Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake Volume I Part 23

WITNESS A NATIVE FIGHT.

About 200 yards from the first camping-place, two groups of strange natives, chiefly men, were a.s.sembled with throwing-sticks in their hands and bundles of spears. While pa.s.sing them they moved along in twos and threes towards the Evans Bay party, the men of which advanced to meet them. The women and children began to make off, but a few remained as spectators on the sands, it being then low water. A great deal of violent gesticulation and shouting took place, the parties became more and more excited, and took up their position in two scattered lines facing each other, extending from the margin of the beach to a little way in the bush, and about twenty-five yards apart. Paida, too, partook of the excitement and could refrain no longer from joining in the fight; he dropped my haversack and bounded away at full speed to his camping-place, where he received his spears from little Purom his son, and quickly made his appearance upon the scene of action.

The two parties were pretty equally matched--about fifteen men in each.

The noise now became deafening; shouts of defiance, insulting expressions, and every kind of abusive epithet were bandied about, and the women and children in the bush kept up a wailing cry all the while rising and falling in cadence. The pantomimic movements were of various descriptions; besides the singular quivering motion given to the thighs placed wide apart (common to all the Australian dances) they frequently invited each other to throw at them, turning the body half round and exposing the breech, or dropping on one knee or hand as if to offer a fair mark. At length a spear was thrown and returned, followed by many others, and the fighting became general, with an occasional pause.

DEXTERITY IN THROWING THE SPEAR.

The precision with which the spears were thrown was not less remarkable than the dexterity which with they were avoided. In nearly every case the person thrown at would, apparently, have been struck had he stood still, but, his keenness of sight enabled him to escape by springing aside as required, variously inclining the body, or sometimes merely lifting up a leg to allow the spear to pa.s.s by, and had two been thrown at one person at the same moment he could scarcely have escaped, but this I observed was never attempted, as it would have been in war, here each individual appeared to have a particular opponent. I had a capital view of the whole of the proceedings, being seated about fifty yards behind and slightly on the flank of one of the two contending parties. One spear thrown higher than usual pa.s.sed within five yards of me, but this I was satisfied was the result of accident, as I had seen it come from Paida's party. Soon afterwards I observed a man at the right extreme of the line next me, who had been dodging round a large scaevola bush for some time back, make a sudden dart at one of the opposite party and chop him down the shoulder with an iron tomahawk. The wounded man fell, and instantly a yell of triumph denoted that the whole matter was at an end.

Paida rejoined me five minutes afterwards, apparently much refreshed by this little excitement, and accompanied me on my walk, still he would not explain the cause of the fight. The wounded man had his arm tied up by one of our people who landed soon afterwards, and, although the cut was both large and deep, he soon recovered.

DISCOVERY OF MEW RIVER.

The frequent excursions of our shooting parties being more extended than during our last visit became the means of adding considerably to our knowledge of the surrounding country. One of the immediate consequences was the discovery of several small streams of fresh water. The princ.i.p.al of these, which we named Mew River (after its first finder, the sergeant of marines on board) has its mouth in a small mangrove creek three quarters of a mile to the eastward of Evans Bay. About five miles further up its source was found to be a spring among rocks in a dense calamus scrub. It waters a fine valley running nearly east and west behind the range of hills to the southward of Evans Bay, and its line is marked by a belt of tangled brush exceeding in luxuriance anything of the same description which I had seen elsewhere. The variety of trees in this dense brush is very great, and many were quite new to me. The Seaforthia palm attained the height of 60 to 80 feet, and the rattan was very abundant, and from the recurved p.r.i.c.kles catching and tearing the clothes, it was often no easy matter to penetrate the thickets. Among the plants along the river the most interesting is an indigenous species of banana or plantain, probably the same as that found at Endeavour River during Cook's first voyage. The fruit is of small size with numerous hard seeds and a small quant.i.ty of delicious pulp; cultivation would, doubtless, wonderfully improve it. Another remarkable plant found on the gra.s.sy borders of the jungle and characteristic of rich damp soil is a beautiful species of Roscoea (?) (one of the Scitamineae or ginger family) about a foot high, with a solitary leaf and large bracteae, the lower green and the upper ones pink, partially concealing handsome yellow flowers. From its succulent nature I failed in preparing specimens for the herbarium, but some roots were preserved and given to the Botanical Garden at Sydney.

