Discoveries in Australia Volume II Part 39

TIDES.

We found the best anchorage to be a quarter of a mile off the south point of a sandy bay, near the outer end of the island. During the time we lay here for the purpose of obtaining a series of tidal observations,* and verifying a few of the princ.i.p.al points of Messrs. Forsyth and Pasco's survey, constant strong westerly gales prevailed; and from all the local information obtained it appeared that such was generally the case.

(*Footnote. The result of these observations makes the time of high-water at the full and change of the moon 9 hours 36 minutes when the rise of the tide is six feet and three at neaps. The flood-stream comes from the eastward; and both it and the ebb is of 6 hours 15 minutes duration at springs; but during neaps the flood runs 7 hours 0 minutes and the ebb 5 hours 30 minutes. The interval of slack-water never exceeded a quarter of an hour, and the western stream begins 0 hours 30 minutes after low-water at springs, and 0 hours 50 minutes after it at neaps; whilst the eastern begins 0 hours 40 minutes after high-water at springs, and 0 hours 10 minutes before it at neaps. The velocity of the stream was from one to three knots, the strongest being the ebb, which at springs and with a strong westerly breeze attains a strength in the middle of the strait of nearly four knots, and causes, when opposed to the wind, a high-topping sea, dangerous for small craft.

Whilst in other respects the tides are the same, the time of high-water at Preservation Island, though only at the northern side of the strait, is 1 hour 15 minutes later than at Swan Island. This great difference is caused by the influence of the flood-stream out of Franklin Channel and from the northward along the west side of Flinders Island. The flood-streams setting to the westward through Banks Strait, and to the south-westward past the north-west end of Flinders, meet about ten miles to the westward of the Chappell Isles, when their united stream curves round by south to west, becoming gradually weaker, and soon after pa.s.sing the mouth of the Tamar ceasing to be felt at all, leaving in the middle of Ba.s.s Strait a large s.p.a.ce free from tidal influence as far as the production of progressive motion is concerned, that given to it from the entrances being neutralized by their mutual opposition. There is, however, an easterly current of nearly a knot an hour, in strong westerly winds. The meeting of the tides on the west side of Flinders also leaves a s.p.a.ce, close to the sh.o.r.e near the centre, free from any stream. At the eastern entrance of Franklin Channel there is also a meeting of the flood-streams, one coming from North-North-East and the other from South-East.)

Whilst at this anchorage two boats belonging to the whaling station on Wilson's Promontory pa.s.sed on their way to Hobart, which they reached in safety. They made the pa.s.sage, hazardous for boats, across the strait by touching at Hogan and Kent Groups and so over to Flinders Island.

CAPE PORTLAND.

Leaving, we beat through between Swan Islands and the main, which we found to be a good channel,* a mile and a half wide, with an average depth of ten fathoms. After pa.s.sing the western islet the south side of the strait should be given a wide berth, particularly on approaching Cape Portland, off which some islets with foul ground and a sunken rock at their extreme, extend two miles and a half. The summit of Swan Island, bears South 75 degrees East and Mount Cameron South 2 degrees East from the outer edge of this danger; which masters of vessels should remember, both in reaching to the southward in the strait, and in running for it from the westward.

(*Footnote. Mount William bearing South 40 degrees East leads into the western entrance.)

PRESERVATION ISLAND.

Crossing Banks Strait we anch.o.r.ed under Preservation Island, lying between the western extreme of Clarke and Barren Islands; it owes its name to the preservation of the crew of a ship run ash.o.r.e upon it in a sinking state. The value of the shelter this anchorage affords is in some measure destroyed by the presence of a sandbank extending off three miles from the eastern side of Preservation Island. Two small rocky islets lie a mile and a half off the western side of the latter, and several ugly rocks are scattered along the face of Barren Island, and as far as Chappell Group; on the outer isle of this group, which is low and level, the lighthouse bearing North 60 degrees West fifteen miles and a half forms a very conspicuous object, and is visible to the eye in clear weather from the top of Preservation Island. Over the northern point of the latter, towers the summit of Barren Island, forming a sort of double mount 2300 feet high.

