North Cape of New Zealand--Superstitions--Cook’s great Lizard
--Traditions--Currents--Thermometer--Sydney--Dr. Darwin--Drought
--Aqueduct--Position--Disadvantages--Ill-acquired wealth of
Convicts, or Emancipists--Hobart Town--Advantages of Van Diemen’s
Land--King George Sound--Natives--Dance--Keeling Islands--Tides
--Soundings--Coral formations--Malays--Fish--Weather--Mauritius
--Cape of Good Hope--St. Helena--Ascension--Bahia--Pernambuco
--Cape Verde Islands--Azores--Arrive in England.
On the last day of this year (1835) we passed the north cape of New
Zealand, and steered for Port Jackson. It has been said that the New
Zealanders entertain vague ideas about the spirits of their dead
hovering near this north cape. I had no opportunity of inquiring into
this superstition, but as other authorities besides Cook mention it,
no doubt there is some such belief among those who have not acquired
different notions from foreigners. To my mind it is interesting in
two points of view; one, as showing their belief in a future state
of existence; and the other, as indicating the quarter whence New
Zealand was first peopled; for it appears to be an impression common
to many savage nations, that their souls should go to the land of
their ancestors. This is particularly remarkable among the South
American aborigines. It is not easy to imagine any motive for the
New Zealanders supposing that spirits hover about the North Cape,
in preference to any other promontory of New Zealand, unless in
connexion with the idea that from the point nearest to the country
whence those people formerly migrated, the souls of the deceased
would, after a time perhaps, depart to their permanent abode.
In taking leave of this interesting country I will refer to Cook once
more, for a curious notice, given in his third voyage, respecting
great lizards in New Zealand, which have not, so far as I am aware,
been lately described, or even met with. ‘Taweiharooa’ gave an
account of snakes and lizards of an enormous size: “he describes the
latter as being eight feet in length, and as big round as a man’s
body. He said that they sometimes seize and devour men; that they
burrow in the ground; and that they are killed by making fires at
the mouths of the holes. We could not be mistaken as to the animal;
for, with his own hand, he drew a very good representation of a
lizard on a piece of paper; as also of a snake, in order to show
what he meant.”--(Cook’s third Voyage, chap. VII.) Perhaps this huge
kind of lizard has become extinct; but it is possible that it yet
exists on the southern (or middle) island. In its burrowing we are
reminded of the great lizard, or iguana, of the Galapagos Islands;
but the assertion that it sometimes seizes men seems to refer to an
alligator, or crocodile. Cook heard of it shortly after leaving Queen
Charlotte Sound, from a native of the southern large island.[1] If
such a reptile ever existed upon the northern island it must have
been exterminated by the earliest aboriginal settlers, as they have
now no tradition of any animals except dogs, pigs, rats, mice, and
small lizards. Pigs and dogs, say the natives, were brought from the
north, in canoes.
On New Year’s day, while in sight of the islets called Three Kings,
we passed through several tide ‘races,’ one of which was rather
‘heavy,’ and would have been impassable for a boat. These races
moved towards the north while we could trace their progress. The
temperature of the water fell six degrees after passing through
the principal one. Next day, at noon, we found that during the
past twenty-four hours we had been set as many miles southward
(S.S.E.), and hence I am inclined to infer that we were influenced by
regular tide-streams, rather than by currents setting always in one
direction. To the succeeding day at noon (3d) we were set only seven
miles, by the water, and that due east. Afterwards, in our passage
to Port Jackson, we had alternately northerly and south-easterly
currents of about ten miles a day, and it was easy to tell which
current we were in, by the temperature of the sea:--while the stream
set from the north, the water thermometer showed about 72°; but when
the current was running from the southward, the temperature of the
ocean, a foot below, as well as at, the surface,[2] was only 67°.
I ought to have remarked elsewhere, if I have not already done so,
that the thermometer may be used at sea to detect and trace currents;
but little, if any, confidence can be placed in its indications as
a guide to the approach of land. Icebergs may indeed affect it, but
they will affect the temperature of the air probably sooner than that
of the ocean.
Near midnight, on the 11th, we saw the red, revolving light of Sydney
Light-house, and next day entered Port Jackson, and anchored in
Sydney Cove. Much as I had heard of the progress and importance of
this place, my astonishment was indeed great, when I saw a well-built
city covering the country near the port. Not many days previously I
had been reading the account of Governor Phillip’s voyage to Botany
Bay in 1787-8, and little did I think that, in forty-eight years
from the first discovery of Port Jackson, a city, upon a large
scale, could have arisen out of a wilderness so near our antipodes.
In the account just mentioned it is stated that “from a piece of
clay imported from Sydney Cove, Mr. Wedgwood caused a medallion to
be modelled, representing Hope, encouraging Art and Labour, under
the influence of Peace, to pursue the means of giving security and
happiness to the infant settlement. The following lines, in allusion
to this medallion, were written by Dr. Darwin.”
