Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake Volume Ii Part 7

We resumed our homeward voyage on October 5th, and on November 9th, the Rattlesnake was paid off at Chatham, after having been in commission upwards of four years.

ACCOUNT OF MR. E.B. KENNEDY'S EXPEDITION FOR THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAPE YORK PENINSULA, IN TROPICAL AUSTRALIA.

In addition to the brief account which already forms part of the Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, I have thought it would add to the interest of this work and the gratification of its readers, were I to give under a distinct head a detailed history of the exploring expedition conducted by the late Mr. Edmund B. Kennedy, derived from a pamphlet printed in Sydney, and scarcely procurable in this country. It includes the interesting narrative of Mr. W. Carron, the botanist attached to the expedition in question; also the statements of the aboriginal black who witnessed the death of his gallant master--of Dr.

Vallack who took an active part in rescuing the survivors--and of Mr.

T.B. Simpson who proceeded in search of the remainder of the party, whose fate was still in a measure uncertain, and succeeded in recovering some of Mr. Kennedy's papers.

NARRATIVE OF MR. W. CARRON.

We left Sydney on the 29th of April, 1848, in the barque Tam O'Shanter (Captain Merionberg) in company with H.M.S. Rattlesnake.

Our party consisted of the following persons: Mr. E.B. Kennedy (leader), Mr. W. Carron (botanist), Mr. T. Wall (naturalist), Mr. C. Niblet (storekeeper), James Luff, Edward Taylor, and William Costigan (carters), Edward Carpenter (shepherd), William G.o.ddard, Thomas Mitch.e.l.l, John Douglas, Dennis Dunn (labourers), and Jackey-Jackey, an aboriginal native of the Patrick's Plains tribe, of the Hunter River district.

Our supplies and equipment for the journey had been most fully considered, and were estimated by Mr. Kennedy as amply sufficient for a journey so short as what we then antic.i.p.ated. Our livestock consisted of twenty-eight horses, one hundred sheep, three kangaroo dogs, and one sheep dog. Our dry provisions comprised one ton of flour, ninety pounds of tea, and six hundred pounds of sugar. Besides these necessary supplies for subsistence on the road, we took with us twenty-four pack-saddles, one heavy square cart, two spring carts, with harness for nine horses, four tents, a canvas sheepfold, twenty-two pounds gunpowder, one hundred and thirty pounds shot, a quarter cask of ammunition, twenty-eight tether ropes (each twenty-one yards long) forty hobble chains and straps, together with boxes, paper, etc., for preserving specimens, firearms, cloaks, blankets, tomahawks, and other minor requisites for such an expedition, not forgetting a supply of fish-hooks and other small articles, as presents for the natives.

After a tedious pa.s.sage of twenty-two days, we arrived at Rockingham Bay on the 21st May; and even here, at the very starting point of our journey, those unforeseen difficulties began to arise, which led us subsequently to hardships so great and calamities so fatal.

On casting anchor, Mr. Kennedy, in company with Captain Merionberg, proceeded in a boat to examine the sh.o.r.es of the Bay, and to determine on a suitable landing-place for the horses, but returned in the evening without having been able to discover one.

The attempt was renewed the next morning, and continued during the entire day; and on the morning of the 23rd of May Mr. Kennedy and Captain Merionberg returned to the ship with the intelligence that they had discovered a spot where the horses might be landed with tolerable safety, and where, too, there was plenty of gra.s.s and water. This was an important desideratum, as we had lost one horse and eleven sheep on the voyage.

The water round the sh.o.r.es of the bay was very shallow, in consequence of which the vessel could not approach close insh.o.r.e, but was compelled to cast anchor about a quarter of a mile off, and this distance the horses had to swim.

In the afternoon the vessel was anch.o.r.ed off the landing-place, and early on the following morning (May 24th) the tents, tether ropes, and sheepfold were taken ash.o.r.e, with a party to take care of the horses when landed. At ten o'clock A.M., slings having been prepared, we commenced hoisting the horses out of the hold, and lowering them into the water alongside a boat, to the stern of which the head of each horse was secured, as it was pulled ash.o.r.e. One horse was drowned in landing, but all the others were safely taken ash.o.r.e during the day. The weather this day was very cold, with occasional showers of rain.

During the time occupied by landing the horses, a number of aboriginal natives a.s.sembled on the beach; they evinced no symptom of hostility, but appeared much surprised at our horses and sheep. White men they had frequently seen before, as parties have landed on the beach from surveying vessels.

