Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2]

pon the

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fastened her were entirely decayed, and a considerable repair was recommended by the surveying officers. Upon my communicating the result of their report to His Excellency, Governor Macquarie, he agreed with me in thinking that, as her repairs would take up so much time, it would be better to purchase another vessel, and as a brig was then in the harbour, that appeared to be every way suited for my purpose, she was examined by my order by Mr.

ch better off in regard to boats; for we now possessed a long-boat, large enough to carry out and weigh an anchor,

edary's midshipman; but Mr. Hunter the surgeon, who had volunteered his services in the Mermaid during t

consisted of the follo

Commander: Phil

Andrew Mo

es (Assistan

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S.

Perceval B

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e same vessel in which we had originally embarked from England): she was bound to Batavia, and being ready for sailing at the time of our departure, requested permission to accompany us through Torres Strait, which, since it would rather prove an assistance to us than cause any delay in our proceedings, was acceded to on my part with much satisfaction. In the mea

ut when the day of departure drew nigh, he kept aloof; and the morning that we sailed, his place was filled by another volunteer, Bundell; who proved not

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n deck, she was in a most pitiable plight, for her dress and appearance were so filthy, from four days' close confinement in a dark hold, and from having been dreadfully seasick the whole time, that her acquaintances, of which she had many on board, could scarcely recognise her. Upon being interrogated, she declared she had, unknown to all on board, concealed hersel

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to prove the capabilities of our new ship; and it was very satisfactory to find that s

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pectedly close to some land; but it was not until the day broke that we knew the full extent of the danger we had encountered: the land we had seen proved to be the round head of Bustard Bay, which,

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er: they were seen from the masthead to the north-east; and a fourth was seen by the Dick. After this we had a few days of fine weather, which, a

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red among the Nort

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Pine Islets and the basin, in ten fathoms, near a run of water, which fell from the rocks into the sea at about a quarter of a mile to the northward of

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Dick's people cut down and embarked several logs; on examination they were thought to be useless; but, from subsequent experience, they proved to be far from deserving such contempt, for during the voyage we made two pole-top gallant-masts of it; which, although very full of knots, were as tough as any

e seen. The beaches were frequented by gulls, terns, and oyster-catchers; and a

was too unwieldy to take on board, we had no means of weighing it; but the liver nearly filled a small pork barrel.* It is very probable tha

e name of Sting-ray Bay was given to that harbour; it is so-called in the charts of the Endeavour's voyage, in the Hydrographical Office at the Admiralty, as well as in Sir Joseph Banks' copy of the Endeavour's journal, and in Dr. Soland

royal masts, a serious defect was discovered in our fore-top-mast; the upper part being found rotten fo

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age to shift them. This detention was very vexatious, for we were

s anxious to get on without delay; and, having Captain Flinders' charts, intended to run "DAY AND NIGHT THROUGH THE REEFS;" he told me that he had anchored here with the intention of watering and cutting some pine spars, but that not finding the latter worth the trouble, he was then getting underweigh to proceed. When I went away, he accompanied me to look over my plan of the passage; after which he r

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t underweigh; but the Dick in weighing

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d the north extremity o

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m. the 15th, were abre

n, and was unfavourable for our seeing the coast as we passed it: Cape Bowling Green was not seen, but the gradual decrease of sounding

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ssed outside the Palm Islands

rom our view; but a partial glimpse of the land enabled me to distinguish Point Hillock

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iate danger, as to require our beating up, with the risk of losing some of our spars, for the Dick had already sprung her jib-boom; we, therefore, hove the vessels to, and soon afterwards the San Antonio joined and passed under our stern, when Mr. Hemmans informed me that the guns he had fired were intended as signals to his boat, and that they were not meant for us. He had been

he bad weather, and for that purpose steered through the strait that separates the cape from Fi

ty-one years before, and named the bay between Capes Grafton and Tribulation, in reverence of the following day. In passing between Cape Grafton and Fitzroy Island, eight or ten

r which the decomposed vegetable matter had formed a soil, which, although shallow, was sufficient to nourish some luxuriant grass (panicum) and a robust species of eucalyptus: among these large flights of cockatoos and parroquets were hovering, but they

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t the back of Cape Tribulation, bearing North 43 degrees West (magnetic); it must have been fifty-five or sixty miles off; th

