Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owe - Volume 1, John MacGillivray [read dune txt] 📗

bites of clouds of mosquitoes in a mangrove swamp which I had entered in chase of some bowerbirds, added a finishing touch, as if to test the powers of human endurance. Having expended my stock of dust shot, I tried fine sand-which I had somewhere read of as a substitute, but, although used under the most favourable conditions, the experiment proved a complete failure. Sights for rating the chronometers to get which was the only object in coming here, having been obtained, we left for Goold Island in the afternoon.

GOOLD ISLAND.

May 21st.

Passing outside of the Palm Islands, and rounding Cape Sandwich, we entered Rockingham Bay, and anchored on the North-West side of Goold Island, where we found the Tam O'Shanter. This island is about seven miles in circumference, gradually rising towards the centre, to form a peak 1376 feet in height. The shores are rocky, with occasional sandy beaches, and the island is well wooded up to its summit; Eucalypti (gumtrees) frequently of great size, being the predominant trees. The grass was very luxuriant and even difficult to wade through, indicating an abundance of water, of which several small streams were seen. One of these streamlets close to the anchorage is well adapted for watering a ship at, as boats can approach within a few yards; and the supply can never, I have good reason to believe, entirely cease.

NATIVES AND THEIR CANOES.

The natives, a small party of whom were here, have had frequent intercourse with Europeans, and indeed the sight alongside the ship of eight canoes, four of which carried two unarmed men, and the others one each, would of itself, to most people, have been a convincing proof of a friendly disposition. That such apparent desire to be on friendly terms might often mislead strangers, is not to be wondered at. Yet these same people, a few years ago, made a sudden and most wanton attack upon a seining party belonging to H.M.S. Fly, and shortly after we left them, they attempted to cut off a small vessel which had called there for water.

Their canoes are very simply constructed of a single sheet of bark of the gumtree brought together at the ends, and secured by stitching. The sitter squats down with his legs doubled under him, and uses a small square piece of bark in each hand, as paddles, with one of which he also bales the water out by dexterously scooping it up from behind him.

On May 23rd, a convenient spot for landing the overland expedition having been found on the shores of Rockingham Bay, we shifted our berth in the afternoon a few miles further to leeward, and anchored under the westernmost of the Family Islands, in order to be near the place of disembarkation.

LAND MR. KENNEDY'S PARTY.

On the two following days everything belonging to Mr. Kennedy's party (with the exception of one horse drowned while swimming it ashore) was safely landed, and his first camp was formed on some open forest land behind the beach, at a small freshwater creek.

The object of Mr. Kennedy's expedition, was to explore the country to the eastward of the dividing range running along the North-East coast of Australia at a variable distance from the shore, and terminating at Cape York, where a vessel with supplies was to meet the party in October, after which they were to start on their return to Sydney; proceeding at first down the western side of the peninsula to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and then shape such a course as was best calculated to bring them to the settled districts of New South Wales.

Of the disastrous results of this unfortunate expedition, I need not here speak; I shall afterwards have to allude to the melancholy death of its gallant leader, within a day's journey almost of the goal which he was struggling with desperate energy to reach-the nearest place where assistance could be procured for the few remaining survivors of his party, of whom, eventually, only three were saved. I last saw poor Kennedy on the evening before he broke up his camp; he was then in high spirits and confident of success.

THEY COMMENCE THEIR JOURNEY.

The party, of thirteen men and twenty-eight horses (with carts, a flock of sheep for food, etc.) appeared to be furnished with every requisite for their intended journey, and the arrangements and appointments seemed to me to be perfect. Nor did I, despite the forebodings of others, argue anything but a successful result to an undertaking, the blame of failure of which was AFTERWARDS attempted to be thrown upon those who had planned it.

The small granite island (one of the Family Group) off which we were anchored, afforded little of interest to us. Fresh water was found in small quantities, not available, however, for the use of vessels. The most curious production of the island is an undescribed plant of the singular family Balanophoraceae, not before known as Australian, which was found here in abundance in the gloomy brushes, parasitic upon the roots of the tallest trees. We also met with here-in probably its southern limit upon the coast-a species of rattan (Calamus australis) with long prickly shoots, well illustrated in the annexed drawing by Mr. Huxley, representing the process of cutting through the scrub, during an excursion made with Mr. Kennedy, for the purpose of searching for a way out from the low swampy district of Rockingham Bay.

COMMENCE THE SURVEY.

May 26th.

During the forenoon, the ship was moved over to an anchorage under the lee (North-West side) of Dunk Island, where we remained for ten days. The survey of the coastline and Inner Passage to the northward was here commenced, and afterwards continued up to Torres Strait, by an unbroken series of triangulation; it included a space varying in width from 5 to 15 miles, extending through 7 1/2 degrees of latitude and 4 1/2 of longitude, with a coastline of upwards of 600 miles.