We found no difficulty in making them comprehend that we desired to be friendly with them, and they advanced towards us with green boughs in their hands, which they displayed as emblems of peace. We met them with our arms extended and our hands open, indicating that we had no implements of war with us. We made them a present of two circular tin plates, with Mr. Kennedy's initials stamped upon them, and chains to hang them round the neck; we also gave them a few fish-hooks, and they accepted our presents with great demonstrations of pleasure. We made signs for them to sit down about 200 yards from the spot where the horses and sheep were being landed, and marking a line upon the sand we made them understand that they were not to cross it to approach us. One of our party was placed amongst them to enforce this regulation, which he did with little difficulty, although they expressed great curiosity as to various articles brought on sh.o.r.e from the ship.

These natives appeared to be very fine strong men, varying much in intelligence and disposition. I entered into such conversation with them as we were enabled to hold, and I soon found that while some were eagerly anxious to learn the names of different articles and their uses, others were perfectly indifferent about them.

We pitched our tents about two hundred yards from the beach, forming a square, with the sheepfold in the centre. Mr. Kennedy came on sh.o.r.e in the morning to superintend the arrangements, and after giving the necessary directions and instructions, returned to the ship. The party left ash.o.r.e in charge consisted of myself, Wall, Dunn, Carpenter, and Douglas. Our provisions were supplied from the ship, in order that no time might be lost in getting all our stores and implements in proper order for starting.

A few yards from our camp was a freshwater creek, from which, although the tide ran into it about one hundred yards--where it was stopped by a small bank--we could obtain excellent water. The gra.s.s around was very long, and mostly of very coa.r.s.e descriptions, consisting chiefly of a species of Uniola growing in tufts, and an Agrostis with creeping roots and broad blades; the horses seemed to like the Uniola best. A little to the northward of our camp were very high and almost perpendicular rocks, composed mostly of micaceous schist, covered with various epiphytal orchides and ferns.

The labour of the day being ended, and most of our stores landed, the greater number of our party came ash.o.r.e to pa.s.s the night; and after having tethered the horses in fresh places, we a.s.sembled at supper, the materiel of which (beef and biscuit) was sent from the ship. We then took possession of our tents, one square tent being allotted to Mr. Kennedy; Niblet, Wall, and myself occupied a small round one; Taylor, Douglas, Carpenter, Mitch.e.l.l, and Jackey, a large round tent; and Luff, Dunn, G.o.ddard, and Costigan, the other.

Mr. Kennedy's tent was 8 feet long, by 6 feet, and 8 feet high, and in it were placed a compact table, constructed with joints so as to fold up, a light camp stool, his books and instruments. The two larger round tents were pyramidal in shape, seven feet in diameter at the least, and nine feet high. The small tent was six feet in diameter, and eight feet high.

Every man was then supplied with one pair of blankets, one cloak, a double-barrelled gun or carbine, a brace of pistols, cartridge box, small percussion-cap pouch, and six rounds of ammunition. The arrangement for preserving the safety of the camp from attack was, that every man, with the exception of Mr. Kennedy, should take his turn to watch through the night--two hours being the duration of each man's watch--the watch extending from 8 P.M. till 6 A.M. During the night the kangaroo-dogs were kept chained up, but the sheepdog was at large.

The position of this our first encampment was near the northern extremity of Rockingham Bay, being in lat.i.tude 17 degrees 58 minutes 10 seconds south, longitude 146 degrees 8 minutes east. The soil, where our cattle and sheep were feeding, was sandy and very wet. The land, from the beach to the scrub in the swamp beyond, was slightly undulating, and very thickly strewed with sh.e.l.ls, princ.i.p.ally bivalves.

On the morning of the 25th May, a party commenced landing the remainder of our stores; and it being a fine morning, I went out to collect specimens and seeds of any new and interesting plants I might find. On leaving the camp I proceeded through a small belt of scrub to the rocks on the north; the scrub was composed of the genera Flagellaria, Kennedya, Bambusa (bamboo), Smilax, Cissus, Mucuna, and various climbing plants unknown to me: the trees consisted princ.i.p.ally of Eugenia, Anacardium, Castanospermum (Moreton Bay chestnut), a fine species of Sarcocephalus, and a large spreading tree belonging to the natural order Rutaceae, with ternate leaves, axillary panicles of white flowers, about the size of those of Boronia pinnata. At the edge of the rocks were some fine treeferns (d.i.c.ksonia) with the genera Xiphopteris, and Polypodium; also some beautiful epiphytal Orchideae; among others a beautiful Dendrobium (rock lily,) with the habit of D. speciosum, but of stronger growth, bearing long spikes of bright yellow flowers, the sepals spotted with rich purple. I found also another species with smaller leaves, and more slender habit, with spikes of dull green flowers, the column and tips of the sepals purple: and a very fine Cymbidium, much larger than C. suave, with brown blossoms, having a yellow column.