THE VALLEY OF THE MEW.

The lower part of the valley is open forest land, or nearly level and thinly wooded country covered with tall coa.r.s.e gra.s.s. Further up it becomes more beautiful. From the belt of wood, concealing the windings of the river, gra.s.sy sloping meadows extend upwards on each side to the flanking ridges which are covered with dense scrub occasionally extending in straggling patches down to the water, and forming a kind of imperfect natural fence. The soil of these meadows is rich sandy loam, affording great apparent facilities for cultivation from their proximity to what is probably a never-failing supply of fresh water. Here, at the end of the dry season, and before the periodical rains had fairly set in, we found the stream at halfway up to be about six feet in average breadth, slowly running over a shallow, gravelly, or earthy bed, with occasional pools from two to four feet in depth.

PROPOSED SETTLEMENT AT CAPE YORK.

I have alluded to this subject at greater length than under ordinary circ.u.mstances I would have done, in the belief that, should a settlement ever be established at Cape York, the strip of good land that runs along the upper part of Mew River may hereafter be turned to good account.

Several other valleys watered by small and apparently permanent streams were discovered by our shooting parties, chiefly by Wilc.o.x and the sergeant of marines; these were afterwards visited by me, and my opinion of the productiveness of the country about Cape York almost daily became more and more favourable the further I extended my excursions.

I need scarcely repeat the arguments which have been adduced in favour of the expediency, I may almost say necessity, of establishing a military post, or small settlement of some kind, in the vicinity of Cape York, simply because, while perfectly agreeing with Mr. Jukes* and several other persons who have drawn the public attention to the subject, I have little in addition to offer. Still a few words on the question may not be out of place.

(*Footnote. Voyage of the Fly volume 1 page 302.)

ITS ADVANTAGES.

The beneficial results to be looked for were such a settlement to be formed would be:

1. A port of refuge would be afforded to the crews of vessels wrecked in Torres Strait, and its approaches, who otherwise must make for b.o.o.by Island, and there await the uncertainty of being picked up by some pa.s.sing vessel, or even attempt in the boats to reach Coupang in Timor, a distance of 1100 miles further. And now that the settlement at Port Essington has been abandoned the necessity for such a place of refuge is still greater.

2. Pa.s.sing vessels might be supplied with water and other refreshments, also stores, such as anchors, etc., which last are frequently lost during the pa.s.sage of the Strait.

3. The knowledge of the existence of such a post would speedily exercise a beneficial influence over our intercourse with the natives of Torres Strait, and induce them to refrain from a repet.i.tion of the outrages which they have frequently committed upon Europeans; the little trade in tortoisesh.e.l.l which might be pushed in the Strait (as has frequently been done before by small vessels from Sydney and even from Hong Kong) would no longer be a dangerous one--and protection would be afforded to the coaling depot for steamers at Port Albany.*

(*Footnote. I adduce this last advantage on the presumption, which now a.s.sumes a greater degree of probability than before--that the steam communication before alluded to will be established, and that the Torres Strait route, the one which is almost generally advocated, will be the one adopted.)

4. In a military point of view the importance of such a post has been urged upon the ground, that in the event of war, a single enemy's ship stationed in the neighbourhood, if previously unoccupied, could completely command the whole of our commerce pa.s.sing through the Strait.

5. From what more central point could operations be conducted with the view of extending our knowledge of the interior of New Guinea by ascending some of the large rivers of that country, disemboguing on the sh.o.r.es of the Great Bight?

6 and last. But on this point I would advance my opinion with much diffidence--I believe that were a settlement to be established at Cape York, missionary enterprise, JUDICIOUSLY CONDUCTED, might find a useful field for its labours in Torres Strait, beginning with the Murray and Darnley Islanders, people of a much higher intellectual standard than the Australians, and consequently more likely to appreciate any humanising influence which might be exercised for their benefit.

KANGAROOS AND NEW BIRDS.