MODE OF CONDUCTING IT.

The programme of the survey may be briefly given as follows: at the principal stations-chiefly islands off the coast-the various observations for determining astronomical positions and theodolite angles, were made by Captain Stanley and Mr. W.H. Obree, and the ship remained there at anchor for several days. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Dayman, in the Asp, laid down the coastline and neighbourhood as far as the next station twenty or thirty miles in advance. Lieutenant Simpson with the pinnace continued the soundings several miles further out, both working in conjunction, and often assisted by another boat in charge of Mr. Heath, while the outside soundings devolved upon Lieutenant Yule in the tender. The Rattlesnake in shifting from place to place, aided by boats in company, sounded the centre of the channel, usually following one of the lines run by Captain P.P. King, and marked upon his charts. The available boats permanently attached to the ship, were employed under various officers in the neighbourhood of the different anchorages, cutting up the ground, and filling up any gaps which might otherwise have been left in the new charts.

The summit of a very small rocky island, near the anchorage, named by Captain Stanley, Mound Islet, formed the first station. Dunk Island, eight or nine miles in circumference, is well wooded-it has two conspicuous peaks, one of which (the North-West one) is 857 feet in height. Our excursions were confined to the vicinity of the watering place and the bay in which it is situated. The shores are rocky on one side and sandy on the other, where a low point runs out to the westward. At their junction, and under a sloping hill with large patches of brush, a small stream of fresh water, running out over the beach, furnished a supply for the ship, although the boats could approach the place closely only at high-water.

Among the most interesting objects of natural history, are two birds, one a new and handsome fly-catcher, Monarcha leucotis, the other a swallow, which Mr. Gould informs me is also an Indian species. Great numbers of butterflies frequent the neighbourhood of the watering place-one of these (Papilio urvillianus) is of great size and splendour, with dark purple wings, broadly margined with ultramarine, but from its habit of flying high among the trees I did not succeed in catching one. An enormous spider, beautifully variegated with black and gold, is plentiful in the woods, watching for its prey in the centre of a large net stretched horizontally between the trees.

The seine was frequently hauled upon the beach with great success-one evening, through its means, in addition to plenty of fish, no less than five kinds of star-fishes, and twelve of crustacea, several of which are quite new, were brought on shore.

Among the plants of the island the most important is a wild species of plantain or banana, afterwards found to range along the North-East coast and its islands as far as Cape York. Here I saw for the first time a species of Sciadophyllum, one of the most singular trees of the eastern coastline of tropical Australia; a slender stem, about thirty feet in height, gives off a few branches with immense digitate dark and glossy leaves and long spike-like racemes of small scarlet flowers, a great resort for insects and insect-feeding birds.

COMMUNICATION WITH NATIVES STOPPED.

Soon after the ship had come to an anchor, some natives came off in their canoes and paid us a visit, bringing with them a quantity of shellfish (Sanguinolaria rugosa) which they eagerly exchanged for biscuit. For a few days afterwards we occasionally met them on the beach, but at length they disappeared altogether, in consequence of having been fired at with shot by one of two of the young gentlemen of the Bramble, on a shooting excursion, whom they wished to prevent from approaching too closely a small village, where they had their wives and children. Immediate steps were taken, in consequence, to prevent the recurrence of such collisions, when thoughtless curiosity on one side is apt to be promptly resented on the other, if numerically superior in force. I saw nothing in the appearance of these natives to distinguish them from those of Goold Island, and the canoes are the same. The men had large prominent cicatrices on the shoulders, and across the breast and belly, the septum of the nose was perforated, and none of the teeth had been removed. I saw no weapons, and some rude armlets were their only ornaments.

THE BARNARD ISLES.

On June 6th we ran to the northward 15 1/2 miles, and anchored at noon under Number 3 of the Barnard Isles, a group consisting of six high rocky wooded isles, the two southernmost of which are separated from the rest by an interval of four miles. I landed upon the two largest (1 and 3 of the charts) on the first only once. I there found nothing of much interest, except some very thick beds of conglomerate superimposed upon a compact basaltic-looking rock. Number 3, on the other hand, consists of mica slate, much contorted, and altered from its usual appearance, and containing lead ore (galena) with several veins of quartz, one of which, about two feet in thickness, traverses the island from side to side.

BOTANY OF THE BARNARD ISLES.

The islands of the North-East coast of Australia hitherto and subsequently visited during the survey, afford all the gradations between the simplest form of a sandbank upon a coral reef scantily covered with grass, a few creeping plants and stunted bushes on one hand-and on the other a high, rocky, well-wooded island with an undulating succession of hills and valleys. In those of the latter class, to a certain extent only in the islands of