I proceeded along the edge of a mangrove swamp for a short distance, and entered a freshwater swamp about a mile from the beach, covered with very thick scrub, composed of large trees of the genus Melaleuca, running for the most part from forty to fifty feet high. Here also I first found a strong-growing climbing palm (Calamus australis) throwing up a number of shoots from its roots, many of them 100 feet long, and about the thickness of a man's finger, with long pinnatifid leaves, covered with sharp spines--and long tendrils growing out of the stem alternately with the leaves, many of them twenty feet long, covered with strong spines slightly curved downward, by which the shoots are supported in their rambling growth. They lay hold of the surrounding bushes and branches of trees, often covering the tops of the tallest, and turning in all directions. The seed is a small hard nut, with a thin scaly covering, and is produced in great abundance.

The shoots, which are remarkably tough, I afterwards found were used by the natives in making their canoes. These canoes are small, and constructed of bark, with a small sapling on each side to strengthen them, the ends of which are tied together with these shoots.

The growth of this plant forms one of the greatest obstacles to travelling in the bush in this district. It forms a dense thicket, into which it is impossible to penetrate without first cutting it away, and a person once entangled in its long tendrils has much difficulty in extricating himself, as they lay hold of everything they touch. On entering the swamp to examine plants, I was caught by them, and became so much entangled before I was aware of it, that it took me nearly an hour to get clear, although I had entered but a few yards. No sooner did I cut one tendril, than two or three others clung around me at the first attempt to move, and where they once clasp they are very difficult to unloose. Abundance of the shoots, from fifteen to twenty feet long, free from leaves or tendrils, could be obtained, and would be useful for all the purposes to which the common cane is now applied.

At this spot also I met with Dracontium polyphyllum, a beautiful plant, belonging to the natural order Aroideae, climbing by its rooting stems to the tops of the trees, like the common ivy. This plant has narrow pointed leaves, four inches long, and produces at the ends of the shoots a red spatha, enclosing a cylindrical spadix of yellow flowers.

In many parts the swamp was completely covered with a very strong-growing species of Restio (rope-gra.s.s). On the open ground, between the beach and the swamp, were a few large flooded-gums, and a few Moreton Bay ash trees, and near the beach I found the Exocarpus latifolia.

On the beach, too, just above high-water mark, was a beautiful spreading, lactescent tree, about twenty feet high, belonging to the natural order Apocyneae, with alternate, exstipulate, broad, lanceolate leaves, six to eight inches long, and producing terminal spikes of large, white, sweet-scented flowers, resembling those of the white Nerium oleander, but much larger. I also met with a tree about twenty feet high belonging to the natural order Dilleniaceae, with large spreading branches, producing at the axilla of the leaves from three to five large yellow flowers, with a row of red appendages surrounding the carpels, and a fine species of Calophyllum, with large dark green leaves, six to eight inches long, two and a half to three inches broad, beautifully veined, and with axillary racemes of white, sweet-scented flowers; the seed being a large round nut with a thin rind, of a yellowish-green colour when ripe. There were many other interesting plants growing about, but the afternoon turning out wet, I left their examination to stand over till finer weather.

Growing on the beach was a species of Portulaca, a quant.i.ty of the young shoots of which I collected, and we partook of them at our supper, boiled as a vegetable.

In the evening after watering our horses, we took them to the camp and gave each of them a feed of corn which we had brought with us for the purpose of strengthening them previous to our starting from Rockingham Bay, on our expedition; but although the gra.s.s on which they had been depasturing was coa.r.s.e, they were with difficulty induced to eat the corn, many of them leaving it almost all behind them. We then tethered them and folded our sheep, one of which we killed for food. The ration per week on which the party was now put, was one hundred pounds of flour, twenty-six pounds of sugar, three and a half pounds of tea, with one sheep every alternate day.

This night too we commenced our nightly watch, the whole of the stores being landed and packed in the camp. During nearly the whole of the day a tribe of natives was watching our movements, but they seemed to be quite peaceably inclined; the weather was very cold, and at night the rain set in and continued to fall, almost without intermission, till morning.

The next morning (May 26th) was very wet and cold; but after securing our horses, I again went out to search for, and examine plants, although it was too rainy to collect seeds or specimens. On a Casuarina near the swamp, I saw a beautiful Loranthus with rather small oval leaves, panicles of flowers, with the tube of the corolla green; segments of the limbs dark red; of a dwarf bushy habit. This beautiful parasite covered the tree, and was very showy. The afternoon turning out fine and warm, I collected several specimens and sorts of seeds. In the open ground grew a beautiful tree producing large terminal spikes of yellow flowers, with broad, and slightly cordate leaves; it belongs to the natural order Bignoniaceae.