“Where Sydney Cove her lucid bosom swells,
Courts her young navies and the storm repels,
High on a rock, amid the troubled air,
Hope stood sublime, and wav’d her golden hair;
Calm’d with her rosy smile the tossing deep,
And with sweet accents charm’d the winds to sleep;
To each wild plain, she stretch’d her snowy hand,
High-waving wood, and sea-encircled strand.
‘Hear me,’ she cried, ‘ye rising realms! record
Time’s opening scenes, and Truth’s unerring word.--
There shall broad streets their stately walls extend,
The circus widen, and the crescent bend;
There ray’d from cities o’er the cultur’d land,
Shall bright canals, and solid roads expand.--
There the proud arch, Colossus-like, bestride
Yon glittering streams, and bound the chasing tide;
Embellish’d villas crown the landscape scene,
Farms wave with gold, and orchards blush between.--
There shall tall spires, and dome-capt towers ascend,
And piers and quays their massy structures blend;
While with each breeze approaching vessels glide,
And northern treasures dance on every tide!’
Here ceased the nymph--tumultuous echoes roar,
And Joy’s loud voice was heard from shore to shore--
Her graceful steps descending press’d the plain;
And Peace, and Art, and Labour, join’d her train.”
When I was at Sydney in 1836, all that was foretold in this allegory
had come to pass, with one exception only, that of canals. It was
always a country comparatively dry; and unfortunately the more wood
is cleared away, the drier both climate and soil become, therefore
it is unlikely that canals should ever be made there. This want of
fresh water is the only drawback to the future prosperity of this
mushroom city; which is now dependent upon a supply brought through
iron pipes from a distance of several leagues. Mr. Busby, father of
the resident at New Zealand, was the projector and executor of this
aqueduct, but,--like many other really valuable things,--his useful
work as ably planned as it was perseveringly carried on against
uncommon difficulties, is but little appreciated, even by those who
daily drink the pure water which it supplies.
It is difficult to believe that Sydney will continue to flourish in
proportion to its rise. It has sprung into existence too suddenly.
Convicts have forced its growth, even as a hot-bed forces plants,
and premature decay may be expected from such early maturity.
Other rising colonies have advantages in point of situation and
climate, which the country about Sydney does not possess; and if
our government establishment should be withdrawn, from that day the
decline of the city would commence, because its natural advantages
are not sufficient to enable it to compete with other places in those
regions, excepting while fostered by the presence of regularly paid
government officers, troops, and a large convict establishment.
There must be great difficulty in bringing up a family well in that
country, in consequence of the demoralizing influence of convict
servants, to which almost all children must be more or less exposed.
Besides, literature is at a low ebb: most people are anxious about
active farming, or commercial pursuits, which leave little leisure
for reflection, or for reading more than those fritterers of the
mind--daily newspapers and ephemeral trash. It was quite remarkable
to see how few booksellers’ shops there were in Sydney, and what a
low class of books--with some exceptions--was to be found in them.
These few exceptions were the works usually called ‘standard,’ which
some persons who buy books, for show as furniture, rather than for
real use, think it necessary to purchase. Another evil in the social
system of Sydney and its vicinity, is the rancorous feeling which
exists between the descendants of free settlers and the children of
convicts. Fatal, indeed, would it be to the former, if the arm of
power were removed; for their high principles and good feelings would
be no match for the wiles and atrocities of such abandoned outcasts
as are there congregrated, and almost rejoice in their iniquity.
Money is gained by such people by any and every means, save those of
honest industry. By selling spirits, frequently drugged--by theft--by
receiving and selling stolen goods--by the wages of iniquity--and by
exorbitant usury--fortunes have been amassed there in a few years
which would make an honest man’s hair stand on end. But do such men
enjoy their wealth? Does it benefit them or their children? No. Their
life is a miserable scene of anxiety, care, fear, and generally
penuriousness; they die without a friend and without hope.
The Beagle sailed from Sydney on the 30th, and anchored off Hobart
Town (or Hobarton) on the 5th of February. The change of scene was
as striking as a view of Gibraltar or Madeira after leaving the
Downs. Comparatively speaking, near Sydney all was light-coloured
and level; while in Van Diemen’s Land we almost thought ourselves
in another Tierra del Fuego. But this was only a first impression,
on a blustering wet day. Fields of ripe corn, dotted, as it were,
about the hilly woodlands, told us that the climate must generally be
favourable; and the number of red brick cottages, thickly scattered
about, though apparently at random, proved an extent of population
incompatible with an unproductive place.
