings, with other despatches, being deposited with the Resident, to be forwarded to England, we sailed from Coepang. On the 26th the first lieutenant, the surgeon, and the master, were seized with a violent attack of cholera, which lasted twenty-four hours--another evidence of the unhealthiness of Timor.

The work that now lay before us was, perhaps, one of the most interesting features of the North-West coast--a remarkable indentation, south of Roebuck Bay, many parts of which had never been seen. Its peculiar configuration naturally suggested the idea that a river must exist there; and it was accordingly with great anxiety that we looked forward to the result. I had intended to examine the eastern part of Scott's Reef in the way; but westerly winds, which were, however, favourable for reaching our destination, prevented us. The track we pursued was entirely new, and in order to see if any shoals existed, we sounded every twenty miles, without, however, getting bottom, at nearly 200 fathoms, until the 1st, when in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 24 minutes South, and longitude 123 degrees 23 minutes East we had 70 fathoms.*

(*Footnote. From the result of our soundings on the pa.s.sage to the coast, it would appear that a ship in 60 or 70 fathoms would be about the same number of miles from the land between the lat.i.tude of 14 or 15 degrees South--quality of bottom, a greyish sand, which becomes coa.r.s.er as the depth increases.)

After midnight on the 3rd and 4th we had strong breezes of short duration from South-East, and although a hundred miles from the nearest land to windward, a fine kind of dust was found on the rigging, which, on examination by a microscope, proved to consist of sand and wood ashes.

REACH THE NORTH-WEST COAST.

We saw the land to the southward of Roebuck Bay on October 8th, and at noon pa.s.sed four miles from Cape Bossut, which we found to be in lat.i.tude 18 degrees 42 minutes South and longitude 121 degrees 45 minutes East.*

On the south side opened a bay two miles deep, with a small high-water inlet at its head. From thence we held a general South by West 1/2 West course, pa.s.sing along the land at the distance of from three to four miles, in soundings of 5 and 6 fathoms, and at sunset anch.o.r.ed four miles from a low sandy coast, on which the sea broke heavily. Cape Joubert,**

distant sixteen miles, was the last projection of any kind we pa.s.sed.

(*Footnote. The longitudes depend on the meridian of Coepang. which has been considered in 123 degrees 37 minutes 0 seconds East.)

(**Footnote. In lat.i.tude 18 degrees 58 minutes South and longitude 121 degrees 42 minutes East. It is crested with bare white sand, and although only forty-five feet high is a remarkable headland on this low coast.)

APPEARANCE OF NORTH-WEST COAST.

From that headland commenced a low, wearisome, sandy sh.o.r.e, which we traced for sixty-five miles in a South-West by West direction, looking in vain for some change in its character. Nothing beyond the coast sand-dunes, sprinkled with vegetation, and only twenty feet high, could be seen from the masthead, although the ship was within three miles of the beach. This cheerless aspect was heightened by the total absence of native fires, a fact we had never before observed in such an extent of country, and truly significant of its want of fertility. Still, in our sight it possessed a greater charm than it may, probably, in that of others; as every fresh mile of coast that disclosed itself, rewarding our enterprise whilst it disappointed our expectations, was so much added to the domains of geography. That such an extent of the Australian continent should have been left to be added to the portion of the globe discovered by the Beagle was remarkable; and although day by day our hopes of accomplishing any important discovery declined, a certain degree of excitement was kept alive throughout.

It was the 13th before we had made good the distance I have above mentioned, when a reddish hillock, of fifty-six feet in elevation, in lat.i.tude 19 degrees 48 minutes South, and longitude 120 degrees 36 minutes East, promising a view of the interior, we went to visit it.

There was less surf on the beach than we expected, and we landed without much difficulty. Our old friend, the black and white red-bill, or oyster-catcher, was in readiness to greet us, accompanied by a few families of sanderlings, two or three batches of grey plovers, and a couple of small curlews. Crossing the beach, a line of reddish sandstone cliffs, twelve feet in height, was ascended, and found to face a bank of sand, held together by a sort of coa.r.s.e spinifex. This bank, which ran parallel to the coast, was narrow, subsiding into a valley three quarters of a mile wide, on the opposite side of which rose a hummocky ridge of coa.r.s.e ferruginous sandstone formation. The valley was covered with brown gra.s.s and detached stunted bushes. Water had recently lodged in it, as appeared from the saucer-like cakes of earth broken and curled up over the whole surface. The nature of the soil was shown by the heaps of earth thrown out at the entrances of the holes of iguanas, and other burrowing creatures; it was a mixture of sand, clay, and vegetable matter.

VIEW OF INTERIOR.

From the highest hillock beyond the valley a view of the interior was obtained: it presents, like most of the portions of the continent we had discovered, the aspect of a dreary plain, clothed with gra.s.s and detached clumps of green brushwood. "What a strange country!" was the exclamation that naturally burst from us all, on beholding this immense and apparently interminable expanse, with no rise to relieve the tired eye.

As we gazed, our imaginations transported us to the Pampas of South America, which this vast level greatly resembled, except that the motions of no startled deer or ostriches scudding over the country, and leaving a train of dust behind, gave life and animation to the scene. No trace of kangaroos, or of natives, not even the sign of a fire, greeted us on this inhospitable coast. The evidences of animal were as scanty as those of vegetable life.

BIRDS.

Two brown bustards rose out of the gra.s.s; they were of the same size and colour as those seen in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and quite as wary, which was very singular. A couple of specimens of land birds were shot; one of them resembled a Meliphagus, although its stomach was filled with small beetles, finely broken up;* its head was covered with yellow pollen, out of a flower resembling the mallow, which is frequently resorted to by small beetles during the heat of the day, when the petal closing over them they are extracted, with some difficulty, by the bird. The other specimen was a brown grain-feeding kind; it invariably rested on the ground, where in its habits, head erect, tail down, and short, sudden run, it greatly resembled a t.i.t-lark.

(*Footnote. Usually observed in the specimens of this species procured by Dr. Bynoe.)

At daylight on the 14th we continued our exploration from the spot where we visited the sh.o.r.e, marked on the chart as Red Hill; and found that the coast trended West by South to the part fronting the Amphinome Shoals, and that instead of the continued sandy beach were occasional low rocky projections. Eleven miles from Red Hill, a detached rocky ledge extended two miles from the sh.o.r.e, and at the end of twenty, commenced a line of low red sandstone cliffs five miles in extent. Here we, for the first time, saw native fires; and the country was evidently higher.

SOLITARY ISLAND.

October 15.

In the evening the ship was anch.o.r.ed five miles from a small island, bearing South-South-East, which we found to be in lat.i.tude 19 degrees 55 minutes South, longitude 120 degrees 55 minutes East; and which, from its lonely situation, was named Solitary Island. Six and nine miles North by East from it we had crossed several lines of ripplings and shoal patches of 4 and 5 fathoms. On visiting it next morning (16th) it was found to be of red sandstone formation, thirty feet high, and devoid of vegetation.

Although lying a mile from the sh.o.r.e it is connected at low-water by a flat of sand. From its summit the view of the interior presented a slight change. At the distance of six miles there was a bank or rise in the country having rather a fertile aspect, above a hundred feet high, trending South-West with dense woodland intervening.

On the same afternoon the ship was moved fourteen miles further on. The many patches of ripplings we now saw in every direction westward, a.s.sured us that the Amphinome Shoals were close at hand; on patches one and two miles west and south of the ship there was only six and nine feet.

VISIT THE Sh.o.r.e.