Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume I Part 35

The river channel ran up in a due north-east direction for about four miles without in the least altering its character. It was in vain that we walked over the intervening slips of land into the side channels; these in all respects except in being narrower exactly resembled the main one; and, after ranging across from bank to bank in this way, the only general conclusion I could arrive at was that the country upon the northern bank of the river appeared scrubby and covered with samphire swamps, whilst that upon its southern bank seemed rich and promising.

EXPLORE THE COUNTRY INLAND TO THE NORTH OF THE RIVER.

The river now made a sudden turn to the east by north, and we followed it in this direction for three miles and a half without finding the slightest change in its character or appearance. No high land whatever was in sight, and from a low rounded hill, which was the highest point we could see, the rise of the country towards the interior was scarcely perceptible; indeed it presented the appearance of being a vast delta; and such I then and subsequently conjectured it to be.

During our walk up the bed of the river we had seen many c.o.c.katoos, some wildfowl, and numerous tracks of natives; these all appeared to me to be indications of a well watered and fertile tract of country.

I now turned off west by south, quitting the bed of the river, which I named the Gascoyne in compliment to my friend, Captain Gascoyne, and found that we were in a very fertile district, being one of those splendid exceptions to the general sterility of Australia which are only occasionally met with: it apparently was one immense delta of alluvial soil covered with gently sloping gra.s.sy rises, for they could scarcely be called hills; and in the valleys between these lay many freshwater lagoons which rested upon a red clay soil that tinged the water of its own colour and gave it an earthy taste.

The country here was but very lightly timbered and well adapted for either agricultural or pastoral purposes, but especially for the growth of cotton and sugar, should the climate be sufficiently warm; and of this I think there can be no doubt whatever. I was so won by the discovery of this rich district that I wandered on unconscious of the fatigue of the party, roaming from rising ground to rising ground, and hoping from each eminence to gain a view of high land to the eastward, but on all sides I could see nothing but the same low fertile country. I however felt conscious that within a few years of the moment at which I stood there a British population, rich in civilization and the means of transforming an unoccupied country to one teeming with inhabitants and produce, would have followed my steps and be eagerly and anxiously examining my charts; and this reflection imparted a high degree of interest and importance to our present position and operations.

RETURN TO THE RIVER.

The darkness of night was now closing round us and Kaiber the native, with his long thin legs, put himself at the head of the party and, taking a star for his guide, led us with rapid and lengthy paces across the plains to the encampment, where we found the party anxiously waiting to hear what success we had met with. Poor Mr. Smith was very unwell tonight with a feverish attack. Mr. Walker had prescribed for him and ordered him to be kept quiet. I got a meridian alt.i.tude of Procyon which put us in 24 degrees 56 minutes 57 seconds south lat.i.tude.

March 6.

Mr. Smith was if anything worse this morning, and I learned from some of the men that he had been wandering about all night, and had bathed several times in the river. I remonstrated with him about having done so, but he excused himself, and I determined to remain stationary at this point for a day or two to give him plenty of rest before we again started on our cruise along the coast.

PLAN OF FUTURE PROCEEDINGS.

After the discovery of the Gascoyne the plan I made up my mind to follow was to examine rapidly the coast as far as Cape Cuvier, to return from that point to Bernier Island and refit; then once more to visit the Gascoyne properly equipped, and thoroughly explore the adjacent district to the distance of fifty or sixty miles inland; and lastly to examine the unknown portion of Shark Bay which lay to the southward of us.

At 6 A.M. the thermometer stood at 76 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, and this and the temperature during our stay in Shark Bay proves that the climate there is very warm. Before breakfast I had wells sunk in several places at some little distance inland in order to ascertain the nature of the subsoil, for we were abundantly supplied with water from the lagoons.

In every instance, after digging down to the depth of from six to seven feet through a rich loam, we reached a regular sandy sea beach and salt water (it must however be recollected that we dug in the deepest hollows) so that it appeared as if the whole of this flat country was a formation left upon the shoals with which the coast is bounded; and it almost seemed as if the sea still flowed in upon its old bed and under this recent freshwater deposit.

Directly after breakfast I got ferried across the river to the island lying between its two mouths, which I called Babbage Island after C.

Babbage, Esquire. This island is low and sandy in all parts except where it fronts the sea; but on that side a row of high sandy dunes have been thrown up. There is no very good land on it, it being almost covered with samphire swamps and intersected by deep channels into which the sea runs; these are nearly concealed in some places by the vegetation, which rendered it impossible to avoid sundry falls and wettings in crossing it.

It bears a few mangroves but I saw no other trees.