During a few days’ stay in Sullivan Cove, the chief anchorage, we had
opportunities of going to some distance into the country, and seeing
things which led me to think that there is a more solid foundation
for future prosperity in Van Diemen’s Land than can be found near
Sydney. Natural advantages are greater; and likely to increase as
the country is cleared and inhabited--because rain is now almost too
plentiful, though corn ripens well and is of excellent quality. As a
convict colony, it of course partakes of the evils I have mentioned;
but it does so in a far less degree, partly because the convicts sent
there were of a less profligate and more reclaimable class than those
landed at Sydney, and partly because an excellent local government
restrained the licentious, and encouraged the moral to a far greater
extent than was, or perhaps could be effected among the more numerous
and dispersed population of Sydney and its environs.
On the 17th, we sailed out of the picturesque Derwent, an arm of the
sea extending inland many miles beyond Hobart Town, and thence worked
our way southward round the Land of Van Diemen. We then steered
westward, or as much so as the contrary winds would admit, until we
made the land off King George Sound on the 6th of March; and a few
hours afterwards moored in the principal anchorage, called Princess
Royal Harbour; a wide but shallow place, with a very narrow entrance.
The country round King George Sound has a dull, uniform aspect; there
are no mountains or rivers;[3] few trees are visible; white, sandy
patches; scrubby bushes; bare masses of granite; and a slightly
undulating outline meet and disappoint the eye of a stranger.
A few straggling houses, ill-placed in an exposed, cheerless
situation, were seen by us as we entered the harbour; and had
inclination been our guide, instead of duty, I certainly should have
felt much disposed to ‘put the helm up,’ and make all sail away from
such an uninviting place.
Next day, however, we found that appearances were worse than the
reality; for behind a hill, which separates the harbour from the
sound, a thick wood was discovered, where there were many trees of
considerable size; and in the midst of this wood I found Sir Richard
Spencer’s house, much resembling a small but comfortable farm-house
in England. This sort of isolated residence has a charm for some
minds; but the loss of society, the numerous privations, and the
vastly retrograde step necessarily taken in civilized existence
by emigrating to perfectly new countries, are I think stronger
objections to the plan than usually occur to persons who have not
seen its consequences in actual operation.
At this time there were about thirty houses, or cottages, in the
neighbourhood of the sound and harbour; some had small gardens; but,
generally speaking, there was no appearance of agriculture, excepting
immediately around Sir Richard’s house, where a few fields had been
cleared and cultivated in the midst of the wood.
There is an extraordinary degree of local magnetic attraction about
this place. We could not ascertain the amount of variation with any
degree of accuracy until our compasses were placed upon a sandy beach
of considerable extent, near the sea. Wherever there was stone (a
kind of granite) near the instruments, they were so much affected as
to vary many degrees from the truth, and quite irregularly: those on
board were not influenced, at least not more than a degree. We were
also perplexed by the irregular and peculiar tides; but as they are
mentioned elsewhere, I will refrain from farther remark on them here.
We had a good opportunity of seeing several of the aborigines; for
not only were there unusual numbers of neighbouring natives then
about the settlement, but a strange tribe, called ‘Cocotu,’ had
lately arrived from a distance, and as the residents wished to
conciliate them, a ‘corobbery’ was proposed, and Mr. Darwin ensured
the compliance of all the savages by providing an immense mess of
boiled rice, with sugar, for their entertainment.
About two hours after dark the affair began. Nearly all the settlers,
and their visitors, had assembled on a level place just outside the
village, while the native men belonging to both tribes were painting,
or rather daubing and spotting their soot-coloured bodies with a
white pigment, as they clustered round blazing fires. When all was
ready--the fires burning brightly--the gloom at a little distance
intense, by contrast, and the spectators collected together--a heavy
tramp shook the ground, and a hundred prancing demon-like figures
emerged from the darkness, brandishing their weapons, stamping
together in exact accordance, and making hoarse guttural sounds at
each exertion. It was a fiendish sight, almost too disagreeable
to be interesting. What pains savage man takes--in all parts of
the world where he is found--to degrade his nature; that beautiful
combination which is capable of so much intelligence and noble
exertion when civilized and educated. While watching the vagaries of
these performers, I could not but think of our imprudence in putting
ourselves so completely into their power: about thirty unarmed men
being intermixed with a hundred armed natives. The dancers were all
men; a short kangaroo-skin cloak was thrown about their hips, and
white feathers were stuck round their heads: many were not painted,
but those who were had similar figures on their breasts; some a
cross, others something like a heart. Many had spears, and all had
the ‘throwing-stick’; and a kind of hatchet,[4] in a girdle round the
waist. Much of the dancing was monotonous enough, after the first
appearance, reminding me of persons working in a treadmill; but their
imitation of snakes, and kangaroos, in a kind of hunting dance, was
exceedingly good and interesting. The whole exhibition lasted more
than an hour, during most of which time upwards of a hundred savages
were exerting themselves in jumping and stamping as if their lives
depended on their energetic movements. There was a boy who appeared
to be idiotic, or afflicted with a kind of fit; but the man who was
holding him seemed to be quite unconcerned about his convulsive
efforts, saying, “by and bye he would be a doctor” (as I was told by
a resident who understood the language), which reminded me of what
Falkner says of the Patagonians.[5] After the corobbery the natives
collected round the house where the feast was preparing; and it will
not be easy to forget the screams of delight that burst from old and
young as they looked in at the door and saw the tub in which their
rice was smoking. Before the food was distributed they were told to
sit down, which they immediately did, in a circle round the house.
