Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Volume I Part 17

At daylight the following morning I was much surprised by being told that five canoes were paddling off to the cutter, four of which only held each one native, but the fifth being rather larger contained two.

On approaching the cutter they laid off until invited to come alongside; when they approached without the least alarm or hesitation, and made signs for something to eat; some biscuit was given to them which they ate and, unlike all other Australian savages, appeared to relish its taste.

Some little persuasion was necessary to induce them to venture on board; but as soon as one mounted the ladder the others followed. Their astonishment was considerably excited at everything that they saw, particularly at our poultry and live stock. Fishing hooks and lines were gladly received by them; and in return they gave us their baskets and turtle pegs; they remained with us for half an hour; upon leaving the vessel they pointed out their huts and invited us by signs to return their visit.

As soon as they had left us Mr. Bedwell and Mr. Cunningham went to the islet off the west end of Goold Island, and on their way met two other canoes, containing three men, coming to the cutter from another part of the bay; after a short communication with our party they paid us the intended visit, and were soon induced to come on board, where they remained for half an hour without betraying the least fear or anxiety for their safety: before they took their leave we had clothed them with some damaged slops; and in order to give each something, the feet of a pair of worsted stockings were cut off to make socks for one, whilst the legs were placed on another's arms; a leathern cap was given to each of them, and thus accoutred, and making a most ridiculous appearance, they left us, highly delighted with themselves and with the reception they had met with.

As soon as they reached a little distance they began to divest themselves of their attire, and we had much amus.e.m.e.nt in witnessing the difficulty under which the wearer of a shirt laboured to get it off.

Their canoes were not more than five feet long, and generally too small for two people; two small strips of bark, five or six inches square, serves the double purpose of paddling and for baling the water out, which they are constantly obliged to do to prevent their canoe from sinking; in shoal water the paddles are superseded by a pole, by which this fragile bark is propelled. We endeavoured to persuade them to bring off some spears to barter, for they had no weapon of any description with them, but they evidently would not understand our meaning. In the evening our gentlemen proceeded to return these visits, at the spot which was pointed out by our morning guests: on landing they were met by the natives and conducted to their huts, where they saw the whole of the male part of this tribe, which consisted of fifteen, of whom two were old and decrepit, and one of these was reduced to a perfect skeleton by ulcerated sores on his legs that had eaten away the flesh and left large portions of the bone bare; and this miserable object was wasting away without any application or covering to his sores.

No teeth were deficient in their jaws; all had the septum narium perforated, but without wearing any appendage in it. The only ornament they appeared to possess was a bracelet of plaited hair, worn round the upper arm. An open wicker basket, neatly and even tastefully made of strips of the Flagellaria indica, was obtained from one of them by Mr.

Roe, in which they carry their food and fishing lines; besides which each native has his gourd, the fruit of the Cucurbita lagenaria, which grows plentifully on all parts of the beach, and furnishes a very useful vessel to these simple savages for the purpose of carrying water.

At the north-east end of the sandy beach a fine stream was noticed, from which water might with facility be obtained. Near this stream Mr.

Cunningham observed several of their ovens, similar to those used by the natives of Taheite. A circular hole is dug, at the bottom of which is placed a layer of flat stones, on which, after they have been heated by fire, the meat is placed; this is covered by another layer of stones, and over them they make a fire which very soon cooks their repast. In short, the natives of this bay seem to be much more ingenious and to understand better what is useful than the generality of their countrymen.*

(*Footnote. Lieutenant Jeffreys, of the Kangaroo, armed transport, on his pa.s.sage to Ceylon in 1815 communicated with these natives; they came on board his vessel and conducted themselves in an amicable manner towards him.)

June 21.

The next morning we left Rockingham Bay; and steering to the northward pa.s.sed within the three easternmost of the Family Islands, as the Endeavour did, and landed on the north-easternmost of the group, where the lat.i.tude was found to be 18 degrees 2 minutes 9 seconds. This island, like the rest, is of small extent, and is surrounded by huge detached rounded blocks of granite, over which it was not easy to pa.s.s. It rises to a peaked summit of a moderate height, but the face of the hill is so thickly covered with underwood and climbing plants as to render it perfectly inaccessible.

Dunk Island, a little to the northward, is larger and higher, and is remarkable for its double-peaked summit. No natives were seen in pa.s.sing these islands, but the smoke of their fires, as usual, lined the coast, which here began to a.s.sume a more improved and favourable appearance: the sh.o.r.e is diversified by projecting wooded hills and intervening sandy bays; and, at the back, the hills are very high and separated from each other by deep valleys, where there must be abundance of water and probably good soil.