Euploea hamata, at Cape Cleveland in 1819. It proved to be a variety of the Urania orontes (Godart) of Amboyna and the other Indian Islands. Mr. Cunningham took advantage of the Dick's boat going to the bottom of the bay, to cut grass: near their landing-place he found some natives' huts; some of which were of more substantial construction than usual, and were

lso seen; and, like it, was not more than nine inches wide at the bilge. A small kangaroo was

se themselves as they were inclined, without regarding the situation of the boat, which was soon left dry by the ebbing tide; and it was eight o'clock at night before they succeeded in launching her. Immediately after its return, for which we had been w

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were seen to seaward, which ha

as it was low water and the reef uncovered, we walked across it. It is formed principally of coral, on the surface of which we found the gray trepang; a small Chama gigas, a cypraea, a pret

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urse, and the shadows of the clouds upon the water were at times so deceptious that, whilst they often caused appearances of reefs where none existed, they concealed others that, for the same reason, were not seen until we were close to them. Having now the charge of two me

sent a boat on shore, which was accompanied by one from the Dick, they advanced, and without much hesitation, came forward and communicated with our party. They carried spears with them, and each of our gentlemen had their fowling-pieces: the appearance of Bundell, who on these occasions always took his clothes off, perhaps gave them greater confidence. After some vociferous and uni

as being a good place to refresh at, on account of its supplying both wood and water; but, at the same time we were there, the latter was not found, although the rain had been lately falling in great quantity; with the former, however, it is well supplied. T

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d to break heavily upon the Barrier Reefs, which in this part approach nearer to the mainland than at any other. As we doubled Cape Melville, the wind, as usual

he Frederick's wreck. No vestige was left of her stern or forecastle, both of which were before so

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cing upon him with their spears poised; upon which he presented his gun at the foremost, but, from his having waded about in the water, the powder had got damp and would not go off. Immediately that I heard the shout of the natives, and saw Mr. Harrison retreating from the Indians, who were in close pursuit, I hastened to his assistance, and came up in time to prevent them from doing any mischief; and, by occasionally levelling my gun, kept them at bay whilst we retreated towards the wreck, from which we were about half a mile distant. By this time Mr. Roe, who had also heard the noise, joined; but, as he had not a gun, the only assistance he brought was an addition to our number. Among the four foremost of the natives was a mischievous boy, who, being emboldened by our not firing, and showing an anxiety to get away from them, fixed his spear and aimed it at me; upon which I fired my gun, but, as it was only loaded with small

ent their throwing any more spears; for they were now within a few yards of us: their ferocity, however, began to diminish, as their attention was taken by our clothes and a silk handkerchief which Mr. Roe held out to them: they were about ten in number

with the opportunity so pressingly, but so suspiciously, offered. After our declining this honour, they occasionally laid their hands upon our clothes to detain us, but it did not require much force to make them quit their hold

o be sent for our protection: by the time, however, that Mr. Bedwell arrived, we had succeeded in making friends with the natives; who, upon perceiving that we had now in our turn the superiority, began to draw away, and appeared to be as anxious to get rid of us as we had been, half an hour before, to escape from them; but we accompanied them halfway across the reef, watching an opportunity to seize the boy who had wounded the Dick's man, whom I intended to keep a prisoner while we were here, and then to dismiss him with presents, to show that we were not inimical to them, although angry at being so treacherously attacked. My intention, however, was probably suspected, for they avoided our approaching sufficiently near them to effect my purpose with the certa

r. Cunningham traversed the hills in the vicinity, for it was not safe to trust himself at any distance from our p

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the bay; I therefore went to the shore with Mr. Harrison, to endeavour to make peace, but saw no signs of them, excepting a smoke on the

subsequently pass this way, but also because they must have imbibed a very poor idea of the effect of our arms, when so many musket

ught back a large collection, but not in any great variety; an indifferent cypraea was the most common; but there were also some volutae and other shells, besides trepan

the sea. I found simply the plants of the main, namely, Mimusops parvifolia, Br.; Hoya nivea, Cunningham manuscript; Acacia plectocarpa, Cunningham manuscript; Chionanthus axillaris, Br.; Notelaea punctata, B

so soft a consistence, that the weather had excavated several tiers of galleries; upon the roof and sides of which some curious drawings were observed, which deserve to be particularly described: they were executed upon a ground of red ochre (rubbed on the black schistus) and were delineated by dots of a white argillaceous earth, which had been worked up into a paste. They represented tolerable figures of sharks, porpoises, turtles, lizards (of which I saw several small ones among the rock

ious and profuse mode of life these outcasts of society had, at a period rather recently, followed. The roof

sland, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, formed with a burnt stick; but this performance, exceeding a hundred and fifty figures, which must have occupied much time, appears at least to be one step nearer refinement than