They separated, of their own accord, into families, each little party
lighting a small fire before them. Their behaviour, and patience,
were very remarkable and pleasing. One family had a native dog, which
in size, colour, and shape, was like a fox, excepting that the nose
was not quite so sharp, nor the tail so bushy.
Most of the aborigines had rather good countenances, and well-formed
heads, as compared with those about Sydney, or in Van Diemen’s land.
The lathy thinness of their persons, which seemed totally destitute
of fat, and almost without flesh, is very remarkable. I have since
seen some drawings of South African aborigines, executed under the
critical eye of Doctor Andrew Smith, by the correct hand of Mr.
Charles Bell, which are so like the natives who live near King George
Sound in colour, as well as countenance, and extraordinary shape,
that they might be taken for full-length portraits of the latter
instead of Africans.
Many of these natives have features smaller and less marked than are
usual among savages; but their foreheads are higher and more full:
they are not tall, few exceeding five feet eight inches in height:
and the women are wretched objects. Some of the men had pieces of
bone stuck through the cartilage of the nose, which, I heard, was
to prevent their being killed by another tribe, who were seeking
to revenge the death of one of their own party. I was told also,
that when any death occurs in one tribe, the first individual of
another that is encountered is sacrificed by the bereaved party,
if strong enough; but I suspect my informant confused revenge for
manslaughter with the strange story--that for every death in one
tribe, however caused, a life must be taken from another. Should it
be true, however, the scarcity of aboriginal population would have an
explanation in addition to those which various writers have given.
These natives bury their dead in a short grave; the body being laid
on its side, with the knees drawn up to the chin.
During our stay at this place we caught plenty of fish, of twenty
different kinds, with a seine; yet with such an abundant supply close
at hand, the settlers were living principally on salt provisions.
Before quitting King George Sound I must add my slight testimony to
the skill and accuracy with which Flinders laid down and described
those parts of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land that I have seen.
His accounts also of wind, weather, climate, currents, and tides, are
excellent; and there are other points of information in his large
work, useful to many, but especially to seamen, which would be well
worth separating from the technicalities among which they are almost
lost in the present cumbersome volumes.
March 13th. We sailed, and advanced towards Cape Leuwin, but it was
the 18th before our little ship was sufficiently far westward of that
promontory to steer for my next object, the Keeling Islands.
From the 27th to the 30th we had a severe gale of wind, when near the
situation of those remote isles, and on the 31st were in much doubt
whether they lay eastward or to the west of us. There was most reason
to induce me to steer eastward--indeed I was about to give orders to
that effect just as the sun was setting, (no land being seen from the
mast-head, though the horizon was clear)--when a number of gannets
flew past the ship towards the west. We steered directly after them,
and early next morning (after making but little way during a fine
night) saw the Keelings right ahead, about sixteen miles distant.
A long but broken line of cocoa-palm trees, and a heavy surf breaking
upon a low white beach, nowhere rising many feet above the foaming
water, was all we could discern till within five miles of the larger
Keeling, (there are two distinct groups) and then we made out a
number of low islets, nowhere more than thirty feet above the sea,
covered with palm-trees, and encircling a large shallow lagoon.
We picked our way into Port Refuge (the only harbour), passing
cautiously between patches of coral rock, clearly visible to an eye
at the mast-head, and anchored in a safe, though not the best berth.
An Englishman (Mr. Leisk) came on board, and, guided by him, we moved
into a small but secure cove close to Direction Island.
Many reasons had induced me to select this group of coral islets for
such an examination as our time and means would admit of; and, as
the tides were to be an object of especial attention in a spot so
favourably situated for observing them, a tide-guage was immediately
placed. Its construction was then new, and, being found to answer, I
will describe it briefly. Two poles were fixed upright, one on shore
(above high water mark, and sheltered from wind), the other in the
sea beyond the surf at low water. A block was fastened to the top
of each pole, and a piece of well-stretched log-line ‘rove’ through
them.[6] One end of the line was attached to a board that floated on
the water; the other suspended a leaden weight, which traversed up
and down the pole, on shore, as the float fell or rose with the tide.
Simple as this contrivance was, and useful as we should have found it
in many places where the surf or swell made it difficult to measure
tides at night, without using a boat, I never thought of it till
after we left King George Sound.