In the evening the anchor was dropped to the eastward of the two southernmost islands of a group which was named after my friend Edward Barnard, Esquire. We were followed all the afternoon by a large hump-backed whale, a fish which appears to be numerous on all parts of this coast within the reefs. The wind blew so fresh during the night that having only the stream anchor down it had imperceptibly dragged through the mud for nearly a mile to the north-west.

June 22.

At daylight we got under sail but the weather had clouded in and bore a very unsettled appearance. After steering outside the easternmost island of Barnard's Group we pa.s.sed Double Point; two miles north of which a small opening was seen trending in to the south-west. Between Double Point and Frankland Islands Captain Cook did not see the coast, having pa.s.sed it during the night; we therefore traced it with some care, but found nothing worth particular notice, being a continuity of sandy bays formed by projecting heads, in some of which natives were observed walking.

At 11 hours 30 minutes a.m. we pa.s.sed Point Cooper. The summit of the back hills (which were named by Mr. Cunningham's desire after John b.e.l.l.e.n.den Ker, Esquire) now began to be enveloped in clouds, and the wind to increase; and no meridional alt.i.tude was obtained, from the unfortunate state of the weather. At one o'clock we pa.s.sed between Frankland's largest Island and a group of four smaller ones which are connected together by a surrounding rocky reef. At four o'clock we anch.o.r.ed in a bay on the north-west side of Fitzroy Island, at four miles from the sh.o.r.e, in eleven and a half fathoms' mud, where we found complete shelter from the wind which now blew a fresh gale from south-east.

June 23.

The weather continued so unfavourable all the following day that we remained at the anchorage, and made our stay profitable by filling our water-casks from a hollow at the back of the beach, which is composed entirely of coral that has been washed up by the surf. The coral was of various kinds, but a beautiful specimen of Porites clavaria was obtained by one of our people who dived for it in two fathoms' water, within a few yards of the sh.o.r.e. In many parts the coral had been consolidated into large ma.s.ses of solid rock.

Tracks of natives were seen in many parts of the island; and their beaten paths were noticed leading from the beach to all parts of it; but it did not appear that it was inhabited during our visit. This delay gave Mr.

Cunningham a good opportunity of increasing his botanical collection.

Among the various trees which grow upon this island he found a nutmeg tree (Myristica cimicifera), two species of olive (Olea paniculata and Notoloea punctata), and three palms, namely the Corypha australis or large fan palm, the Seaforthia elegans, and another, remarkable for its p.r.i.c.kly leaves. We also found and procured seeds of Sophora tomentosa, and a plant of the natural order scitamineae, h.e.l.lenia coerulea, Brown: two parasitical plants of orchideae were found growing upon the bark of trees in the shady place near our watering-place; one was Dendrobium caniculatum, Brown; the other was also subsequently found at Cape Grafton and is not yet described; it has oblong, three-nerved, thick and leathery leaves; we saw no quadrupeds and but very few birds.

June 24.

On the 24th we left Fitzroy Island and, steering round Cape Grafton, hauled in towards the centre of Trinity Bay. To the west of Cape Grafton an opening was observed in the beach that bore every appearance of being the mouth of a rivulet, from the broken and irregular form of the hills behind it.

At noon our lat.i.tude was 16 degrees 28 minutes 48 seconds, and three small islands were in sight ahead, which we pa.s.sed to seaward of. They are laid down by Captain Cook as one island, whereas they are distinctly three, but all connected by a reef which was covered when we pa.s.sed. At 2 hours 30 minutes p.m. we anch.o.r.ed under Snapper Island (so called by Lieutenant Jeffreys), but found the anchorage more open than had been expected.

Snapper Island is high and covered with a thick impenetrable ma.s.s of underwood, but no fresh water was found. The ashes of a fireplace, strewed around with broken sh.e.l.ls, was the only trace seen of natives.

The beach, like that of Fitzroy Island, is composed of dead coral and is fronted by rocks.

June 25.

We left this anchorage the next morning with a fresh breeze of wind from south-east; as we steered round Cape Tribulation the sea ran so heavy that our boat, which was towed astern, filled and overset, and in a moment went to pieces. The wind had now increased to a gale, and the weather threatened so much that we were induced to take advantage of a bight to the northward of the Cape, in which we anch.o.r.ed at three quarters of a mile from the mouth of a rivulet, the entrance of which was blocked up by a ridge of rocks on which the water rippled; we were here tolerably well sheltered by high land from the wind, and the water was quite smooth.

June 26.