Mr. White, carved on stone in the neighbourhood

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to the northward, over that of last year, excepting that we steered inside of Pelican Island, and to leeward of Island 4. We passed several large sting-rays asleep on the surface of the sea, which our

Antonio anchored close to us. During the night we had a fresh breeze from South-East by East, and, not having any island or reef to shelter us from the swell, we were obliged to drop

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de a North by West 1/2 West course, which was not discovered until we had nearly paid dear for our neglect; for we passed close to a rock

obliged to follow our former courses, to avoid the risk of running over a strange tra

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nd in Margaret Bay, at about half a mile f

ined by bad weath

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ntention to anchor, the sails were reduced; and, as we were in the act of letting go the anchor, Mr. Roe, who was at the masthead holding thoughtlessly by the fore-topmast staysail-halyards, whilst the sail was being hauled down, was precipitated from a height of fifty feet, and fell senseless

but as we appeared to ride tolerably easy with a sheer to starboard, while the Dick rode on the opposite sheer, we remained as we were: to

ve been expected: his fall was, most providentially, broken twice; first by the spritsail brace, and secondly by some planks from the Frederick's wreck, which had fortunately been placed across the forecastle bulwark over the cat-heads: his head struck the edge of the plank and broke his fall, but it

ied by a descent of the mercury; this gave me a very unfavourable idea of our situation: the wind was blowing clear of the reef, and raised a heavy sea; and

ms, mud; in which birth she appeared to ride much easier than before. I was now very anxious about the lost anchor; and, having expressed a wish to inform Mr. Harrison of our situation, and to request him to recover our anchor in the morning if the weather would permit, Mr. Bedwell volunteered to go on board her; which, alth

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ts and showed lights, as signals to the Dick, who, it afterwards appeared, kept a light up for our guidance; but the weather was so squally and thick, with almost constant rain, that it was not seen by us. It was half-past twelve o'clock when we made sail to the North-East by East, deepening from fourteen to sixteen fathoms, and when the hillocky summit of Cairncross Island bore South by West, beyond which bearing we did not know how far we could proceed with safety; we tacked to the South-South-West, and proceeded in that direction until the island bore South, when we were in fourteen fathoms. Having thus ascertained the depth of this space, which was about three miles in extent, it was o

ater part of the way no land could be seen to guide us: by noon we had passed between Cape York and Mount Adolphus,

ng tide): this shoal lies in a North 50 degrees West direction, from the low rocky ledge off the north end of Good's Island, and is distant from it about a mile and a half. The Dick being a little to leeward of our track, had four fathoms; but the le

Island, and steered West by Sout

ly

d East-South-East; and, after rounding the Cape had some heavy rain, in which the mercury, having previously fallen to 29.91, rose to 29.

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passed through the strait that divides them; our track being half a mile m

f the island showed that the last had been an unusually dry season; every place that, even in the month of August, six weeks later, had before yielded large quan

6 t

g any: he had improvidently dug large holes, into which all the water good and bad had drained, and thereby the good was spoiled. The following morning he sent another specimen, which, notwithstanding it was considerably better, was still too bad to tempt me to embark any. During the San Antonio's stay at Sims Island, our gentleman paid it a visit: its vegetation appeared to have suffered as much from want of rain as Goulburn Island. "The venerab

away from the boat, the natives came down, and would have carried off all the boat's furniture, and everything in her, had they not been disturbed by the return of one of the sailors with a musket. They succeeded however, in making a prize of a new boat-cloak, and the boat-hook, and one of them had nearly succeeded in carrying off an oar, but upon being fired at, dropped

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the bay, and passed to the eastward of New Year's Island: the Dick and ourselves then steered to t

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cheers; and it was not without a considerable degree of regret that we took this leave of our friends; for it is but due to Mr. Harrison to say that we received very great assistance f

m a brief account of our voyage up the east coast, acquainted them of my intention of employing the fine-weather months of July and August