The open ground between the beach and the swamp varied in width from half a mile to three or four miles; it was princ.i.p.ally covered with long gra.s.s, with a belt of bushy land along the edge of the beach; the bush consisting princ.i.p.ally of Exocarpus, with dark green oval leaves, near an inch long; two dwarf species of Fabricia, one with white, the other with pink flowers; a species of Jasminum, with rather large, white, sweet-scented flowers; and a few acacia trees, with long, linear, lanceolate, phyllodia, racemose spikes of bright yellow flowers. There also grew the genera Xanthorrhoea, Xerotes, and Restio (rope-gra.s.s.)

There were a great many wallabies near the beach, but they were very wild. While returning to the camp in the evening, I met several natives who had been fishing. Most of the fish they had taken had been speared, only a few having been caught with hooks. I remained with them some time, and learned some of their expressions. Fresh water they call hammoo,*

salt water, mocull; their dogs--the same species as the native dogs found near Sydney--they call taa-taa. We had not as yet seen any of their women, as they were encamped at some distance from us.

(*Footnote. Kamo, at Goold Island, only a few miles distant.)

Near the beach, by the side of the salt.w.a.ter creek, I saw a beautiful species of Ruellia with terminal spikes of blue flowers, and spiny-toothed leaves, and a bushy shrub eight or ten feet high, with alternate exstipulate, simple, oval leaves, bearing a solitary, axillary, round fruit, resembling a greengage plum; the fleshy pulp covering the hard round stone has rather a bitter taste, but it is not disagreeable when ripe. It acts as a laxative if eaten in any quant.i.ty, and is probably Maba laurina.

On the following morning, May 27th, when the horses were watered and fed, I commenced digging a piece of ground, in which I sowed seeds of cabbage, turnip, leek, pumpkin, rock and water melons, pomegranate, peach stones, and apple pips. On the two following days, May 28th and 29th, I remained in the camp all day.

The next morning, May 30th, Mr. Kennedy and three others of the party rode out to examine the surrounding country, and to determine in what direction the expedition should start, the remainder staying at the camp, busily occupied with preparations for our departure into the wilderness.

The flour was put into canvas bags, holding 100 pounds each, made in the shape of saddlebags, to hold 50 pounds weight on each side. The sugar we put into two large tin canisters, made to fit into one of the carts, and the tea was packed in quarter-chests. The surplus stores, comprising horse shoes, clothes, specimen boxes, etc., which would not be required before our arrival at Cape York, were sent on board H.M.S. Rattlesnake, which it was arranged should meet us at Port Albany. During the day one of the party shot a wallaby on the beach, which made very good soup.

During the morning of the next day (May 31st) I was employed in procuring specimens and seeds of various plants, and in the afternoon we all resumed our preparations for starting, as we expected Mr. Kennedy back next day. He however did not arrive in the camp, and on the following afternoon I obtained specimens of a very pretty plant of the natural order Onagrariae, with opposite, oblong, simple leaves, and large purple flowers.

The following day (June 3rd) Mr. Kennedy and his party returned to the camp, with the intelligence that it was impossible to proceed in a north or north-westerly direction, in consequence of the swamps. Mr. Kennedy had penetrated them in some places, where the scrub was not too thick; but could not get through them in any place, on account of the water, and the dense scrub. He informed us that he found we should be obliged to cross a river on the beach to the south-west of the camp before we could hope to make any progress.

The two following days were occupied with completing our arrangements for starting; as it was determined on the following morning to strike our tents and proceed at once on our expedition.

As I may now consider our expedition as fairly begun, it may, for the sake of clearness and arrangement, be advisable to continue my narrative in the form of a journal; detailing from day to day the various occurrences which took place. It must be remembered, however, that in narrating the particulars of our journey, I am obliged to trust largely to memory, and to very imperfect memoranda; and to these difficulties must I refer, in excuse for the defects, with which I am well aware this narrative abounds.

Up to the present time, the whole of the party, and especially its unfortunate leader, had remained in good spirits, and, buoyed up with sanguine hopes of success, were eager to set out on their pilgrimage of discovery.

June 5.

We breakfasted at an early hour this morning, and proceeded at once to harness our horses to the carts, three to each cart. The carts contained about seven hundredweight each. This business having been completed, and the packhorses saddled and loaded, we started at nine o'clock A.M., and proceeded along the beach. Mr. Kennedy and Jackey rode in front, followed by the three carts. After Wall, riding one horse and leading two packhorses, came G.o.ddard, Douglas, Mitch.e.l.l, and Dunn, leading three packhorses, then Niblet in the rear, riding one and leading two horses, followed by Carpenter driving the sheep, and myself on foot, carrying Mr.

Kennedy's mountain barometer, which he had given into my charge during the journey; and I was also to take the time for that gentleman, in his observations.