STRAITSMEN.

I found Preservation Island inhabited by an old sealer of the name of James Monro, generally known as the King of the Eastern Straitsmen.

Another man and three or four native women completed the settlement, if such a term may be applied. They lived in a few rude huts on a bleak flat, with scarce a tree near, but sheltered from the west by some low granite hills; a number of dogs, goats and fowls const.i.tuted their livestock. In this desolate place Monro had been for upwards of twenty-three years; and many others have lived in similar situations an equally long period. It is astonishing what a charm such a wild mode of existence possesses for these men, whom no consideration could induce to abandon their free, though laborious and somewhat lawless state.

The term sealers is no longer so appropriate as it was formerly; none of them confining themselves to sealing, in consequence of the increasing scarcity of the object of their original pursuit. Straitsmen is the name by which those who inhabit the eastern and western entrance of Ba.s.s Strait are known; they cla.s.s themselves into Eastern and Western Straitsmen, and give the following account of their origin: Between the years 1800 and 1805, the islands in Ba.s.s Strait and those fronting the south coast of Australia, as far westward as the Gulfs of St. Vincent and Spencer were frequented by sealing vessels from the old and the new country, if I may use this expression for England and Australia. Many of their crews became so attached to the islands they were in the habit of visiting, that when their vessels were about to leave the neighbourhood, they preferred to remain, taking with them a boat and other stores as payment for their work. There can be no doubt, however, that their numbers were afterwards recruited by runaway convicts.

NATIVE WIVES.

On one island reside seldom more than two families. The latter word will at once satisfy the reader that these people were not deprived of the pleasures of female companionship: man was never born to be satisfied with his own society; and the Straitsmen of course found beauties suitable to their taste in the natives of the sh.o.r.es* of Ba.s.s Strait. It appears that a party of them were sealing St. George's Rocks when a tribe came down on the main opposite and made a signal for them to approach.

They went, taking with them the carca.s.ses of two or three seals, for which the natives gave as many women. These, perhaps, were glad of the change, as the aborigines of Tasmania often treat them shamefully. The sealers took their new-bought sweethearts to an island in Banks Strait, and there left them to go on another sealing excursion. Returning one day, they were surprised to find their huts well supplied with wallaby by the native women. Interest cemented a love that might otherwise have been but temporary. Visions of fortunes acc.u.mulated by the sale of wallaby skins flashed across the minds of the sealers; who, however, to their credit be it spoken, generally treated their savage spouses with anything but unkindness; though in some instances the contrary was the case. It must be confessed, at the same time, that having once discovered the utility of the native women, they did not confine themselves to obtaining them by the lawful way of barter; making excursions, princ.i.p.ally to the sh.o.r.es of Australia, for the express purpose of obtaining by violence or stealth such valuable partners.

(*Footnote. The islands were never inhabited by the aborigines until the remnant of the original population of Tasmania was sent by government to Flinders.)

HALF-CASTE CHILDREN.

Thus commenced a population likely to be of great service to shipping, particularly as they make excellent sailors, and excel as headsmen in whalers, where the keenness of their half-savage eyes, and their dexterity in throwing the spear, render them most formidable harpooners.

The young half-castes I saw were very interesting, having a ruddy dark complexion, with fine eyes and teeth. On Preservation, and the islands in the neighbourhood, there were twenty-five children; among whom were some fine-looking boys. Had the survey just been commenced I should have taken one of them in the Beagle. Their fathers, I am happy to say, give them all the instruction in their power: many can read the Bible, and a few write.

The common native belief in the transmigration of souls did not extend, I was glad to find, beyond the mothers, whom nothing could induce to think otherwise. When we were at Preservation Island, there was a young woman on her way, in company with her father, to Port Dalrymple, to be married to a European; and I afterwards learned from the clergyman there, that he had not for some time seen a young person who appeared to be so well aware of the solemn vow she was making.