Until the 12th every one was actively occupied; our boats were sent
in all directions, though there was so much wind almost each day as
materially to impede surveying. Soundings on the seaward sides of
the islands could seldom be obtained; but two moderate days were
eagerly taken advantage of to go round the whole group in a boat,
and get the few deep soundings which are given in the plan.[7] The
two principal islands (considering the whole southern group as one
island,) lie north and south of each other, fifteen miles apart; and
as soundings were obtained two miles north of the large island, it
may be inferred, I think, that the sea is not so deep between the two
as it is in other directions. Only a mile from the southern extreme
of the South Keeling, I could get no bottom with more than a thousand
fathoms of line.
The southern cluster of islets encircle a shallow lagoon, of an
oval form, about nine miles long, and six wide. The islets are
mere skeletons--little better than coral reefs, on which broken
coral and dust have been driven by sea and wind till enough has
been accumulated to afford place and nourishment for thousands of
cocoa-palms. The outer edges of the islands are considerably higher
than the inner, but nowhere exceed about thirty feet above the mean
level of the sea. The lagoon is shallow, almost filled with branching
corals and coral sand. The small northern island is about a mile
in diameter; a strip of low coral land, almost surrounding a small
lagoon, and thickly covered with cocoa-nut trees.
These lonely islands (also called Cocos,) were discovered in 1608-9
by Captain William Keeling, who was in the East India Company’s
service, and held a commission from King James I.[8] Little or
no notice was taken of them from that time till 1823, when one
Alexander Hare, a British subject, established himself and a small
party of Malays, upon the Southern Keeling Island, which he thought
a favourable place for commerce, and for maintaining a seraglio of
Malay women, whom he confined to one island,--almost to one house.
In 1826, or within a year of that time, Mr. J. C. Ross, some time
master of a merchant ship, took up his abode on the south-eastern
islet of the group; and in a very short time Hare’s Malay slaves,
aggrieved by his harsh treatment of them, especially by his taking
away the women, and shutting them up on an island which the Malay men
might not approach, deserted in a body, and claimed protection from
Mr. Ross. Hare then left the Keelings, and about a year afterwards
was arrested in his lawless career by death, while establishing
another harem at Batavia.
From that time Mr. Ross and the Malays lived peaceably, collecting
cocoa-nut oil, turtle, tortoise-shell, and bicho do mar; and
occasionally sailing to the Mauritius, Singapore, or Batavia, to
dispose of them, and buy necessaries with their produce. Another
Englishman, Mr. C. Leisk, who had served as mate of Mr. Ross’s ship,
lived with him, and they both had wives (English) and children, the
whole party residing together in a large house of Malay build--just
such a structure as one sees represented upon old japanned work. At
the time of our visit Mr. Ross was absent on one of their trading
excursions, and his deputy, Leisk, was left in charge of everything.
By some strange misconception, not intentional act of injustice, Mr.
Ross had refused to give Hare’s slaves their freedom, for fear that
the executors of that man should demand their value from him; but he
paid them each two rupees a week, in goods (at his own valuation),
provided that they worked for him, both men and women, as he thought
proper. Mr. Leisk told me this, and said that “many of the Malays
were very discontented, and wanted to leave the island.” “No wonder,”
thought I, “for they are still slaves, and only less ill used than
they were by the man who purchased them.”
These Malays were allowed to rear poultry, which they sometimes
sold to shipping. They were also allowed to have the produce of a
certain number of cocoa-nut trees, and might catch fish and turtle
for their own use; but the sale of turtle to shipping, when they
touched there, and the immense crops of cocoa-nuts which are produced
annually on all the islets of the group were monopolized by Mr. Ross
for his sole advantage. One daily task imposed upon the Malay women
was to “husk” a hundred nuts, collected for them by the men, who
extract a gallon of oil from every ten.
Another kind of oil, said to be very good, is derived from the fat
tail of a large land-crab, which feeds on cocoa-nuts. About a pint
and a half may be obtained from one crab. The manner in which these
creatures--nearly the size of a large cray-fish--tap the nuts in
order to get at their contents is curious. Numbers of windfall nuts,
in a comparatively soft state, are always to be found lying about
under the trees: a crab seizes one of these, and pegs away at the
eyes (each nut has three eyes) with one of its claws, that is long
and sharp, purposely, it would seem, until it opens a hole, through
which the crab extracts the juice, and some of the solid part.
The manner of ascending tall palm-trees is similar to that described
at Otaheite, and requires strength as well as agility: both which
are also shown by these Malays in their chases after turtle among
the shallows and coral ‘thickets’ of the lagoon, where they abound.
A party of men go in a light boat and look for a fine turtle in some
shallow place. Directly one is seen, they give chase in the boat,
endeavouring to keep it in a shallow, and tolerably clear place, till
it begins to be tired by its exertions to escape then, watching a
favourable moment, a man jumps out of the boat and seizes the turtle.
Away it darts, with the man on its back grasping its neck until he
can get an opportunity, by touching ground with his feet, to turn it
over, and secure his prize. Only the more active men can succeed well
in this sort of fishing.
