Appearance of Settlement.
Effects of climate.
Native mother.
Trade in teeth.
Macassar Proas.
Lieutenant Vallack visits the Alligator Rivers.
Interview with Natives.
Prospects of Port Essington.
Lieutenant Stewart's Route.
Climate.
Remarks of Mr. Bynoe.
Harbour of refuge.
Sail from Port Essington.
Sahul Shoal.
Arrive at Coepang.
Timorees.
Sail for North-west Coast.
Strong winds.
Cape Bossut.
Exploration of North-west Coast.
View of Interior.
Birds.
Solitary Island.
Visit the Shore.
Amphinome Shoals.
Bedout Island.
Breaker Inlet.
Exmouth Gulf.
Arrive at Swan River.
PORT ESSINGTON.
The period of our arrival at Port Essington had been looked forward to by
all with deep interest, and, I may say, some anxiety. Two years had
elapsed since our last visit, and various and contradictory were the
reports in circulation respecting the welfare of the settlement. We were
accordingly truly rejoiced to find it in a state of prosperity that will
ever reflect the highest credit on the hardy few who have laboured so
earnestly for its welfare. It was an emblem of the rapidity with which,
in young countries, it is possible to recover from any disaster, that the
trees which had been uprooted, shattered, and riven in fragments by the
hurricane of 1839, were for the most part concealed by the fresh foliage
of the year; there was scarcely anything left to commemorate that
dreadful visitation, but the tombs of twelve brave fellows, of the
Pelorus, who lost their lives at the time.
There was a care-worn, jaundiced appearance about the settlers, that
plainly revealed how little suited was the climate for Europeans to
labour in; and yet there had been, I was told, no positive sickness. The
hospital, however, had been enlarged, and rendered a very substantial
building. Captain Macarthur had built a strong and well-contrived
blockhouse, of the excellent kind of wood, a species of teak, before
alluded to. A new garden also had been laid out, in which the banana and
pine, besides many other tropical fruits, were flourishing. The
arrow-root and sugar-cane grown here are allowed by those who have seen
these plants in the West Indies not to be surpassed in excellence; and
the cotton from Pernambuco, and Bourbon seed, has been valued in England
at sixpence-halfpenny a pound. The colonists were beginning to understand
the seasons; they had taken out of the ground sweet potatoes nearly
sufficient to last them until the next crop. This was the first time they
had been tried. I have never seen any in South America half the size. In
short, I may say that the settlement was fast approaching the state in
which was that at Raffles Bay when it was abandoned.
Considering the few days given to sporting, our game-book contains a very
tolerable list, comprising seven kangaroos, twenty quails, ten ducks,
seven pigeons, two pheasants, and two ibises.
The natives in the neighbourhood of Port Essington are, like all others
on the continent, very superstitious; they fancy that a large kind of
tree, called the Imburra-burra, resembling the Adansonia, contains evil
spirits. Here, also, as I have elsewhere observed, they fancy that after
death they reappear as whites; the bones of the dead are frequently
carried from place to place.
The reader will remember the native named Alligator, whom I have
mentioned on a previous visit to Port Essington. I witnessed in his
family an instance of affection for a departed child, which, though it
exhibited itself in this peculiar manner, was extremely touching. The
wife had treasured up the bones of the little one, and constantly carried
them about with her, not as a memento mori, but as an object whereon to
expend her tenderest emotions, whenever they swelled within her breast.
At such times she would put together these bones with a rapidity that
supposed a wonderful knowledge of osteology, and set them up that she
might weep over them. Perhaps, in her imagination, as she performed this
melancholy rite, the ghastly framework before her became indued with the
comely form of infancy; bright eyes once more sparkled in those hollow
cells, and a smile of ineffable delight hung where, in reality, was
naught but the hideous grin of death. I exceedingly regret that the
mother who could feel so finely was some time afterwards over-persuaded
to part with the bones of her child.
I may here mention that the medical officer of the settlement was in the
habit of extracting teeth for the natives, who found the European method
much more easy than their own mode of knocking them out. The supercargo
of a vessel, learning this fact, was anxious to become a purchaser of
teeth to some extent for the London market, being persuaded that they
would find a ready sale among the dentists; and it is more than probable
that many of our fair ladies at home are indebted for the pearls on which
the poets exhaust so much of their fancy to the rude natives of
Australia.