On the following day, the weather continued so unfavourable that we remained at the anchorage, and Mr. Bedwell was sent to examine the opening, which was called Blomfield's Rivulet. On his return he reported the bar to be too shoal to admit an entrance to vessels of greater draught than four feet, but that having pa.s.sed it, the inlet runs up a considerable distance, with soundings from three to four fathoms.

Near the entrance upon the bank of the inlet several huts were noticed, and near them Mr. Bedwell found a canoe; which, being hollowed out of the trunk of a tree, was of very different construction to any we had before seen; its length was twenty-one feet, but its greatest breadth in the bilge did not exceed fifteen inches, whilst at the gunwale the opening was only from six to eight and a half inches wide; an outrigger, projecting about two feet, was neatly attached to one side, which prevented its liability to overset, and at each end was a projection, from fifteen to twenty inches long, on which the natives carry their fire, or sit; nothing was found in the canoe but two paddles and a long pole.

The bay on which we had anch.o.r.ed was called, at first, Shelter Bay; but it was afterwards changed to Weary Bay in consequence of Captain Cook's having given that name to the coast in this vicinity.

The weather was so thick and unsettled during the afternoon, that we did not leave this anchorage until nine o'clock the next morning.

June 27.

When it was found necessary that we should take advantage of the first safe anchorage, where we might remain during the continuance of the bad weather, as well as repair our losses and erect the boat that we had on board in frame, to replace the one we had lately lost; as Endeavour River would afford us the necessary convenience and shelter it was determined that we should visit it, and as its distance from Weary Bay did not exceed ten leagues, there was every reason to expect that we should reach it early enough to enter before dark. At half past ten o'clock we pa.s.sed between the Hope Islands and the Reef, a. The course was then directed for the hills on the south side of the entrance of Endeavour River, the highest of which, a conspicuous peaked hill, received the name of Mount Cook, in memorial of our celebrated navigator, who suffered so much distress and anxiety at this place. The bay south of it was that which he first examined for shelter after his ship had been got off the rocks, but it was found to be shoal and unfit for his purpose.* It was then that Endeavour River was discovered; and there, as is well known, the ship was repaired sufficiently to enable her to proceed to Batavia.

(*Footnote. Hawkesworth volume 3 page 149.)

We arrived off the south head of Endeavour River early in the afternoon, and anch.o.r.ed close to it in three fathoms, with the outer point bearing South-East. The wind was too fresh to examine the bar until the evening, and it was then too late to enter.

June 28.

But early the next morning the cutter was warped in, in doing which she grounded on the north side of the bar in eight feet. As the water was quite smooth, this little delay occasioned no damage, and by twelve o'clock she was secured to the sh.o.r.e, within ten feet of a steep beach on the south side of the entrance; in all probability the very same spot that Captain Cook landed his stores upon forty-nine years ago.

CHAPTER 6.

Transactions at Endeavour River, and intercourse with the Natives.

Examine the River.

Geognostical Remarks.

Leave Endeavour River, and resume the examination of the coast.

Anchor among Howick's Group, and under Flinders' Group.

Explore Princess Charlotte's Bay, and the Islands and Reefs as far as Cape York, anchoring in the way on various parts of the coast.

The cutter nearly wrecked at Escape River.

Loss of anchor under Turtle Island.

Pa.s.s round Cape York and through Torres Strait, by the Investigator's route.

1819. June 28.

As soon as the vessel was secured, the boat's frame was landed, and three of our people commenced its erection. Previously however to this, the precaution was taken of burning the gra.s.s, to avoid a repet.i.tion of the revengeful and mischievous trick which the natives formerly played Captain Cook; for in a fit of rage, at not being allowed to take away some turtles that were lying on the ships' deck, they set fire to the gra.s.s to windward of the tents, by which many stores and sails were consumed.*

(*Footnote. Hawkesworth volume 3 page 177.)

The moment that a few embers from our fireplace were scattered under the roots, the gra.s.s was in a blaze, and the flames rushed along with frightful rapidity and destructive effect. Having thus very soon cleared sufficient s.p.a.ce for our purpose, a sail was suspended between two trees, to shelter the people from the sun at their work upon the boat, the keel of which was laid the same evening. In the afternoon we discovered two streamlets near the tent, from which we obtained our water, and wood was cut close to the beach.

Near the watering-place were some natives' bark-huts and gourds; and two or three baskets, made of the leaf of the cabbage palm, were hanging on the branches of the surrounding bushes. The owners of these implements were not seen, but it was evident they were near at hand, from the recent appearance of their traces; the bones of the kangaroo and scales of fish were strewed about their fireplaces, and close by were ovens similar to those of Goold Island.