Other unusual things were seen by us at this place, one or two of
which I will mention. There are fish that live by feeding upon small
branches of the coral, which grows in such profusion in the lagoon.
One species of these fish is about two feet and a half long, of a
beautiful green colour about the head and tail, with a hump on its
head, and a bony kind of mouth, almost like that of a turtle, within
which are two rows of saw-like teeth.--Mr. Stokes saw a dog, (bred
on the island), catch three such fish in the course of a few hours
by chasing them in shallow water, springing after them, almost as a
kangaroo springs on land. Sometimes one would take shelter under a
rock, when the dog would drive it out with his paw, and seize it with
his mouth as it bolted.
Among the great variety of corals forming the walls around the
immediately visible basement, and the under-water forests of the
Keeling islands, there is more difference than between a lily of the
valley and a gnarled oak. Some are fragile and delicate, of various
colours, and just like vegetables to the eye, others are of a solid
description, like petrified tropical plants; but all these grow
within the outer reef, and chiefly in the lagoons.[9]
The wall, or outer reef, about which so much has been said and
thought, by able men, without their having arrived at any definite
conclusion, is solid and rock-like, with a smooth surface; and where
the surf is most violent, there the coral is fullest of animated
matter. I was anxious to ascertain if possible, to what depth the
living coral extended, but my efforts were almost in vain, on account
of a surf always violent, and because the outer wall is so solid
that I could not detach pieces from it lower down than five fathoms.
Small anchors, hooks, grappling irons, and chains were all tried--and
one after another broken by the swell almost as soon as we ‘hove a
strain’ upon them with a ‘purchase’ in our largest boats. Judging
however, from impressions made upon a large lead, the end of which
was widened, and covered with tallow hardened with lime, and from
such small fragments as we could raise, I concluded that the coral
was not alive at a depth exceeding seven fathoms below low water. But
this subject has been, or will be, fully discussed by Mr. Darwin,
therefore I need say no more.
As if in speaking of these singular, though so small islands,--where
crabs eat cocoa-nuts, fish eat coral, dogs catch fish, men ride on
turtle, and shells are dangerous man-traps,[10]--any thing more were
necessary to ensure the voyager’s being treated like the old woman’s
son who talked to her about flying-fish,--it must yet be said that
the greater part of the sea-fowl roost on branches, and that many
rats make their nests at the top of high palm-trees.
Except sea-fowl and the domestic creatures[11] which have accompanied
man to the Keelings, there is no bird or animal; but a kind of
land-rail, which is numerous. Besides the palm there are upon the
largest islets other trees, particularly a kind of teak, and some
less valuable wood, from which a vessel was built.
Fresh water is not scarce on the larger islets of the group, but it
is only to be got by digging wells in the coral foundation, covered
as it is by vegetation. In these wells, about six feet deep, the
water rises and falls as the tide of the ocean flows and ebbs; which
I believe to be the case at most other coral islands where there is
fresh water. It appears that the fresh water of heavy rains is held
in the loose soil, (a mixture of coral, sand, and decayed vegetable
substances,) and does not mix with the salt water which surrounds it,
except at the edges of the land. The flowing tide pushes on every
side, the mixed soil being very porous, and causes the fresh water to
rise: when the tide falls the fresh water sinks also. A sponge full
of fresh water placed gently in a basin of salt water, will not part
with its contents for a length of time if left untouched. The water
in the middle of the sponge will be found untainted by salt for many
days; perhaps much longer, if tried.
A word about the inhabitants, and I leave the Keelings. No material
difference was detected by me between the Malays on these islands,
and the natives of Otaheite or New Zealand. I do not mean to assert
that there were not numbers of men at each of those islands to whom
I could not trace resemblances (setting individual features aside,)
at the Keelings; I merely say that there was not one individual among
the two hundred Malays I saw there whom I could have distinguished
from a Polynesian Islander, had I seen him in the Pacific.
Two boys attracted my notice particularly, because their colour was
of a brighter red[12] than that of any South American or Polynesian
whom I had seen, and upon enquiry I found that these two boys were
sons of Alexander Hare and a Malay woman.
Excepting the two English families I have mentioned, all on the
Keelings in 1836, were Mahometans. One of their number officiated
as priest; but exclusive of an extreme dislike to pigs, they showed
little outward attention to his injunctions. As no Christian minister
had ever visited the place, and there was no immediate prospect of
one coming there, I was asked to baptize the children of Mrs. Leisk.
So unusual a demand occasioned some scruples on my part, but at last
I complied, and performed the appointed service in Mr. Ross’s house;
where six children of various ages were christened in succession.
This and other facts I have mentioned respecting these sequestered
islands shew the necessity that exists for some inspecting influence
being exercised at every place where British subjects are settled.