MUTTON BIRDS.

The princ.i.p.al trade of the Straitsmen is in the feathers of mutton birds (Sooty Petrels) which annually visit the islands, between the 15th and 20th of November, for the purposes of incubation. Each bird lays only two eggs, about the size of that of a goose, and almost as good in flavour.

The male sits by day and the female by night, each going to sea in turn to feed. As soon as the young take wing they leave the islands. Their nests are two or three feet underground, and so close that it is scarcely possible to walk without falling. The collection of the eggs and birds, which is the business of the women, is frequently attended with great risk, as venomous snakes are often found in the holes. When the sealers wish to catch them in large quant.i.ties they build a hedge a little above the beach, sometimes half a mile in length. Towards daylight, when the birds are about to put to sea, the men station themselves at the extremities, and their prey, not being able to take flight off the ground, run down towards the water until obstructed by the hedge, when they are driven towards the centre, where a hole about five feet deep is prepared to receive them; in this they effectually smother each other.

The birds are then plucked and their carca.s.ses generally thrown in a heap to waste, whilst the feathers are pressed in bags and taken to Launceston for sale.* The feathers of twenty birds weigh one pound; and the cargoes of two boats I saw, consisted of thirty bags, each weighing nearly thirty pounds--the spoil of eighteen thousand birds! I may add, that unless great pains are taken in curing, the smell will always prevent a bed made of them from being mistaken for one composed of the Orkney goose feathers. Some of the birds are preserved by smoking, and form the princ.i.p.al food of the Straitsmen, resembling mutton, according to their taste, though none of us could perceive the similarity.

(*Footnote. They now fetch 3 pence a pound; formerly the price was 1 shilling.)

PRODUCE OF ISLANDS.

The habitations of these people are generally slab and plaster, of very rude and uninviting exterior, but tolerably clean and comfortable within.

They generally take what they may have for the market to Launceston twice in the year, lay in stores for the next six months, and return home, never, I believe, bringing back any spirits, so that while on the islands, they lead, from necessity, a temperate life.

It is sometimes in the power of these men to be of infinite service to vessels who are strangers in the strait, when driven into difficulties by westerly gales. Portions of the islands on which they reside are brought into cultivation; but at Gun Carriage they complain of their crops having been very backward since they were disturbed by the natives, with Mr.

Robinson, as they destroyed with fire all the shelter that was afforded.

The water throughout the islands is not always very good; grain, however, thrives tolerably, and potatoes do very well indeed. The latter are taken, with peas and other garden produce, to Port Dalrymple. This is an evident proof of what these islands are capable of producing, and is worthy the attention of Government, in case the idea, which I have suggested, is entertained, of sending convicts thither from Tasmania.

WATERHOUSE ISLAND.

Taking advantage of a very unexpected breeze from the eastward we left Preservation Island for Port Dalrymple, which was made after a night's run, on the morning of the 26th November. Eighteen miles from the entrance of Banks Strait, and as far as abreast of Waterhouse Island,*

and nine miles from it, we had soundings of from 18 to 20 fathoms; afterwards the depth was 30 and 40; whilst in the fairway nine miles from the opposite entrance of the Strait we had 37.