The men throughout the day were occupied in watering and in making canvas cloths for my boats to prevent the water from pouring in over the gunwales, which were very low; and my own time was sufficiently occupied in surveying. On my return in the evening I found Mr. Smith so much wore cheerful and so much better that I determined to start about noon the next day for the northward.

EXCURSION TO THE NORTH OF THE RIVER.

March 7.

I went off with a party before dawn to explore the country to the northward of the Gascoyne. We crossed the river just above the point where it separates into two mouths, and then struck off in a north by east direction. Travelling about a mile after we had crossed the river we came to seven native huts, built of large-sized logs, much higher and altogether of a very superior description to those made by the natives on the south-western coast. Kaiber examined them very carefully and then proposed that we should go no farther, as he thought that the natives must be very large men from their having such large huts. We however pushed forward and, as I had none but good walkers with me, we made about nine miles in two hours and a half: throughout the whole of this distance we saw nothing that could be called a hill, the whole country being evidently at times flooded up to the foot of a gently-rising land which we distinguished to the eastward. We did not notice a single tree but plenty of low p.r.i.c.kly bushes, samphire, and a small plant somewhat resembling the English heath. The weather was very hot, and at the end of the nine miles we reached a salt.w.a.ter inlet so broad and deep that we could not cross it. We here halted and rested a little and then made our way back to the boats.

APPROACH OF NATIVES.

I found Mr. Smith much better and, there being now nothing to delay us, we started. When we had got about half a mile down the river we saw two natives following us along the sh.o.r.e, jumping about in the most extraordinary way, and, from their gesticulations and manner, evidently ordering us to quit the coast. From the mountebank actions of these fellows I guessed that they were two of the native sorcerers, who were charming us away but, as I was not disposed to be so easily got rid of, we pulled near the sh.o.r.e and lay upon our oars to give them an opportunity of coming up to us.

ATTEMPT AT A CONFERENCE. INTERVIEW WITH NATIVES.

Upon this they mounted a little eminence, blew most furiously at us, and performed other equally efficacious ceremonies. I however felt just as well after we had been subjected to this dire sorcery as I did before; and we continued to pull gently along the sh.o.r.e, still trying to induce them to approach, which they at last did, having nothing but a fis.h.i.+ng-spear in their hands. To entice them towards us I had made Kaiber strip himself and stand up in the boat; and now that they were near enough to us I told him to call out to them and say that we were friends.

He hereupon shouted out, "Come in, come in; Mr. Grey sulky yu-a-da;" by which he intended to say, "Come here, come here; Mr. Grey is not angry with you." The two sorcerers, utterly confused by this mode of address, committed more overt acts of witchcraft towards us than they had even hitherto done; and Kaiber, turning round to me, said, "Weak ears have they and wooden foreheads; they do not understand the southern language."

But as I was dissatisfied with his proof of their knowledge of the southern language I desired him to wade ash.o.r.e and speak to them.

KAIBER'S DREAD OF THEM.

This order of mine was a perfect thunderbolt to Kaiber. He, in common with all the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, had an utter aversion to all strange natives; and to this he joined a sort of religious horror of witches, buck-witches, warlocks, and uncanny persons generally. King James the First could never have found a more zealous and partic.i.p.ating partner of his fears than Kaiber; he gave me a blank look of horror and a.s.sured me that these were actual sorcerers, "northern sorcerers;" and as he repeated these last words there was a mysterious, deep meaning in his tone, as if he expected to see me thrill with terror.

From his earliest infancy he had been accustomed to dread these men; every storm that occurred he had been taught to consider as arising from their incantations: if one of his friends or relatives died a natural death he had attributed that death to the spells and unholy practices of these very people with whom he was now directed to go and hold converse.

I thought of all this and pitied him; for even for a native he was excessively superst.i.tious. But I was extremely anxious to establish friendly relations with them; therefore I was positive and repeated to him my former directions that he should wade ash.o.r.e, coax them up, and speak to them.

In as far as a native can turn white from fear Kaiber did turn white, and then stepping into the water he waded ash.o.r.e and the two natives cautiously approached him. As soon as they were close to him I joined the party with a large piece of damper in one hand and a piece of pork in the other. The natives were dreadfully frightened; they stood in the presence of unknown and mysterious beings. No persuasions could induce them to take my hand or to touch me; and they trembled from head to foot.

FRIENDLY COMMUNICATION ESTABLISHED.

