Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Volume I Part 11

(*Footnote. The value of the trepang in 1822 was much less; the price had fallen to twenty-five dollars the picol.)

Dramah informed me that there are several rivers upon the coast, but that in procuring water from them they are generally attacked by the Maregas, whom they describe as treacherous and hostile, and by whom they are frequently defeated; for the Indians attack them only when they are unprepared. Their small canoes are frequently stolen from them, which accounts for the one we captured from the natives of Goulburn Island.

A perpetual warfare exists between them, so that it would be a difficult matter for us to procure a friendly communication with a people who cannot, of course, discriminate between us and the Malays. I regretted to hear this, for our force was so small that I feared we should, in our future visits to the coast, be frequently attacked, and perhaps be under the necessity of convincing them of the destructive power of our weapons, which they must first experience before they can dread their fatal effects.

During our stay at Coepang the thermometer ranged between 75 and 91 degrees. The lat.i.tude of the flag-staff was observed by several observations to be 10 degrees 9 minutes 40 seconds. No observations were taken for the longitude, on account of my being confined to my bed with an attack of ague, the effects of which remained upon me for some time afterwards; but the result of those made by Captain Flinders and Commodore Baudin were so satisfactory that I had no hesitation in taking the mean of the two, 123 degrees 35 minutes 46 seconds, for the correction of my chronometers, and for the purpose of comparing with the longitudes I had a.s.signed to several parts of the coast that we had just left.

Before we sailed from Coepang the departure of a vessel for Batavia furnished me with the opportunity of acquainting the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty of my progress; and the letter fortunately arrived in time to contradict a report that had reached England of our "having been wrecked on the South Coast at Cape Northumberland, and that all hands had perished." This report could never be satisfactorily traced to its author, but it was supposed to have been spread by the man who commanded the Mermaid before she was purchased by the government, in revenge for his having lost his employment.

On the 13th we completed everything, and embarked our stock.

June 14.

And the next morning at daylight we left the bay, and, pa.s.sing round the islands of Samow and Rottee, steered South-West by South (which was as close to the wind as we could steer to make a direct course) across the sea, which might, with some degree of propriety, be called the Great Australian Strait; but this course was too westerly to admit of our reaching the coast so far to the westward as was wished.

June 19.

On the 19th we pa.s.sed over a coral bank with twenty-six fathoms in lat.i.tude 19 degrees 30 minutes and longitude 116 degrees 15 minutes 30 seconds.

The thermometer now ranged no higher than 76 1/2 degrees and obliged us to resume our warmer clothing.

June 20.

At eight o'clock the next morning land was seen bearing South-West by West, and proved to be that laid down by Captain Baudin, to the southward of the Montebello Islands; one of which, Trimouille Island, was also visible in the North-West. We bore up at noon, intending to pa.s.s round the south end of the land, seen in West-South-West; but after running about five miles further the land proved to be an island, and was called after John Barrow, Esquire, one of the Secretaries of the Admiralty. We were prevented from steering round it by a very extensive shoal that stretches off its south end towards a low sandy islet, which proved to be one that had been seen by us last February. Several attempts were made to find a channel through the reef, but without success; and at sunset we anch.o.r.ed to the north-west of the islet, from which several islands were recognised by us, particularly a large one to the westward of Cape Preston.

As this part of the coast had been previously seen by us, we did not delay any longer.

June 21.

But the following morning steered to the northward.

June 22.

The next day we pa.s.sed round Trimouille Island and left the coast.

Off the North-West end of Trimouille Island is a considerable reef.

Hermite Island was not seen, but a small lump on the horizon, to the south of the former, was probably Lowendal Island. As we did not see the western side of Barrow's Island, that coast is laid down from M. De Freycinet's chart; the land, although low, is considerably higher than the usual elevation of the neighbouring islands, but it appeared to be equally arid and sterile. Trimouille Island appears scarcely better than a cl.u.s.ter of dry rocks.