A visit from a man-of-war, even once only in a year, is sufficient
(merely in prospect) to keep bad characters in tolerable check,
and would make known at head quarters the more urgent wants of the
settlers.
In observing the sun’s meridian altitude at this place, the sextants
were used, which I have adverted to before (p. 396), and the latitude
deduced from their results only differed two or three seconds from
that obtained by stars, without using the additional glass: I forgot
to say, in speaking of the Galapagos, how useful those instruments
were there; enabling us to measure the sun’s meridian altitude in an
artificial horizon when nearly eighty degrees high. I would not say
this in favour of my own invention, if I did not feel certain that
seamen will find it useful, and that somebody ought to tell them of
it, for their own sake. (These sextants were made by Worthington.)
I was informed by the residents that between October and April, they
are occasionally visited by severe gales of wind, at times almost
hurricanes, so strong as to root up trees, strip the leaves off
others, and unroof or blow down houses. These storms begin between
south-east and south, and when they abate draw towards the west (by
the south) there ending. For those who take interest in the course
of storms I subjoin extracts from Mr. Ross’s Journal given to me by
Leisk.[13] Earthquakes have been felt several times, I was told by
Mr. Leisk, but I could get only one extract from the Journal which
mentioned a shock.[14]
On the 12th we sailed, carrying a good sea-stock of cocoa-nuts, pigs,
poultry, pumpkins, and turtle. Maize and sugar-cane might have been
had, if wanted. We first went round the northern Keeling:--on this
island, about a mile across and but a few feet above the ocean, two
English vessels have been lost since 1825, and probably other ships
met a similar fate there in earlier years, when its existence was
hardly known. We found the current setting towards the north-west, as
I had been led to expect; but, from what I could observe, during our
stay, as well as from oral information, I am led to believe that the
current only sets strongly during about the last half of the flood
tide, and the first half of the ebb; and that during the other six
hours there is little or no current; as is the case off Cape Horn,
and in many other places.[15]
Our passage to the Mauritius was slow, but in smooth water. Tropic
birds, a few terns, and gannets were seen, at intervals, when passing
the neighbourhood of the Chagos Islands, and at our approach to
the island Rodriguez. We anchored in Port Louis, at the Mauritius,
on the 29th of April: sailed thence on the 9th of May: passed near
Madagascar--thence along the African shore--and anchored in Simon’s
Bay, at the Cape of Good Hope, on the 31st. From that well-known
place we went to St. Helena, Ascension, Bahia, Pernambuco, the Cape
Verde Islands, and the Azores; and anchored at Falmouth, on the 2d of
October, after an absence of four years and nine months from England.
From Falmouth we went to Plymouth; and thence, calling at Portsmouth,
to the Thames. On the 28th our anchor was let go at Greenwich; and,
after the chronometer rates were ascertained, the Beagle dropped down
to Woolwich, where she was paid off on the 17th of November.
Greenwich was the last station at which observations were made; and,
singularly enough, Mr. Usborne and his companions came on board as
we anchored there. Independent of the gratification of meeting them
again, after so wide a separation, it may be supposed how my mind
was relieved by his safe return from a very successful expedition,
in which he had surveyed the whole coast of Peru, from Atacama to
Guayaquil, without loss or accident. Although his own life was
seriously risked on two or three occasions, by shots fired under
misapprehension; I must not omit to mention that hostilities were
suspended for a whole day, at Arica, between the land-forces and an
attacking squadron, in order that Mr. Usborne might carry on his
operations. Throughout the survey of the Peruvian coast, the cordial
assistance of Mr. Wilson, Chargé d’affaires at Lima, was found to be
of paramount consequence.
I would now speak of the steady support and unvarying help which I
received from the officers of the Beagle: but where all did so much,
and all contributed so materially to the gatherings of the voyage,
it is unnecessary to particularise, farther than by saying that Mr.
Stokes’s services hold the first place in my own estimation.
In this long voyage, rather exceeding that of Vancouver, fatal
disease was unknown, except in the lamented case of the purser,
and in that mentioned at Rio de Janeiro; neither of which had the
least reference to the particular service on which the Beagle was
employed: and it is perhaps remarkable, that while the Beagle was
in commission, between February 1829 and November 1836, no serious
illness, brought on or contracted while on service, happened on
board; neither did any accident of consequence occur in the ship; nor
did any man ever fall overboard during all that time.
The freedom from illness must be attributed, under Providence,
to active employment, good clothing, and wholesome food,[16] in
healthy, though sometimes disagreeable climates: and our immunity
from accident[17] during exposure to a variety of risks, especially
in boats, I attribute, referring to visible causes, to the care,
attention, and vigilance of the excellent officers whose able
assistance was not valued by me more than their sincere friendship.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] At New Zealand the southern large island is usually called the
Middle Island.
[2] For no difference could be detected, under ordinary circumstances.
[3] Unless a few brackish, indeed salt-water, brooks can be termed
rivers.