Several kangaroos or wallabies, the largest of which weighed forty pounds, were killed during our stay at Cape York. A kangaroo dog belonging to Captain Stanley made several fine runs, all of them unsuccessful however, as the chase was seldom upon open ground, and there was little chance of overtaking the kangaroo before it got into some neighbouring thicket where the dog could not follow it. This wallaby proved to be the Halmaturus agilis, first found at Port Essington, and afterwards by Leichhardt in Carpentaria. A singular bat of a reddish-brown colour was shot one day while asleep suspended from a branch of a tree; it belonged to the genus Harpyia, and was therefore a contribution to the Australian fauna.

Among many additions to the ornithological collections of the voyage were eight or nine new species of birds, and about seven others previously known only as inhabitants of New Guinea and the neighbouring islands.*

The first of these which came under my notice was an enormous black parrot (Microglossus aterrimus) with crimson cheeks; at Cape York it feeds upon the cabbage of various palms, stripping down the sheath at the base of the leaves with its powerful, acutely-hooked upper mandible. The next in order of occurrence was a third species of the genus Tanysiptera (T. sylvia) a gorgeous kingfisher with two long, white, central tail-feathers, inhabiting the brushes, where the glancing of its bright colours as it darts past in rapid flight arrests the attention for a moment ere it is lost among the dense foliage.

(*Footnote. Many of these have since been figured and described, with accompanying notes on their habits, etc., in the recently published Supplement to Mr. Gould's Birds of Australia.)

I may next allude to Aplonis metallica--a bird somewhat resembling a starling, of a dark glossy green and purple hue, with metallic reflections--in connection with its singular nest. One day I was taken by a native to the centre of a brush, where a gigantic cotton-tree standing alone was hung with about fifty of the large pensile nests of this species.

NATIVE BIRD-NESTING.

After I had made several unsuccessful attempts to shoot down one of the nests by firing with ball at the supporting branch, the black volunteered to climb the tree, provided I would give him a knife. I was puzzled to know how he proposed to act, the trunk being upwards of four feet in diameter at the base, and the nearest branch being about sixty feet from the ground. He procured a tough and pliant shoot of a kind of vine (Cissus) of sufficient length to pa.s.s nearly round the tree, and holding one end of this in each hand and pressing his legs and feet against the tree, he ascended by a series of jerks, resting occasionally, holding on for half a minute at a time with one end of the vine in his mouth. At length he reached the branches and threw me down as many nests as I required. He afterwards filled the bag which he carried round his neck with the unfledged young birds, which on our return to the native camp on the beach were thrown alive upon the fire, in spite of my remonstrances, and when warmed through were devoured with great apparent relish by himself and his friends.

A NEW BOWERBIRD.

Two days before we left Cape York I was told that some bowerbirds had been seen in a thicket, or patch of low scrub, half a mile from the beach, and after a long search I found a recently constructed bower, four feet long and eighteen inches high, with some fresh berries lying upon it. The bower was situated near the border of the thicket, the bushes composing which were seldom more than ten feet high, growing in smooth sandy soil without gra.s.s.

Next morning I was landed before daylight, and proceeded to the place in company with Paida, taking with us a large board on which to carry off the bower as a specimen. I had great difficulty in inducing my friend to accompany me, as he was afraid of a war party of Gomokudins, which tribe had lately given notice that they were coming to fight the Evans Bay people. However I promised to protect him, and loaded one barrel with ball, which gave him increased confidence, still he insisted upon carrying a large bundle of spears and a throwing-stick. Of late Paida's tribe have taken steps to prevent being surprised by their enemies. At night they remove in their canoes to the neighbouring island Rob.u.mo, and sleep there, returning in the morning to the sh.o.r.e, and take care not to go away to a distance singly or unarmed.

While watching in the scrub I caught several glimpses of the tewinya (the native name) as it darted through the bushes in the neighbourhood of the bower, announcing its presence by an occasional loud churrrr, and imitating the notes of various other birds, especially the leatherhead. I never before met with a more wary bird, and for a long time it enticed me to follow it to a short distance, then flying off and alighting on the bower, it would deposit a berry or two, run through, and be off again (as the black told me) before I could reach the spot. All this time it was impossible to get a shot. At length, just as my patience was becoming exhausted, I saw the bird enter the bower and disappear, when I fired at random through the twigs, fortunately with effect. So closely had we concealed ourselves latterly, and so silent had we been, that a kangaroo while feeding actually hopped up within fifteen yards, unconscious of our presence until fired at. My bowerbird proved to be a new species, since described by Mr. Gould as Chlamydera cerviniventris, and the bower is exhibited in the British Museum.