Among the information I gained during this stay at Port Essington
respecting the Macassar people, who periodically visit the coast, was
that of their discovering a strait leading into the Gulf of Carpentaria,
behind English Company's Islands. Passing Cape Wilberforce, called Udjung
Turu, or Bearaway Point, they continue their course down the Gulf to the
Wellesley Islands, named by them Pulo Tiga, or The Three Islands; this is
the usual southern limit of their voyage. The Macassar proas that visit
Port Essington, amounting in one season to fourteen, usually brought for
barter tea, sugar, cloths, salt-fish, rice, etc. Several of the nakodhas,
or masters, have expressed a wish to abandon fishing, and occupy
themselves only in trade, if there is sufficient encouragement held out
to them.
During our stay a report was brought into the settlement by the natives
that there was a large vessel wrecked on the mainland, near the Alligator
Rivers, which was accompanied by so many details of place and
circumstance that Captain Stanley was induced to send Lieutenant Vallack,
of the Britomart, away in the decked tender to procure information, and
to render all assistance in his power. He was accompanied by several of
the Port Essington natives; and on arriving at the Eastern River, found
that there was no foundation for the report. But having got so far away
from the settlement, he ascended the river some little distance, and
towards sunset came on a tribe of natives. The anchor was let go, and
signs were made to induce them to approach, for some time without
success. At last, however, encouraged by seeing so many of their own
countrymen, two or three of the more courageous ventured to draw near.
The scene that followed was a curious illustration of the slight
communication that exists between natives of different tribes, and also
of the great difference in their language, as the strangers could hold no
conversation with the people from Port Essington, who, when they found
their own dialect was not understood, tried to explain themselves in such
few words of broken English as were then used at the colony, and seemed
very much surprised at their want of success. A large mess of boiled
rice, which had been prepared by way of a feast for the newcomers, was
then produced; but it was not before they saw their countrymen eagerly
devouring it that they could be induced to eat, as they evidently did not
know what it was. The result of Lieutenant Vallack's visit is hostile to
the idea entertained that clothes given to natives at Port Essington pass
into the interior, which I always much doubted. Had the fence before
alluded to by me been run across the neck, and an out-station formed
there, we should have had further acquaintance with the natives of the
main, besides other advantages that would necessarily have accrued.
As it seemed extremely probable that the course of events would not again
permit the Beagle to visit Port Essington, we naturally experienced some
regret on our departure, and were led to speculate, with interest, on its
future destiny. A young settlement, so remote and solitary, cannot fail
to awaken the liveliest sympathy in the voyager. How small soever may be
the circle of its present influence, the experience of the past teaches
us confidently to expect that wherever a knot of Englishmen locate
themselves, there are deposited the germs of future greatness. For Port
Essington, a sphere of action, of great extent and importance, appears
marked out by the hand of nature; though, to a careless observer,
unskilled in discerning the undeveloped capabilities of geographical
positions, it may appear in the light simply of an isolated military
post. And, certainly, whatever may be its actual resources, little or
nothing has, as yet, been done to ascertain them. We are still reduced to
base our opinions on conjecture and hypothesis; we know nothing of the
amount of commerce that might be carried on with the islands of the
Indian Archipelago--nothing of the productions of the mainland--nothing
of the extent to which colonization might be carried in the
neighbourhood. Without data of this kind it is impossible, with any
pretensions to accuracy, to estimate the probable future importance of
our settlement at Port Essington, the value of which does not depend on
the fertility of Cobourg Peninsula, any more than that of Gibraltar on
the productiveness of the land within the Spanish lines. Victoria, if we
regard its own intrinsic worth, might be blotted out of the list of our
possessions without any material detriment to our interests; but its
importance, as a commercial station, is incalculable. It is, indeed, to
the country behind--at present unvisited, unexplored, a complete terra
incognita--and to the islands within a radius of five hundred miles, that
we must look if we would form a correct idea of the value of Port
Essington to the Crown. At present it may seem idle, to some, to
introduce these distant places as elements in the discussion of such a
question; but no one who reflects on the power of trade to knit together
even more distant points of the earth, will think it visionary to suppose
that Victoria must one day--insignificant as may be the value of the
districts in its immediate neighbourhood--be the centre of a vast system
of commerce, the emporium, in fact, where will take place the exchange of
the products of the Indian Archipelago for those of the vast plains of
Australia. It may require some effort of the imagination, certainly, to
discover the precursor of such a state of things in the miserable traffic
now carried on by the Macassar proas; but still, I think, we possess some
data on which to found such an opinion, and I am persuaded that Port
Essington will ultimately hold the proud position I predict for it.
