Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume I Part 29

brandy, rum, gin, lead and flints.

quart-gla.s.s decanters, cruet stands, dress swords, wine gla.s.ses and rummers, knives and forks, razors, needles, scissors, earrings, bracelets, shawls of sorts, mock jewellery, sugar, soap, biscuits.

Bally and Surabaya are good places for rice, but more especially the former, as it is to be had cheap, especially if bartered for opium. The rice can be carried to Macao where a good price can always be obtained for it.

Puloo, Batao, and Ocussi on the coast of Timor are good places for obtaining tortoisesh.e.l.l at all times, as well as the islands in front of Timor, from October to December. The price is about 800 Spanish dollars per picul in cash; but in exchange for blue or white cloth, powder, arms, flint, etc., it would be obtained for much less.

Roti and Bally are both good places for ponies in exchange for cash or goods.

The following is an account of our purchase and barter at the island of Roti in January 1838:

10 horses for 10 muskets (old).

4 horses for 2 fowling-pieces (old).

9 horses for 27 1/2 rupees each.

3 mares for 22 rupees each.

8 sheep for an old regimental breastplate.

14 goats for a pair of pistols (old).

The duty on each horse was six rupees.

In Mr. Earle's translation of the account of the voyage of the Dutch colonial brig Dourga, which, it is stated, left Amboyna May 26th 1825 and visited the islands of Kissa, Lettee, Mon, Damma, Lakor, and Luan,* it is said, in speaking of them:

The clothing of those who cannot obtain European or Indian cotton cloth is pieces of prepared bark fastened round their waists.

The productions of these islands are sandalwood, beeswax, pearls, tortoisesh.e.l.l, trepang, edible birds' nests, Indian corn, rice, vegetables, with abundance of livestock. As the use of money is scarcely known these are only to be obtained by barter in exchange for cotton cloths, bra.s.s wire, iron chopping knives, and coa.r.s.e cutlery. The first article, cotton cloth, is most in demand and M. Kolff suggests that a European merchant might carry on an advantageous trade here. The value of an ox is from 8 s.h.i.+llings and 4 pence to 10 s.h.i.+llings; of a sheep from 3 s.h.i.+llings and 4 pence to 5 s.h.i.+llings. Beeswax can be obtained in abundance at Roma at the rate of 2 pounds 7 s.h.i.+llings per hundredweight.

The trade with the islands is carried on solely by natives, those of Maca.s.sar, Amboyna, and the Arru Islands being the chief purchasers; and Chinese brigs from Java occasionally visit Kissa.

(*Footnote. The Serwatty Islands to the east of Timor see the map of the Asiatic Archipelago by Mr. John Arrowsmith.)

Geby, an island in the Gellola pa.s.sage, has a fine harbour; a large quant.i.ty of tortoisesh.e.l.l can be obtained there for trade with the natives. The Asia's Islands, lying a short distance to the northward, are not inhabited but abound in turtle.

TRADE WITH THE ISLANDS OF THE ASIATIC ARCHIPELAGO.

The following points of information concerning the Indian Archipelago were furnished by Captain Brodie, formerly in command of a Dutch vessel of 326 tons:

In case of a necessity for repairing or coppering a vessel Surabaya is the best place as it can be done well and cheap. Wood for s.h.i.+p-building is abundant; and good carpenters can be had at the rate of 20 copper doits per diem, that is to say, three men for a rupee a day.

The Malaccas are under Dutch government, of which Ternate forms a part.

It is said to be a good place to dispose of odds and ends,* and for getting a little sh.e.l.l. It is also a good place for refreshments.

Banda is not so good a place to go to, if another is at hand, as it is for a merchant vessel a strictly prohibited port. In fact the Spice islands, or Malaccas, can be entered for water and refreshments.

At Timor (Kupang) you can get sandalwood, wax, and a little sh.e.l.l, but dear.

At the north-east end of Celebes there are two other places, Monado and Keema, where the best gormootip or black coir rope can be obtained at about 7 rupees per picul. These two places are under the Dutch government. Some little business might be done there: stock in particular is cheap.

At the island of Ceram the inhabitants are said to be favourable to the English, but Dutch vessels of war cruise often about there, and are very jealous.

Bouton, a small island with a Rajah under Dutch protection, situate at the south-east end of Celebes, and off the bay of Boni, is a place where prows a.s.semble and get vast quant.i.ties of sh.e.l.ls and beche-de-mer. Nearly all these prows proceed with their cargoes to Singapore for a Chinese market.

Fine cattle are to be had at about four dollars a head at the town of Bally, in the Straits of Alla.s.s, between Lombok and Sumbawa.

New Guinea produces good beeswax, pearls, tortoise-sh.e.l.l, trepang, birds-of-paradise, etc.

(*Footnote. Another authority says: Tidore near Ternate is a good friendly place. Articles for trade are looking-gla.s.ses of a better kind, knives and forks, beads, watches, printed calicos, blue Pondicherry cloth, Salimpores, arms, powder, flints, lead or shot, razors, scissors, handkerchiefs; in return for which you may get pearls, pearl-sh.e.l.l, tortoisesh.e.l.l, birds-of-paradise, nutmegs, etc.)