(*Footnote. This island lies about a mile and a half from the main, and affords shelter for ships in westerly winds. They should anchor in 6 fathoms, midway in a line between the north points of the island and of the bay lying to the south-east. This anchorage being not so far to leeward as those on the western side of Flinders, is the best place of refuge for strangers arriving in a westerly gale off Port Dalrymple, where, as they can get no a.s.sistance from the pilots, they may not like to run in, on account of its treacherous appearance. Tenth Island (a mere white rock) and Ninth Island, are admirably situated for guiding a ship to Waterhouse; the first, bears North-East 1/2 East, twelve miles from the entrance of Port Dalrymple; the course from it to Ninth Island (which should be pa.s.sed on the outside) is North 52 degrees East, fourteen miles; and from Ninth Island to Waterhouse, North 69 degrees East, seventeen miles. The latter islands are very much alike in the distance, being both rather low, with cliffy faces to the westward, and sloping away in the opposite direction. Mount Cameron, bearing South 61 degrees East, is also a distant guide for Waterhouse Island. The great advantage of running for this place, instead of for an anchorage on the western side of Flinders, is that, in the event of missing it, Banks Strait will be open to run through; and should the Anchorage under Swan Island not be tried, shelter will be found in about 15 fathoms under the main to the southward.)

MR. FORSYTH.

Mr. Forsyth, in the Vansittart, had again preceded our arrival in the river Tamar by a few days. His visit to the west coast had been attended with considerable risk.* Still, with his usual zeal, he had not lost sight of the important branch of the service in which he was employed, and had made a survey of Port Davy and the coast to the South-west Cape, which completed our chart of the south-western sh.o.r.es of Tasmania.

(*Footnote. Mr. Forsyth entered and examined Macquarie Harbour in his boat, and found on an island, in the head of it, two men in a state of starvation. These he took with him and returned to the mouth of the harbour; but a gale of wind having set in in the meantime, the Vansittart had sought shelter in Port Davy, lying ninety miles to the southward. Day after day pa.s.sed away without any sign of the cutter. The increase of two, requiring much more than could be afforded, to their small party, soon consumed their stock of provisions, sparingly dealt out; so that, to preserve the lives of his party, Mr. Forsyth was obliged to risk a boat-pa.s.sage, in the depth of winter, and along a storm-beaten coast, to Port Davy, which he most providentially reached in safety; though, at one time, in spite of the precaution taken to raise the gunwale by strips of blanket, the sea was so great that they expected each moment would be their last.)

The coast on either side of the Tamar still remained to be surveyed, and accordingly I undertook the examination of that to the eastward, whilst Mr. Fitzmaurice, although even now scarcely convalescent, proceeded to the westward.

DESCRIPTION OF COAST.

Without entering into details, I may briefly say, that to the eastward the coast trended North 62 degrees East to Cape Portland, distant fifty-eight miles; and that at the distance of eight, eighteen, twenty-nine, forty-eight, and fifty-three miles, the rivers Currie, Piper, Forestier, Tomahawk, and Ringarooma, empty themselves into wide bays, which increase in depth as they advance eastwards. That formed by the point opposite Waterhouse Island and Cape Portland,* which receives the two last-mentioned rivers, and bears the name of the larger Ringarooma Bay, is seven miles deep and fifteen miles wide. Mount Cameron lies behind the head of it, where there is a vast extent of boggy land; this is also the case in the next bay to the westward, Anderson Bay, which receives the waters of the Forestier River.** The only good soil seen was on the large Piper River, so that the disproportion of land fit for cultivation on this part of the northern sh.o.r.e of Tasmania, with that which is not, is very great. Behind the coast the eye wanders over interminable woody ranges of various heights, thrown together in irregular groups, called by the colonists Tiers. They are seldom separated by valleys of any width, but rather by gullies, and are generally covered with an impervious scrub. The most conspicuous points, in addition to Mount Cameron, are Mounts Barrow and Arthur, two peaks about 4,500 feet high, very much alike, and lying nine miles in a north-west direction from each other. Mount Barrow bears, from Launceston, East-North-East, thirteen miles.

(*Footnote. Small vessels anchor behind an island on the west side of this cape, to take away the wool from the sheep-stations in the neighbourhood. The rivers mentioned in the text are only navigable for boats, and by them only at high-water.)

(**Footnote. A small bay, with some outlying rocks off its points, bearing South-South-East, seven miles from Ninth Island, affords shelter for small vessels in its north-west corner. The pa.s.sage inside that island should be used with caution.)

DON TOMAS.