As steam communication, moreover, must soon be established between
Singapore and our colonies on the south-eastern shores of Australia,*
this port, the only really good one on the north coast, will be of vast
importance as a coal depot.
(*Footnote. By this arrangement Sydney could be brought within nearly
sixty days of England.)
As I have already observed, however, little pains have been taken to
ascertain all the capabilities of the place, and to extend our
acquaintance with the country behind. No European has ever yet penetrated
any great distance beyond the neck that connects Cobourg Peninsula with
the mainland; and even the report of the existence of the settlement has
scarcely travelled farther. At least in 1841, when Lieutenant Vallack
visited one of the Alligator rivers he found the natives completely
ignorant that we had established ourselves in their neighbourhood.
From the account of Lieutenant P.B. Stewart,* of which I have given a
brief abstract above, it appears that there is some good land on the
Peninsula, though such is decidedly not the case near the settlement.
(*Footnote. This officer has since forwarded me his route. It appears
that on leaving Victoria he proceeded to the south-west side of the
Peninsula, and followed the shore to the neck, when taking an east
direction he crossed it, and then pursuing a northerly course made his
way to Middle Head, on the side of the harbour opposite the settlement.
The frequent opportunities Lieutenant Stewart had of determining his
positions by cross-bearings of the islands, leave no doubt as to the
correctness of his route.)
The reports of late sent in respecting the climate have, in some measure,
been unfavourable; and, as I have observed, the appearance of the
garrison was rather sickly; but may not this arise partly from the
indifferent manner in which they are housed? Small, low, thatched
cottages, in a temperature much too warm for Europeans to labour in
constantly, are apt to engender disease. There is, besides, a mangrove
swamp immediately behind the settlement, which at present decreases its
salubrity. With regard to the range of the thermometer, it has been known
as low as 62 degrees, and it is never so high, by ten or twenty degrees,
as I have seen it in South Australia during the hot winds: the average,
however, is about 83 degrees. The fact that the site of Victoria lies so
far from the entrance of the harbour is injurious to its prosperity, as
it prevents many vessels from calling, and deprives it of the breezes
that constantly prevail on the coast, and would of course conduce to its
healthiness.*
(*Footnote. The following remarks from Mr. Bynoe, on the climate of
Northern Australia, corroborate the views put forward in the text:
I find on a reference to the Medical Journals, as well as to a
Meteorological table kept by me during a period of six years, on the
coasts of Australia, and under every variety of climate, that we had no
diseases peculiar to that continent, and I am led to believe it a
remarkably healthy country. On the North and North-west coasts, where you
find every bight and indentation of land fringed with mangroves,
bordering mud flats, and ledges formed by corallines in every stage of
decomposition, with a high temperature, no fevers or dysenteries were
engendered.
Our ship's company were constantly exposed, in boats, to all the
vicissitudes from wet to dry weather, sleeping in mangrove creeks for
many months in succession, pestered by mosquitoes during the hours of
repose, yet they still remained very healthy; and the only instance where
the climate was at all prejudicial (if such a term can be applied) was in
the Victoria River, on the north coast, where the heat was, at one
period, very great, and the unavoidable exposure caused two of the crew
to be attacked with Coup de Soleil.
Our casualties consisted of two deaths during our stay on the Australian
coast, one from old age; and the other, a case of dysentery, contracted
at Coepang.
It may not be uninteresting to state, that from the time that Port
Essington was settled in 1838, up to the period of our last visit to that
military post, and for some time after, no endemial form of disease had
manifested itself, and the only complaints that the men had been
suffering from were diseases such as were usually to be met with in a
more temperate clime, and those were few. But we must take into
consideration their isolated position, the constant sameness of their
life, their small low thatched cottages, mostly with earthen floors;
their inferior diet, and also the absence or scantiness of vegetables.
Most of the men, moreover, experience a constant yearning for home,
which, yearly increasing, terminates in despondency, and leaves them open
to the attacks of disease. Scorbutic symptoms were at one period very
prevalent, arising principally from the poor form of diet; similar cases
occurred in a former settlement on that part of the coast, from the same
causes; but although Port Essington has been of late visited by sickness,
I do not consider it by any means an unhealthy spot.)