FIELD FOR ENTERPRISE.

I shall conclude this subject with some remarks of Mr. John Sullivan.

R.N., a gentleman who possesses a vast fund of information regarding the Indian Archipelago, and to whom I am indebted for many details regarding its commerce. He says:

To suppose that the almost countless islands in the ocean before-named (the Pacific) do not give many valuable articles, and particularly tortoisesh.e.l.l and pearl, would be no less an error than to doubt the existence of the islands altogether.

No, the case is otherwise; and it is needless to say that in the quarter alluded to there are already a few American merchants, who have discovered by their China, whaling, and sealing voyages many sources of wealth, and who are at this moment reaping rich rewards for their toil, while 999 out of every thousand of the European world know nothing at all about it. Nevertheless there is yet a vast field open to the speculator, which must ever promise ample recompense for his confidence and outlay.

CHAPTER 13. AT SWAN RIVER.

PLAN FOR RETURNING TO THE NORTH-WEST COAST. WHY ABANDONED.

On arriving at the Mauritius I found that my stay would be unavoidably protracted from the state of my wound, which the want of rest and attention had prevented from healing during the expedition, whilst my men were still suffering under the effects of the hards.h.i.+ps and privations they had recently been subjected to; my first step therefore was to discharge the Lynher, and the next to consider a plan for future operations.

The rivers Fitzroy and Glenelg, simultaneously discovered by Captain Wickham and myself, although of considerable magnitude, were only sufficient to account for the drainage of a small portion of the vast continent of Australia, and this interesting question, far from being placed in a clearer point of view by our expeditions, was if possible involved in deeper obscurity than ever. I was therefore anxious to return to the north-west coast and solve the mystery that still hung over those regions; but, after considering various plans and suggestions, in which I was kindly a.s.sisted by the advice and opinions of Sir William Nicolay, then Governor of the Mauritius, I was induced to forego the intention of proceeding again direct to the north-west, and to bend my course in the first instance to Swan River. There I could consult Sir James Stirling, the Governor, who had been instructed on our departure from England to afford us every a.s.sistance; and, according to the means which could then be obtained, I might either proceed again by sea to the vicinity of the Glenelg or the Fitzroy; or, if a proper vessel and equipments could not be had, I might endeavour to pa.s.s the range to the north-east of that colony, ascertain the direction of the streams which must be thrown off by it to the interior, and trace the main river into which they fell (if such there was) to its outlet.

PROCEED TO SWAN RIVER.

I accordingly embarked my party and the stores in my possession at Port Louis on the 21st August 1838, and arrived on the 18th September at Swan River, where I lost no time in communicating my views to Sir James Stirling, who concurred in the plan for returning to the north-west; and it was arranged that as soon as the colonial vessel Champion, then absent on a voyage to St. George's Sound, should come back to the Swan, it should be prepared for the conveyance to Camden Bay of myself and party, reinforced by such additional persons as might feel disposed to proceed there at their own cost for speculative purposes.

RETURN TO THE NORTH-WEST FRUSTRATED.

It was not however until the month of December following that the Colonial schooner became disposable, and then new impediments arose from her being found so much in want of repair as to be, in Sir James Stirling's opinion, scarcely in a condition to proceed on such a voyage as we contemplated, whilst the repairs required were of a nature which could not be effected in the Colony. From these and other considerations, more especially the danger and disappointment likely to be experienced for want of proper equipment, which it was found very difficult to supply at the Swan in an effective and satisfactory manner, the expedition to the North-west was deemed unadvisable and for the present given up.

It is unnecessary here to dwell on the mortification I felt at being obliged thus to abandon my long-cherished projects. The delays I had already experienced were sufficiently vexatious, but I had endeavoured to turn the time thus lost to some profit by endeavouring to acquaint myself with the resources of the country, as well as in acquiring information of a scientific nature, and I had attained such a knowledge of the language of the natives as enabled me to form a vocabulary of the different dialects spoken in these parts, which was printed and forwarded to England at the close of the year.

My excursions into the country from Perth whilst awaiting the arrival and fitting out of the Champion were necessarily short, but the journal of one to the northward, made in company with my young friend Mr. Frederick Smith, who afterwards fell a sacrifice in the expedition to Shark Bay, will I think be interesting enough to be inserted here.

EXCURSION TO THE NORTH OF PERTH.

November 30.

Mr. Smith and myself started at noon this day, accompanied by Corporal Auger and two natives, upon a trip in a northerly direction; about 5 P.M.

we reached a lake distant about fifteen miles from Perth, and called by the natives Mooloore: we halted here for the night.

The horses were scarcely tethered and our fire made when four more natives joined the party; their names were Noogongoo, Kurral, Jeebar, and Dudemurry; they brought us a present of twenty-seven freshwater tortoises, the average weight of each of which was half a pound. They said that, although the lake was called Mooloore, the name of the land we were sitting on was Doondalup.

STORY-TELLING.