Off these islands we had much calm weather, during which we were surrounded by myriads of fish, of which sharks, and small whales, called by the whalers fin-backs, were the most conspicuous. The smaller kinds consisted of bonetas, barracoutas, porpoises, and flying fish. A voracious dolphin was harpooned, in the maw of which was a barracouta in a half-digested state, and in the throat a flying fish, bitten in half, waiting its turn to be swallowed; for its tail had not disappeared out of the dolphin's mouth.

June 24 to 26.

For a few days we had light south-westerly winds, but they soon gave place to the South-East trade, which carried us quickly to the South-West. The situation a.s.signed by the Dutch sloop to the Tryal Rocks was pa.s.sed, without our noticing any indication of their existence.

June 30.

On the 30th we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, between the 106th and 107th degree of east longitude; the South-East trade then died away, and was succeeded by light baffling winds, between South-West and South, and from that to East, attended with very cloudy damp weather, and frequent squalls of heavy rain. This unwholesome state of the air increased the number of our sick, for soon after leaving Timor the crew were attacked by dysentery brought on by change of diet; and at one time the disease wore a very alarming appearance.

1818. July 7.

Having reached with difficulty the lat.i.tude of 27 degrees 37 minutes and longitude 104 degrees 51 minutes, a breeze freshened up, and gradually veered from South-South-East to East, and East-North-East.

July 9 to 13.

Between the 9th and 13th (on which day we pa.s.sed the meridian of Cape Leeuwin) we had variable winds between North-East and North-West: on the 9th the wind blew a heavy gale, in which our jolly-boat was washed away, and obliging us to bear up to the South-East prevented our seeing the land about Cape Chatham, as had been intended.

July 14 to 23.

Between this and King's Island we had strong gales from the westward, veering, at times, between north and south, with thick and sometimes rainy weather. During the southerly winds the air was very cold, and lowered the mercury to 47 and 49 degrees; but when the wind veered to the north it rose to 55 degrees, and gave us considerable relief.

On the 23rd soundings were struck off King's Island

July 24.

And the next morning we entered Ba.s.s Strait by pa.s.sing round the south end of the island. Here George Speed, one of our seamen, breathed his last; his death was occasioned by an excessive indulgence in the vegetables and fruits obtained at Timor, and he had been sick ever since we left that place; first with dysentery, and then with an intestinal inflammation.

The weather was so bad when we pa.s.sed through the south entrance to the Strait that we could make no very particular observation upon Reid's Rocks, but they appear to be correctly placed by Captain Flinders.

July 26.

We did not get through the Strait until the 26th. In pa.s.sing the Pyramid it was found to be placed five miles too much to the northward in Captain Flinders' chart.

The weather was now thick with heavy rain, and the wind blowing a gale from West-South-West. I became very anxious to arrive at Port Jackson; for we had but five men who could keep watch. The damp weather had attended us with little intermission since our pa.s.sing Cape Leeuwin, and our people had been constantly wet with the continued breaking over of the sea: indeed the decks had only been twice dry, and that even for a few hours, since we left that meridian.

July 27.

On the 27th, by sunset, we were abreast of Cape Howe.

July 29.

And on the 29th, at noon, the lighthouse on the south head of the port was joyfully descried. At eight o'clock in the evening we entered the heads, and anch.o.r.ed in Sydney Cove at midnight, after an absence of thirty-one weeks and three days.

Upon reviewing the proceedings of the voyage, the result of which bore but a small proportion to what we had yet to do, I saw, with no little satisfaction, that I had been enabled to set at rest the two particular points of my instructions, namely, the opening behind Rosemary Island, and the examination of the great bay of Van Diemen.

Upon rounding the North-West Cape, we had been unfortunate in losing our anchors, which very much crippled our proceedings, and prevented our prosecuting the examination of the coast in so detailed a manner as we otherwise might have done; for we possessed no resource to avail ourselves of, if we had been so unfortunate as to get on sh.o.r.e. A series of fine weather, however, on the first part, and a sheltered coast with good anchorage on the latter part of the voyage, enabled us to carry on the survey without accident; and nearly as much has been effected with one anchor as could have been done had we possessed the whole. It prevented, however, our examining the bottom of Exmouth Gulf, and our landing upon Depuch Island. The latter was a great disappointment to us, on account of the following description which M. Peron gives of the island, in his historical account of Baudin's Voyage, from the report of M. Ronsard, who visited it.