[4] This hatchet is made of two pieces of stone, joined together by
a lump of gum, almost as hard as the stone: it is used for notching
trees, that the men may climb after opossums.
[5] Page 163.
[6] A very small metal chain would be better, because a line, however
stretched, will shrink after being wetted by rain, and give out again
as it dries.
[7] This plan of the Keeling Islands will be found in the third (Mr.
Darwin’s) volume.
[8] Of these facts I was credibly informed, on the authority of the
late Captain Horsburgh; and presumptive evidence of their reality
is afforded by the following extract from the work of a well-known
historian.
Extract from a Summary of Universal History, translated from the
French of M. Anquetil, First Edition, page 50. London, 1800--
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a Venetian galley, deeply laden,
was driven on shore at the Isle of Wight. The sight of the riches
it contained excited a desire of attempting to open a trade with
Turkey, through which the merchandize of India was transported. The
advantages arising from this Turkish trade to the Eastern merchants
shewed that it might be rendered still more lucrative if it were
carried on by a direct route. In order that no measures of prudence
which seemed likely to ensure success to this grand enterprise might
be omitted, the queen sent to explore the two routes already opened,
that of the Cape of Good Hope, by Captain Stephens, in 1582, and that
of the Strait of Magellan, in 1587. From the reports which they made,
it was conceived impossible for England to appropriate to itself,
by means of single ships, a part of that commerce, to the prejudice
of two nations, jealous, and well established; and, that, while it
employed all the exertions of industry, it would be necessary also
to show a respectable force. These considerations, highly judicious,
gave rise to the East India Company, which sent out its first
adventure with a capital of £74,000, and four ships equipped from
that sum. In 1601 the company was established under the auspices
of the state, which granted it a charter of protection for a time
limited.
Lancaster, who commanded this squadron, behaved like a private
merchant, entered into a treaty of commerce with the King of Achen,
and found means to establish a small factory, but not without
experiencing some marks of displeasure from the Portuguese. He took
on board a considerable quantity of pepper and other spices. His
successful return encouraged the company to send out three ships
under the command of Henry Middleton. The latter, however, began to
assume a higher tone than that of a plain merchant. He found the
Dutch and Portuguese engaged in war; not on their own account, as
appeared, but as auxiliaries, the one of the King of Ternate, and the
other of the King of Tidore. It seemed most advantageous to Middleton
at that period to espouse the part of the Portuguese. The Dutch were
incensed, and threw impediments in his way, which, however, did not
prevent him from returning with a very rich cargo; but the company
sent out another squadron under Edward Michael Bourne, who assumed
with the Dutch that air of superiority which his force authorized,
and threatened open hostilities in case they interrupted the English
commerce. To support these threats, William Keeling arrived, in 1608,
with a body of regular troops. The Dutch made no resistance, and even
applied to the English to defend them against the inhabitants of
Banda; but after this service they behaved with duplicity to their
benefactors, and fettered their commerce: yet Keeling found means to
return with a very rich cargo, and, what is remarkable, without the
loss of a single man.
[9] One kind of coral, while alive, stings human flesh painfully when
touched by it. Another kind is so hard that it gives sparks when
struck by steel.
[10] Chama gigantea. There is a large one in the United Service
Museum.
[11] Rats and mice included; which swarm on those islands.
[12] Brighter by comparison; their colour was that of copper in its
very reddest state--without any tinge of yellow.
[13] “April 4th, 1835. Wind south, blowing very hard all day, with
a hard cloudy sky. 5th. Blowing heavily from the same point; with
rain. 6th. Wind S.E. still blowing heavily, with rain. 7th. Wind
increasing, at midnight the tops of many trees blown off; trees
falling, and roofs of houses suffering, wind still S.E. At two A.M.
on the 8th wind south; several houses laid flat; excessive thunder
and lightning, with torrents of rain. About three A.M. the storm
abating, and drawing to the west; at four, moderate west wind. 9th.
N.W. light breeze, clear weather; went with a party (Mr. Ross, Leisk,
&c.) to South-East Bay (inside South-East Island), found the bay
strewed with dead fish of all sorts and sizes, which we supposed to
have been killed by the fresh water. Numbers of trees blown down
every where, and the earth cut through in many places by the runs
of rain-water.” On the 26th of November 1835, a south-east gale
increased almost to a hurricane, causing similar effects, though
less in number, because it lasted only two hours, and then ended by
shifting to the westward, and moderating.
[14] That notice says, “May 25, 1830, weather calm and sultry, light
N.E. breeze: about 1·30 A.M. an earthquake, of a rocking description,
was felt. It continued about three minutes, and made our wooden house
reel and strain considerably.”
[15] Varying from three parts, to one-quarter of a tide difference
between the time of low water and the beginning of flood stream.
[16] See Appendix, No. 48.
[17] Excepting that mentioned in vol. i. p. 445.