At the large Piper River I pa.s.sed a night at the station of a gentleman of the name of Noland, whom I found to be the nephew of a person of remarkable talent and great influence with the Peruvian Government, known only, at Lima, by the name of Don Tomas. There was a good deal of mystery about his character and position, n.o.body being able to explain who he was, whence he came, or what was the source of his influence; and it was rather a curious circ.u.mstance that I should learn the explanation of what had so much puzzled me in South America, at a solitary sheep-station in Van Diemen's Land.

Shortly before we crossed the Great Piper River a party of convicts had run away with a fishing boat. Although only three in number they made the fishermen take them to Banks Strait, where they forced a party of sealers to pa.s.s them over to Wilson's Promontory. Notwithstanding they were several weeks on the pa.s.sage, waiting for fine weather at the different islands (the sealers, too, being twice their number) such was their vigilance that they never allowed them a chance of escape. These men were afterwards seen near Sydney.

CONVICTS' STORY.

The most remarkable coast-feature, between Waterhouse Island and the Tamar, is Stony Head, a bluff three hundred feet high,* lying twelve miles from Port Dalrymple. A small sandy bay separates it from a point to the westward, and it is the nearest part of the main to Tenth Island. In the neighbourhood of this headland I was induced to enter a hut at a sheep-station, by seeing stuck round a fence a number of the heads of an animal called by the colonists a hyena, from the resemblance it bears in shape and colour, though not in ferocity, to that beast.** My object was to obtain a few of these heads, which the hut-keeper, who was the only inmate, instantly gave, along with an unsolicited history of his own life. In the early part we instantly discovered that this loquacious personage was, what he afterwards mildly confessed to be, a government man, in other words a convict, sent out of course, according to the usual story, through mistake. It appears that he had been a drover, and that a few beasts were one morning found (quite by accident) among a herd he was driving through the West of England. He had spent the early part of his servitude at Circular Head, where he was for some time in charge of the native woman caught stealing flour at a shepherd's hut, belonging to the Van Diemen's Land Agricultural Company--a fact mentioned in a former chapter.***

(*Footnote. Of basaltic formation; whilst the rocks that prevail to the eastward are of primary character. But as Strzelecki has written so largely on the geology of Tasmania, it will be needless for me to enter further into the subject, except to say, that the raised beaches found on the western side of Flinders, are evidences of an upheaval having recently taken place.)

(**Footnote. This is the only animal the Tasmanian sheep-farmer is annoyed with; and from its paucity, they have not, as in New South Wales, the trouble of securing their flocks in yards or folds every night.)

(***Footnote. See Volume 1.)

INHUMAN CONDUCT.

I was curious to know how he managed to procure the obedience of this aboriginal victim; and the inhuman wretch confessed, without a blush--which must rise instead to the cheeks of my readers, when they hear of what barbarities their countrymen have been guilty--that he kept the poor creature chained up like a wild beast; and whenever he wanted her to do anything, applied a burning stick, a fire-brand s.n.a.t.c.hed from the hearth, to her skin! This was enough. I could listen to no more, and hurried from the spot, leaving my brutal informant to guess at the cause of my abrupt departure. It is possible that the emotion I allowed to appear may have introduced some glimmering of the truth into his mind, that he may have faintly perceived how disgusted I was with his narrative; but such is the perversion of feeling among a portion of the colonists, that they cannot conceive how anyone can sympathize with the black race as their fellow men. In theory and practice they regard them as wild beasts whom it is lawful to extirpate. There are of course honourable exceptions, although such is a very common sentiment. As an instance, I may mention that a friend of mine, who was once travelling in Tasmania, with two natives of Australia, was asked, by almost everyone, where he had CAUGHT them? This expression will enable the reader better to appreciate the true state of the case than many instances of ferocity I could enumerate. It shows that the natives occupy a wrong position in the minds of the whites; and that a radical defect exists in their original conception of their character, and of the mode in which they ought to be treated.