Considering Port Essington as a harbour of refuge for the crews of ships
wrecked in Torres Strait, it is certainly far removed from the scene of
distress; and looking upon it in this light only, a military station at
Cape York would probably be attended with greater benefit and less
expense, though, as it might be expected to meet with annoyance from the
natives of the islands in Torres Strait, who are badly disposed and
wander over a great space in search of plunder, the party should not be
very small. There is, moreover, no real harbour; but, at the same time,
as the post would be on a low narrow projection, with a seabreeze
sweeping over it in either monsoon, it would doubtless be cooler than at
Port Essington.
I may observe that the only instance that came under my immediate notice
of the benefit of a harbour of refuge on the north coast, was that of a
vessel wrecked too far to the westward to reach Cape York, the crew of
which arrived at Port Essington in their boats.
It was in some measure at the request of the surgeon, in order to
alleviate Mr. Fitzmaurice's great sufferings by a little rest, that our
stay was lengthened to September 7th, when we left in the morning.*
(*Footnote. While steering North by East 1/2 East for Point Record, we
discovered a bank of 4 1/2 fathoms, with 7 and 8 on each side. When just
off it, to the northward, in 7 fathoms, the west extreme of Point Record
bore North 19 1/4 East, and its east extreme North 35 1/4 East, and the
north-east end of Spear Point North 59 degrees West.)
SAHUL SHOAL.
By noon we had cleared the heads of Port Essington, and a course was then
shaped for the supposed Sahul Shoal, the northern and central parts of
which we passed over without finding any remarkable decrease in the
soundings.*
(*Footnote. This clearly proved that our knowledge of the extent of the
Sahul Bank was very imperfect. It appears that between the latitudes 11
degrees 0 minutes South and 11 degrees 25 minutes South, and the
longitudes 125 degrees 20 minutes East and 125 degrees 50 minutes East,
there are no less than six patches of coral known, of 12 and 16 fathoms.
It is my belief that the whole of this shoal, if it merit the name, lies
between the latitudes of 11 degrees 15 minutes South and 11 degrees 35
minutes South, and the longitudes of 123 degrees 35 minutes East and 124
degrees 15 minutes East.)
ARRIVE AT TIMOR.
The winds were singularly light from the eastward, until we approached
Timor, the South-West end of which we saw in the morning of the 15th,*
when, after passing through Samow Strait,** we anchored in 13 fathoms off
Coepang; the flagstaff of Fort Concordia bearing South-South-East a
quarter of a mile.
(*Footnote. In passing the north-east end of Rottee a good lookout was
kept for a 5-fathom patch, laid down in the Admiralty Chart as lying four
miles east of it. Nothing, however, could be discovered of it; and close
to the place we had 50 fathoms. In Flinders' Atlas we find 50 fathoms
marked on this spot; and it is probable that the mistake has occurred in
copying, the 0 being left out, and the space dotted round, to draw
attention to the supposed shoal-water.)
(**Footnote. The tides in Samow Strait run from one to two knots an hour,
eight hours to the northward, and four in the opposite direction. The
time of high-water at Coepang at the full and change is half-past eleven,
when the rise is twelve feet. On the north side of Timor, between it and
Ombaye, the current sets to the westward at the rate of from two to four
knots an hour, in the south-east monsoon; but close to the Timor shore it
sets to windward. Ships make the passage to the eastward during its
prevalence by keeping close to the north sides of the Lomblen, Pantar,
and Ombaye Islands, where they find a favourable current, and winds from
the southward drawing through the straits separating the islands. There
is no anchorage between Pantar and Ombaye; but on the south side of
Timor, at the mouth of the Naminie River, and twenty-five miles further
eastward, and also at the east point, inside the small island of Pulo
Jackie, there are good anchorages in from 10 to 15 fathoms. The southern
coast of Timor is washed by heavy surf in either monsoon.)
Arrangements were immediately made for watering the ship, by having the
barecas filled and carried to the boats by persons from the shore,
thereby saving our crew from exposure in this, I believe at all times,
unhealthy climate. When our stock was completed, with the additional
casks procured at Port Essington, we had sufficient for eighty days.
We found the Resident, Mr. Gronovius, as usual, very communicative; he
was much astonished at the size of some bananas I gave him from Port
Essington.
TIMOREES.
I may take this opportunity of giving some additional information
respecting the Timorees. It appears that after killing an enemy they,
like the New Zealanders, preserve the head by baking it; and, during
meals, place food in the mouth of their bodiless foe. On the death of a
Rajah, a favourite slave or two is killed and buried with him; some
weapons, also, are laid in the grave, in order that the deceased may not
want for anything in the next world; this clearly shows that they have an
idea of a future state.