Among the gamebirds of Cape York, the emu is ent.i.tled to the first rank.

Only two or three, however, were seen, and we were not fortunate enough to procure one. One day an emu allowed me to approach within fifty yards by stalking it cautiously, holding up a large green bough before me, when, becoming alarmed, it darted in its fright into a thicket and was lost to view.

BRUSH TURKEY.

Many brush turkeys (Talegalla lathami) were shot by our sportsmen, and scarcely a day pa.s.sed on which the natives did not procure for us some of their eggs. The mode in which these and other eggs are cooked by the blacks is to roll them up in two or three large leaves, and roast them in the ashes; the eggs burst, of course, but the leaves prevent the contents from escaping. Both bird and eggs are excellent eating; the latter, averaging three and a half inches in length, of a pure white colour, are deposited in low mounds of earth and leaves in the dense brushes in a similar manner to those of the megapodius, and are easily dug out with the hand. I have seen three or four taken out of one mound where they were arranged in a large circle, a foot and a half from the surface. The laying bird carefully effaces any mark she may have made in scooping out a place for the eggs, but the keen eye of a native quickly detects the slightest sign of recent disturbance of the mound, and he seldom fails to hit upon the eggs.

SEASONS.

As at Port Essington, the year at Cape York is divided into two seasons,*

the dry and the rainy. From personal observation and other sources of information, it would appear that the limits and duration of these admit of so much variation that it is impossible to determine with certainty, even within a month, when one ceases and the other begins. It would appear however that the dry season, characterised by the prevalence of the south-east trade, usually terminates in November, the change having for some time previous been indicated by calms, light winds, sometimes from the westward, a gloomy unsettled appearance in the weather, and occasional showers--violent squalls of wind and rain are frequent about this time until the westerly breezes set in, when the weather becomes moderate with frequent rain, occasionally very heavy, and intervals, often of many days duration, of dry weather. In the month of March the south-east trade usually resumes its former influence, the change being often attended with the same thick squally weather, and perhaps a gale from the north-west, which ushered in the westerly monsoon.

(*Footnote. The natives of the neighbouring Prince of Wales Island distinguish the dry season (aibu or the fine weather) the wet (kuki or the North-West wind which then prevails) and the period of change (malgui) equivalent to our Spring and Autumn.)

WINDS.

Our own experience of the winds during our last stay at Cape York, at the period when the change of the monsoon was to be expected, may be summed up as follows. During the month of October the trade-wind prevailed, keeping pretty steady at East-South-East, and generally blowing rather strongly, with hazy weather and an occasional shower. For three days in the middle of the month we experienced light north-westerly winds dying away again in the evening, and on the 25th a violent squall from the same quarter accompanied by very heavy rain rendered it expedient that the ship should next day be moved a cable's length further offsh.o.r.e. During the four last days in the month we had calms and light winds from the northward of east, as if the trade were about to cease, but it commenced afresh and continued until the 26th of November, generally very moderate, with fine weather. During the last six days of our stay we had light airs from about North-West, succeeded in the evening by a slight puff of south-easterly wind followed by a calm lasting all night. Last year, during the month of October, we experienced no northerly or westerly winds, but a moderate trade prevailed throughout, pretty steady at East-South-East, but varying much in strength.

TEMPERATURE.

In a place situated like Cape York, only about 640 miles distant from the equator, the atmospheric temperature may be expected to be very high; still the heat, although occasionally very oppressive for a time, caused very different sensations from those experienced during the almost stifling calms of Port Essington. At Cape York, however, calms seldom lasted above a few hours, as from its peninsular position the land receives the full influence of nearly every breeze. An abstract of the thermometrical observations made on board the Rattlesnake shows the following results:

COLUMN 1: DATE.

COLUMN 2: AVERAGE TEMPERATURE IN DEGREES AND MINUTES.

COLUMN 3: AVERAGE MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE IN DEGREES AND MINUTES.

COLUMN 4: AVERAGE MINIMUM TEMPERATURE IN DEGREES AND MINUTES.

October 1848 : 81 : 85 : 77 5.

October 1849 : 81 : 83 8 : 78 7.