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

tempted to come on board, although they paddled up alongside without the slightest hesitation. We were frequently solicited to accompany them on shore, but no one was allowed to leave the ship.

(*Footnote. Wooden pillows are also in use in some of the islands of Polynesia and in New Caledonia.)

CUL DE SAC DE L'ORANGERIE.

The northern shores of the Cul de Sac are low and wooded, forming an extensive tract of level land stretching backwards towards the mountains, with a large opening at its eastern end, which is probably the mouth of a great river. The Bramble was sent to examine this bay, but the shoalness of the water, and the unfavourable nature of the weather prevented the completion of this work. During her absence a large canoe was seen in the bay, differing from all those hitherto observed in having a triangular or lateen sail set with the apex downwards, thus resembling those in use on the north coast of New Guinea, among some of the Malay Islands, and those of the Viti Archipelago.

The weather, since leaving Brumer Islands, has usually been gloomy, with frequent rain, occasionally very heavy, and a close muggy feeling in the atmosphere as if one were living in a vapour bath; the temperature on board ship ranged between 72 and 83 degrees. During our five days' stay off Dufaure Island we were daily employed in catching rainwater for ship's use, being on reduced allowance of that necessary article. The wind throughout has been steady at South-East, occasionally varying a point or two towards east.

APPEARANCE OF THE COAST.

September 18th.

For the last three days the coast has appeared as a strip of low land, backed by mountain ranges of moderate elevation.* We observed several openings, apparently creeks or mouths of rivers, and saw much smoke and some canoes, but our distance from the shore was too great to allow of communication. In the evening we stood off to seaward, and during the night, while trying to avoid it, probably passed over the assigned position of a reef laid down on one of the charts as having been seen in 1804, but without being able to confirm or disprove its existence.**

(*Footnote. From the haze involving distant objects-less frequent (as we afterwards had reason to believe) during the westerly monsoon-the much higher Owen Stanley Range was not then visible; it had also, probably from the same cause, quite escaped the notice of D'Urville who passed this portion of the coast at the distance of about eight or nine miles.)

(**Footnote. Although this reef does not exist in the position assigned to it, I may state that its presence upon the charts rests upon the authority of Coutance; Freycinet, rejecting Coutance's longitude of Cape Deliverance and adopting that of D'Entrecasteaux, has laid down the reef in question as bearing West-South-West from Point Hood, at a distance of twelve leagues. Another but smaller reef is stated on the same authority to exist five leagues South-East 1/4 East from Cape Rodney.)

PASSAGE ALONG THE COAST.

September 19th.

Passed Mount Astrolabe, a series of long flat-topped ridges parallel with the coast, but were unable clearly to identify the Cape Passy of D'Urville where his running survey terminated, and where the Astrolabe and Zelee bore away to the westward for Torres Strait.

September 20th.

During the forenoon the Bramble was observed to windward, and in the afternoon she was sent inshore to look for anchorage. Following her we stood in towards a remarkable headland (365 feet high) which afterwards received the name of Redscar Head, from the reddish colour of its cliffs. At the distance of six and a half miles from the shore we struck soundings in twenty-seven fathoms, and soon afterwards crossed a narrow ridge of coral, with only five fathoms over it; after this the bottom consisted of tenacious mud, and we carried in from twenty-two to eighteen fathoms, in the last of which we anchored two miles and two-thirds off the point.

BRAMBLE FIRES ON THE NATIVES.

When Lieutenant Yule came on board we heard that since we left the Bramble near Dufaure Island to do the inshore work, he had on one occasion an affray with the natives in the neighbourhood of the Toulon Islands. When the Bramble was nearly becalmed close inshore, several canoes with about thirty people, including several women and children, came off to barter. A small pig* was handed into the chains, but, owing to an unavoidable occurrence, no return was made for it, upon which the owner snatched the cap from off the head of a marine attending at the gangway. The canoe which had brought the pig then shoved off, and, on being directed by gestures to return the cap, one man stood up and poised his spear, and the others got their arms ready. Several musket shots were fired into the canoe from a distance of six or seven yards, but, regarding the effect, conflicting statements have been made. No resistance was attempted, as, after the first shot, some of the natives jumped into the water and all made off in confusion, which was further increased when a round shot was fired in the direction of a distant canoe coming out from the shore.

(*Footnote. As has often happened the bone of contention did not rest with the belligerents, for the pig was eventually handed over to me and prepared as a specimen, now in the British Museum, the only Sus papuensis in England at the present time.)

PARIWARA ISLANDS.

September 21st.