The mode in which trade is carried on with the wild natives of Timor is
extremely singular. The goods intended for barter are left in parcels on
the shore; the natives come down and place against them, generally, bees'
wax, and a kind of cotton cloth, to the amount which they conceive to be
the value, when they also retire. The trader returns, and if satisfied,
takes the native's goods, leaving his own; if not, he goes away without
touching either. The natives again come down and weigh the relative value
of the heaps of merchandize, and either consent to the proffered bargain
or take away their own property. Neither party ever comes in sight of the
other; and the strictest honour is preserved in the transaction. Most of
my readers will recollect that a similar method of trading is attributed
to one of the nations of antiquity.
A tribe of Sumbawa,* who call themselves the Danga people, have a custom
worth mentioning. They are the only tribe on that island not Mahomedans,
and worship the evil spirit, to appease whom they frequently leave a
roasted pig, with rice, at a well near a tree, a species of wild mango;
the priest, of course, reaps the benefit of this pious offering. A
similar custom prevails among the natives of Eastern Patagonia.
(*Footnote. I may here mention, that when the great eruption took place
on this island, the report of it was heard at Macassar, nearly three
hundred miles distant, and the motion was felt by the ships at anchor
there.)
SAIL FROM COEPANG.
By the morning of September 24th the rough charts were completed, and
tracings, with other despatches, being deposited with the Resident, to be
forwarded to England, we sailed from Coepang. On the 26th the first
lieutenant, the surgeon, and the master, were seized with a violent
attack of cholera, which lasted twenty-four hours--another evidence of
the unhealthiness of Timor.
The work that now lay before us was, perhaps, one of the most interesting
features of the North-West coast--a remarkable indentation, south of
Roebuck Bay, many parts of which had never been seen. Its peculiar
configuration naturally suggested the idea that a river must exist there;
and it was accordingly with great anxiety that we looked forward to the
result. I had intended to examine the eastern part of Scott's Reef in the
way; but westerly winds, which were, however, favourable for reaching our
destination, prevented us. The track we pursued was entirely new, and in
order to see if any shoals existed, we sounded every twenty miles,
without, however, getting bottom, at nearly 200 fathoms, until the 1st,
when in latitude 14 degrees 24 minutes South, and longitude 123 degrees
23 minutes East we had 70 fathoms.*
(*Footnote. From the result of our soundings on the passage to the coast,
it would appear that a ship in 60 or 70 fathoms would be about the same
number of miles from the land between the latitude of 14 or 15 degrees
South--quality of bottom, a greyish sand, which becomes coarser as the
depth increases.)
After midnight on the 3rd and 4th we had strong breezes of short duration
from South-East, and although a hundred miles from the nearest land to
windward, a fine kind of dust was found on the rigging, which, on
examination by a microscope, proved to consist of sand and wood ashes.
REACH THE NORTH-WEST COAST.
We saw the land to the southward of Roebuck Bay on October 8th, and at
noon passed four miles from Cape Bossut, which we found to be in latitude
18 degrees 42 minutes South and longitude 121 degrees 45 minutes East.*
On the south side opened a bay two miles deep, with a small high-water
inlet at its head. From thence we held a general South by West 1/2 West
course, passing along the land at the distance of from three to four
miles, in soundings of 5 and 6 fathoms, and at sunset anchored four miles
from a low sandy coast, on which the sea broke heavily. Cape Joubert,**
distant sixteen miles, was the last projection of any kind we passed.
(*Footnote. The longitudes depend on the meridian of Coepang. which has
been considered in 123 degrees 37 minutes 0 seconds East.)
(**Footnote. In latitude 18 degrees 58 minutes South and longitude 121
degrees 42 minutes East. It is crested with bare white sand, and although
only forty-five feet high is a remarkable headland on this low coast.)
APPEARANCE OF NORTH-WEST COAST.
