Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Volume I Part 26

Mr. Roe went on sh.o.r.e soon after anchoring to wait upon the Resident, and to inform him of the purport of our visit: he found that our former friend Mr. Hazaart was at Batavia, and that his place was temporarily supplied by Mr. Halewyn; from whom we experienced such a.s.sistance and attention as enabled us to complete our wood and water and to obtain refreshments for the crew by the eighth day.

November 1 to 9.

The refreshments consisted of sheep, coconuts, limes, bananas, mangoes, and the Jaca fruit. The sheep weighed from twelve to sixteen pounds and were charged at about seven shillings and seven pence each. Limes were very scarce, and oranges, pompions, and other vegetables which were most wanted, were not to be procured at this season. Honey was very plentiful and good and was preferred by our people to the gulah, of which we got large quant.i.ties last year.

The weather during the first three or four days of our stay was fine but afterwards damp and showery with a succession of land winds, which affected us all with colds; so that we lost no time in leaving the bay the moment that our wants were supplied, which was at sunset on the ninth.

From the secretary to the government we obtained information that Captain de Freycinet of the French Corvette L'Uranie had visited Coepang in October last, and remained there fifteen days. L'Uranie was fitting out at Toulon when we left England in 1817 for a voyage round the world, and was expected on her way to touch upon the western coasts of New Holland; but it appeared that the only place which Captain De Freycinet visited was Shark's Bay on the western coast; he remained there a short time for the purpose of swinging his pendulum, and of completing the astronomical observations that had been previously made during Commodore Baudin's voyage. We also heard that the master and four of the crew of the ship Frederick, the wreck of which we had seen at Cape Flinders, had arrived at Coepang in a ship that was in company with her at the time of the accident; but what became of the Frederick's longboat, which left the wreck with twenty-three of the crew, in company with the master's boat, in which were ONLY FOUR OR FIVE people, never afterwards transpired.

November 10.

After leaving Coepang the wind, which freshened up from the East by North, continued steady until the following day, when we were at noon in 10 degrees 36 minutes 47 seconds South, the summit of Savu bearing North 83 degrees West. The wind then fell and veered to South-South-East, but towards evening freshened from South-East and South-East by South.

November 11.

By eight o'clock we steered a South-West course, and pa.s.sed the islands of Savu and Benjoar; the breeze then freshening veered round to the eastward and brought on heavy rain with much thunder and lightning.

November 12 to 14.

After pa.s.sing the meridian of Sandelwood Island, the wind varied between north and south by way of east, often suddenly changing eight or ten, and sometimes thirteen points of the compa.s.s at once.

November 15.

On the 15th we were at noon in lat.i.tude 15 degrees 14 minutes 7 seconds and longitude 115 degrees 2 minutes when the wind changed to West-North-West and cleared up the weather: it then gradually veered round by South-West and South-South-West to the south-east trade.

November 21.

At noon on the 21st we had reached the lat.i.tude a.s.signed to the Tryal Rocks by the Dutch sloop, namely, 19 degrees 32 minutes 30 seconds; our longitude was 108 degrees 8 minutes 36 seconds. Other accounts place these rocks in 20 degrees 50 minutes; we therefore stood on with caution, for the wind and the currents to the North-West were too strong for us to lie to with safety for the night.

November 22.

At two a.m. being in lat.i.tude 20 degrees 41 minutes 14 seconds and longitude 107 degrees 11 minutes 36 seconds we sounded without success with ninety fathoms of line, and at four o'clock, having ran seven miles on a South-West by South course, had no bottom with ninety-five fathoms: at noon our lat.i.tude was 21 degrees 23 minutes 24 seconds, and longitude 106 degrees 41 minutes, when no bottom was reached with eighty fathoms.

The wind continued with little variation between South-East by South and South-East by East until we reached the lat.i.tude of 27 1/2 degrees and 102 degrees 20 minutes East; here we had light southerly winds for two days after which the South-East winds carried us as far as 32 degrees South and 99 degrees 45 minutes East; between this and 34 degrees South we had variable light airs from East-South-East to South-South-West.

Afterwards alternate northerly and southerly winds, with fine weather and top-gallant breezes, carried us as far as lat.i.tude 38 degrees and longitude 117 1/2 degrees. From this we ran along the south coast of New Holland, with strong gales between South-South-West and West; but on approaching Ba.s.s Strait the winds hung to the southward, and veering afterwards to South-East we were driven to the northward.

1819. December 24.

On the 24th December at eight p.m. we made the land between Cape Northumberland and Cape Buffon.

December 27.

But from light baffling winds had advanced no farther by noon (27th) than four or five miles South-South-West of Lady Julia Percy's Isle. This island is incorrectly laid down in Captain Flinders' chart, owing to the very unfavourable weather which he experienced in pa.s.sing this part of the coast; we found it to lie East 3 degrees South (true) seventeen miles and a half from Lawrence Island: a second island has a place in Captain Flinders' chart, but we saw nothing of it. The coast also lies farther back in proportion to the error of the island's position.

1820. January 2.

At four o'clock p.m. 2nd January we entered Ba.s.s Strait by the channel on the north side of King's Island.

January 12.