Took a passage in a boat sent with Lieutenant Simpson to get a round of angles on one of three neighbouring islands (afterwards called Pariwara, the native name) situated two miles and a half North-West from Redscar Point, with which they appear formerly to have been continuous, and, like it, are remarkable for their red and white cliffs. The largest, that on which we landed, is only three-fourths of a mile in length. In shape it is somewhat triangular: one side is formed by a rounded ridge, the highest point of which is 234 feet in height, with irregular cliffs along the sea margin; the opposite angle is occupied by a rounded hill projecting as a headland with rocky cliffs; and these two opposite portions are connected by low land forming a sandy beach on two of the sides. The island is covered with long coarse grass growing in tufts; there are also some pandanus trees of two kinds (P. spiralis and P. pedunculata) and some low brush of stunted bushy trees, their tops matted together, and indicating by the direction in which their branches are bent that the prevailing wind is from the south-east.

Strictly speaking, there is no soil upon the island: what may, however, be considered as such consists of the disintegrated calcareous rock, on the low part mixed up with sand. This rock, acted upon by the weather, has a tendency to fall down in large masses, leaving cliffs, steep and rugged in some places and smooth in others; in colour it varies from white to red, and is usually of a light pink. Behind one of the beaches, a few feet distant from high-water mark, I observed a bank twelve feet high of slightly agglutinated coral sand in parallel beds, mixed up with large depositions of weather-worn shells: Tridacna, Hippopus, Strombus, etc., all of species now living on the reef. At one end this deposit appears to have been tilted up, forming a slight ridge stretching across the low part of the island. The shores in some places are fringed with coral conglomerate composed of shells and sand, fragments of coral, and rolled pieces of rock from above. The reef surrounding the islands does not dry at low water, and in crossing it in the boat very little live coral was observed, except on the outer margin, outside of which the bottom is a tenacious mud, effervescing on the application of hydrochloric acid.

I collected a few plants, among which are a yellow-flowered Cleome, a purple Pongamia, Convolvulus multivalvis, Evolvulus villosus, Guettarda speciosa, etc. The only birds seen were a white-headed eagle and an osprey, neither of which were molested although the latter frequently came within shot, and followed me as if from motives of curiosity. Almost the only insects seen were small grasshoppers, rising in numbers at every step, and green ants which have nests in the bushes, and appear identical with those of the Louisiade and Australia.

No fresh water was found here. Some recent traces of natives were met with-including two fireplaces where turtle and fish had been cooked on a framework of sticks over a fire-precisely similar to one of large size, formerly seen on the Duchateau Islands. I saw many places where turtle eggs had been dug out of the sand behind the beach, where besides were numerous burrows of a maritime crab (Ocypode cursor) which also appeared to feed upon the eggs-judging from the quantity of empty shells about the holes of those creatures.

Of the two remaining islands of the group, one, less than a quarter of a mile long, is covered with trees, probably a Bombax or Erythrina-at this time destitute of leaves-on the other is a high bare rock with three other small detached, needle-shaped ones lying off it. The observations with the theodolite having been completed we obtained some soundings and returned to the ship.

The view we had today from the Pariwara Islands was not so interesting as I had expected. The shores of the bay stretching to the northward of Redscar Head for many miles are low and covered with tall trees behind a strip of sandy beach. At the back of the point in the corner of the bay, we saw an opening two hundred yards wide, with tall mangroves on the northern bank, apparently one of the mouths of a river traversing the great extent of low wooded country behind. A very large fire two or three miles behind the beach, sending up great volumes of smoke, might have been intended for a signal, but neither canoes nor natives were seen during our absence from the ship.

NATIVES COME OFF.

September 24th.

A canoe with twelve young men and lads came off from the shore, and approached within two hundred yards of the ship, but although tempted by the exhibition of a large piece of red cloth, they would come no closer. Their visit was apparently prompted by mere curiosity as they had nothing to barter with. These natives closely resembled the other Papuans seen to the eastward, but were smaller in stature, and wore the hair frizzled up into a mop projecting backwards, nor had I before seen in one canoe so many handsome faces. As a breech-cloth they wore a narrow strip of white cloth passing between the legs and secured to a string round the waist, but this was too narrow to serve as a fig-leaf. Among their ornaments we saw necklaces of small white cowries, and round flat pieces of shell two inches in diameter worn on the breast, also black, tightly fitting, woven armlets, in which they had stuck bunches of apparently the same purple odoriferous amaranth seen elsewhere, while other tufts of this plant were attached to the ankles and elbows.

CANOE DESCRIBED.

The canoe was nearly of the same description as those commonly seen at the Brumer and Dufaure Islands, but the outrigger float was rather shorter, having only five poles to support it instead of seven or eight, and the bow and stern, especially the former, much sharper and more raking. On the side opposite to the outrigger there was a small slightly projecting stage of two planks only. The paddles were six and a half