"Au seul aspect de cette ile, on pouvoit deja pressentir qu'elle etoit d'une nature differente de toutes celles que nous avions vues jusqu'a ce jour. En effet, les terres en etoient plus hautes, les formes plus p.r.o.noncees: a mesure qu'on put s'en rapprocher, la difference devint plus sensible encore. Au lieu de ces cotes uniformement prolongees, qui n'offroient aucune pointe, aucun piton, aucune eminence, on voyait se dessiner sur cette ile des roches aigues, solitaires, qui, comme autant d'aiguilles, sembloient s'elancer de la surface du sol. Toute l'ile etoit volcanique; des prismes de basalte, le plus ordinairement pentaedres, enta.s.ses les uns sur les autres, reposant le plus souvent sur leurs angles, en const.i.tuoient la ma.s.se entiere. La s'elevoient comme des murs de pierre de taille; ailleurs, se presentoient des especes de paves basaltiques, a.n.a.logues a ceux de la fameuse Chaussee des Geans. Dans quelques endroits on observoit des excavations plus ou moins profondes; les eaux des parties voisines s'y etoient reunies, et formoient des especes de fontaines, dans chacune desquelles nos gens trouverent une tres-pet.i.te quant.i.te d'excellente eau ferrugineuse. Dans ces lieux plus humides, la vegetation etoit plus active; on y remarquoit de beaux arbustes et quelques arbres plus gros, qui const.i.tuoient de pet.i.ts bosquets tres-agreables; le reste de l'ile, avec une disposition differente, offroit un coup d'oeil bien different aussi: parmi ces monceaux de laves enta.s.sees sans ordre, regne une sterilite generale; et la couleur noire de ces roches volcaniques ajoutoit encore a l'aspect triste et monotone de cette pet.i.te ile. La marche y est difficile, a cause des prismes de basalte qui, couches horizontalement sur le sol, presentent leurs aretes aigues en saillantes et dehors."

M. Peron then quotes M. Depuch's (the mineralogist to the expedition) report: "La couleur de ce basalte est d'un gris tirant sur le bleu; sa contexture est tres-serree, son grain fin et d'apparence petro-silicieuse; de pet.i.tes lames brillantes et irregulierement situees sont disseminees dans toute la ma.s.se; il ne fait aucune effervescence avec les acides, et n'affecte pas sensiblement le barreau aimante; sa partie exterieure a eprouve une espece d'alteration produite par les molecules ferrugineuses: cette decomposition n'atteint pas ordinairement au dela de 3 ou 4 millemetres de profondeur."

M. Peron then continues M. Ronsard's report: "M. Ronsard croit devoir penser, d'apres la conformation generale et la couleur de la partie du continent voisine, qu'elle est d'une nature semblable et volcanique.

C'eut ete, sans doute un objet d'autant plus important a verifier, que, jusqu'alors, nous n'avions rien pu voir de volcanique sur la Nouvelle Hollande, et que depuis lors encore, nous n'y avons jamais trouve aucun produit de ce genre; mais notre commandant, sans s'inquieter d'une phenomene qui se rattache cependant d'une maniere essentielle a la geographie de cette portion de la Nouvelle Hollande, donna l'ordre de poursuivre notre route."

(*Footnote. Peron Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australes volume 1 page 130.)

The rise of the tide was found by the French officer who landed upon it to be at least twenty-five feet, which fact of itself was sufficient to have induced us to examine into the cause of so unusual a circ.u.mstance; for the greatest rise that we had hitherto found was not more than eight or nine feet.

The hills at the back of this group of islands, which Commodore Baudin called L'Archipel Forestier, recede from the coast in the shape of an amphitheatre, which made me suppose that the coast trended in and formed a deep bay; but this still remains to be ascertained, and we quitted the place with much regret: for it unquestionably presented a far more interesting feature than any part that we had previously seen.