After pa.s.sing through the strait we experienced so much bad weather and contrary gales of wind that we did not arrive at Port Jackson until the morning of the 12th, having been absent thirty-five weeks and four days.

The result of our proceedings during this voyage has been the survey of 540 miles of the northern coast, in addition to the 500 that were previously examined. Besides which we had made a running survey of that portion of the intertropical part of the east coast that is situated between the Percy Isles and Torres Strait; a distance of 900 miles; the detailed survey of which had never before been made, for Captain Cook merely examined it in a cursory manner as he pa.s.sed up the coast. The opportunity, therefore, was not lost of making such observations on our voyage as enabled me to present to the public a route towards Torres Strait infinitely preferable on every account to the dangerous navigation without the reefs, which has. .h.i.therto been chiefly used.

As it was not intended that I should make the survey of this extensive tract of coast I did not feel myself authorized to examine in any very detailed way the bottom of every bay or opening that presented itself; but merely confined myself to laying down the vessel's track and the positions of various reefs that were strewed on either side of it; and also to fixing the situations of the head-lands. In doing this enough has been effected to serve as the precursor of a more particular examination of the coast, the appearance of which, from its general fertile and mountainous character, made me regret the necessity of pa.s.sing so hastily over it.

CHAPTER 9.

Equipment for the third voyage.

Leave Port Jackson.

Loss of bowsprit, and return.

Observations upon the present state of the colony, as regarding the effect of floods upon the River Hawkesbury.

Re-equipment and final departure.

Visit Port Bowen.

Cutter thrown upon a sandbank.

Interview with the natives, and description of the country about Cape Clinton.

Leave Port Bowen.

Pa.s.s through the Northumberland, and round the c.u.mberland Islands.

Anchor at Endeavour River.

Summary of observations taken there.

Visit from the natives.

Vocabulary of their language.

Observations thereon in comparing it with Captain Cook's account.

Mr. Cunningham visits Mount Cook.

Leave Endeavour River, and visit Lizard Island.

Cape Flinders and Pelican Island.

Entangled in the reefs.

Haggerston's Island, Sunday Island, and Cairncross Island.

Cutter springs a leak.

Pa.s.s round Cape York.

Endeavour Strait.

Anchor under b.o.o.by Island.

Remarks upon the Inner and Outer routes through Torres Strait.

1820. June 21.

In preparing our little vessel for a third voyage, it became requisite to give her a considerable repair; and among many other things there was an absolute necessity for her being fresh coppered; but from the pretended scarcity of copper sheathing in the colony and other circ.u.mstances that opposed the measure, we found more than a common difficulty in effecting it. The cutter was careened at a place appointed for the purpose on the east side of Sydney Cove; and whilst undergoing her repair the crew lived on board a hulk hired for the occasion. This offered so favourable an opportunity for destroying the rats and c.o.c.kroaches with which she was completely overrun, a measure that, from the experience of our last voyage, was considered absolutely necessary for our comfort as well as for our personal safety, that, as soon as the operation of coppering and caulking was finished, she was secured alongside of the hulk, and there immersed in the water for several days, by which process we hoped effectually to destroy them.

Upon the vessel being raised and the water pumped out, I was rejoiced to find that the measure appeared to have had the desired effect; but, before we left Port Jackson, she was again infested by rats, and we had not been long at sea before the c.o.c.kroaches also made their appearance in great numbers. In sinking the cutter it seemed, in respect to the insects, that we had only succeeded in destroying the living stock, and that the eggs, which were plentifully deposited in the recesses and cracks of the timbers and sides, proved so impervious to the sea-water, that no sooner had we reached the warmer climate, than they were hatched, and the vessel was quickly repossessed by them; but it was many months before we were so annoyed by their numbers as had been the case during the last voyage.

Our crew, after they had returned the stores and fitted the standing rigging, were paid their wages; when, with only two exceptions, they were at their own wish discharged, and it was some time before a new crew was collected. Whilst we were repairing the defects, H.M. store-ship Dromedary arrived from England and brought us a selection of stores, for the want of which we should otherwise have been detained many months.

By this ship orders were received from the Admiralty to rig the cutter with rope manufactured from the New Zealand hemp (Phormium tenax) but there was a considerable difficulty in procuring enough even for a boom-sheet. This specimen was prepared by a rope-maker of the colony, and the result of the trial has fully justified the good opinion previously formed of its valuable qualities.

In my communication to the Admiralty in June, 1818 from Timor, I had mentioned the necessity of a medical man being attached to the vessel; and upon my last return I found one had arrived with an appointment to the Mermaid; but, to my great mortification, he was unable to join, from being afflicted with mental derangement which continued so long and so severely that I was under the necessity of sending him back to England.

We had now every prospect of encountering a third voyage without the a.s.sistance of a surgeon. Hitherto we had been fortunate in not having materially suffered from the want of so valuable an officer; but it was scarcely probable we could expect to continue upon such a service much longer without severe sickness. As any a.s.sistance therefore was preferable to none, I accepted the proffered services of a young man who was strongly recommended by his Excellency the Governor, and he was on the point of joining me, when a surgeon of the navy, Mr. James Hunter, who had just arrived in charge of a convict ship, volunteered his services which were gladly accepted, and he was immediately attached to the Mermaid's establishment.