For a time they were nearly unintelligible to Kaiber and myself, but as they gained confidence I found that they spoke a dialect very closely resembling that of the natives to the north of the Swan River. They addressed many questions to us, such as, Whence we had come? where we were going to? was the boat a dead tree? but they evaded giving any direct answers to our questions. Being anxious to start I now left them to bear to their companions the strange food I had bestowed, and to recount to eager listeners the mysterious tale of their interview with beings from another world, and who were of an unknown form and colour.

SAIL FROM THE GASCOYNE.

Whilst they hurried off with some such thoughts pa.s.sing through their minds we pulled down the Gascoyne in search of new lands and new adventures.

AFFINITY OF DIALECTS.

The result of this conference affords an example of the grounds upon which any similarity of the language in different portions of the continent of Australia has been denied. In this instance, had I at first taken the word of Kaiber for it, I should have left the Gascoyne with a firm conviction that the natives of that part of Australia spoke a radically different language from the natives near the Swan River; and this would have been proved by the fact of a native from the south not understanding them: whereas there is a great affinity between the two dialects, to discover which requires however an acquaintance with the general principles of language, some knowledge of the one in question, and due patience. I can only say that wherever I have been in the southern portions of the continent I could soon understand the natives.

CHAPTER 16. TO KOLAINA AND BACK TO THE GASCOYNE.

EXAMINE THE COAST TO THE NORTH OF THE GASCOYNE.

March 7.

When we got outside the mouth of the Gascoyne a fresh breeze was blowing from the south-east. We ran along the sh.o.r.e west by north, keeping about a quarter of a mile from it; and after having made about three miles and a half we reached the southern extremity of the other mouth of the river.

The mean depth in our course along Babbage Island had been from two and a half fathoms to three fathoms; and this opening had a bar which we then conceived to run right across the mouth of the river. The northern extremity of Babbage Island is a very remarkable low point of land which I called Mangrove Point. It cannot fail to be recognised for it is the first point from the northward along the eastern sh.o.r.es of Shark Bay where mangroves are found, and from that point they extend almost uninterruptedly down the eastern coast of this bay to the south, as far as I have seen it.

CONTINUE THE COURSE TO THE NORTHWARD.

The coast now trended north by west and we continued to run along it.

After pa.s.sing Mangrove Point the sandy dunes along the sh.o.r.e ceased, and the land appeared to be scarcely elevated above the level of the sea: not a hill or tree could be perceived, and a low black line almost level with the water's edge was the only indication that we had of being near land.

LYELL'S RANGE.

This kind of sh.o.r.e continues for about nine miles, when low sandhills begin to rise parallel to the coast, and these gradually increase in alt.i.tude until they form that remarkable range of dunes which I have called Lyell's Range. When it wanted about an hour to sunset we had made about twenty-five miles, and then ran in closer along the coast to look either for a boat harbour or some spot at which we could beach them. But nothing suited to our purpose could we see: the coast was straight, sandy, exposed and lashed by a tremendous surf; the wind now freshened considerably and the sky looked very threatening; we had therefore no resource left but either to run to the northward before the breeze or to beach the boats. I chose the first alternative; and we coasted within about a quarter of a mile of the sh.o.r.e, just outside the surf, looking out for any spot which gave us the least hope of beaching in safety.

BEACH THE BOATS.

As the sun sank so freshened the breeze, until it blew a good half gale of wind, and everything gave indications of approaching foul weather.

This was no coast to be on during a stormy night in heavily laden whale-boats; and as it now began to grow dark I determined at all hazards to beach rather than be driven out to sea in a gale of wind. I accordingly ran my boat in through the surf, leaving the other one outside to see what success we had before they made the attempt.

BOAT SWAMPED IN BEACHING.

The surf was very heavy but the men behaved steadily and well; and through it we went, dancing along like a cork in a mill-pond; at last one huge roller caught us, all hands gave way, and we were hurried along on the top of the swelling billow, which then suddenly fell under us and broke; in a moment after we had grounded, and although still upwards of two hundred yards from the sh.o.r.e, we all jumped out to haul the boat up, but ere we could move our heavily laden whaler beyond a few yards breaker after breaker came tumbling in and completely swamped it. We continued to haul away and presently found ourselves swimming. In fact the whole coast hereabouts was fronted by a kind of bar of sand, distant about two hundred yards from the sh.o.r.e, with not more than two feet water on it.

Between this and the sh.o.r.e the water was tolerably smooth and two fathoms deep. It was upon this outer bar that we had struck, and the other boat experienced the same fate as ourselves. We of course pa.s.sed a miserable night in our drenched and wretched state; but it was at all events some comfort, when we heard during the night the boisterous wind blowing outside, to feel that we were safe ash.o.r.e.

DAMAGE TO OUR PROVISIONS.