From that headland commenced a low, wearisome, sandy shore, which we
traced for sixty-five miles in a South-West by West direction, looking in
vain for some change in its character. Nothing beyond the coast
sand-dunes, sprinkled with vegetation, and only twenty feet high, could
be seen from the masthead, although the ship was within three miles of
the beach. This cheerless aspect was heightened by the total absence of
native fires, a fact we had never before observed in such an extent of
country, and truly significant of its want of fertility. Still, in our
sight it possessed a greater charm than it may, probably, in that of
others; as every fresh mile of coast that disclosed itself, rewarding our
enterprise whilst it disappointed our expectations, was so much added to
the domains of geography. That such an extent of the Australian continent
should have been left to be added to the portion of the globe discovered
by the Beagle was remarkable; and although day by day our hopes of
accomplishing any important discovery declined, a certain degree of
excitement was kept alive throughout.
It was the 13th before we had made good the distance I have above
mentioned, when a reddish hillock, of fifty-six feet in elevation, in
latitude 19 degrees 48 minutes South, and longitude 120 degrees 36
minutes East, promising a view of the interior, we went to visit it.
There was less surf on the beach than we expected, and we landed without
much difficulty. Our old friend, the black and white red-bill, or
oyster-catcher, was in readiness to greet us, accompanied by a few
families of sanderlings, two or three batches of grey plovers, and a
couple of small curlews. Crossing the beach, a line of reddish sandstone
cliffs, twelve feet in height, was ascended, and found to face a bank of
sand, held together by a sort of coarse spinifex. This bank, which ran
parallel to the coast, was narrow, subsiding into a valley three quarters
of a mile wide, on the opposite side of which rose a hummocky ridge of
coarse ferruginous sandstone formation. The valley was covered with brown
grass and detached stunted bushes. Water had recently lodged in it, as
appeared from the saucer-like cakes of earth broken and curled up over
the whole surface. The nature of the soil was shown by the heaps of earth
thrown out at the entrances of the holes of iguanas, and other burrowing
creatures; it was a mixture of sand, clay, and vegetable matter.
VIEW OF INTERIOR.
From the highest hillock beyond the valley a view of the interior was
obtained: it presents, like most of the portions of the continent we had
discovered, the aspect of a dreary plain, clothed with grass and detached
clumps of green brushwood. "What a strange country!" was the exclamation
that naturally burst from us all, on beholding this immense and
apparently interminable expanse, with no rise to relieve the tired eye.
As we gazed, our imaginations transported us to the Pampas of South
America, which this vast level greatly resembled, except that the motions
of no startled deer or ostriches scudding over the country, and leaving a
train of dust behind, gave life and animation to the scene. No trace of
kangaroos, or of natives, not even the sign of a fire, greeted us on this
inhospitable coast. The evidences of animal were as scanty as those of
vegetable life.
BIRDS.
Two brown bustards rose out of the grass; they were of the same size and
colour as those seen in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and quite as wary, which
was very singular. A couple of specimens of land birds were shot; one of
them resembled a Meliphagus, although its stomach was filled with small
beetles, finely broken up;* its head was covered with yellow pollen, out
of a flower resembling the mallow, which is frequently resorted to by
small beetles during the heat of the day, when the petal closing over
them they are extracted, with some difficulty, by the bird. The other
specimen was a brown grain-feeding kind; it invariably rested on the
ground, where in its habits, head erect, tail down, and short, sudden
run, it greatly resembled a tit-lark.
(*Footnote. Usually observed in the specimens of this species procured by
Dr. Bynoe.)
At daylight on the 14th we continued our exploration from the spot where
we visited the shore, marked on the chart as Red Hill; and found that the
coast trended West by South to the part fronting the Amphinome Shoals,
and that instead of the continued sandy beach were occasional low rocky
projections. Eleven miles from Red Hill, a detached rocky ledge extended
two miles from the shore, and at the end of twenty, commenced a line of
low red sandstone cliffs five miles in extent. Here we, for the first
time, saw native fires; and the country was evidently higher.
SOLITARY ISLAND.
October 15.
In the evening the ship was anchored five miles from a small island,
bearing South-South-East, which we found to be in latitude 19 degrees 55
minutes South, longitude 120 degrees 55 minutes East; and which, from its
lonely situation, was named Solitary Island. Six and nine miles North by
East from it we had crossed several lines of ripplings and shoal patches
of 4 and 5 fathoms. On visiting it next morning (16th) it was found to be
of red sandstone formation, thirty feet high, and devoid of vegetation.
Although lying a mile from the shore it is connected at low-water by a
flat of sand. From its summit the view of the interior presented a slight
change. At the distance of six miles there was a bank or rise in the
country having rather a fertile aspect, above a hundred feet high,
trending South-West with dense woodland intervening.
On the same afternoon the ship was moved fourteen miles further on. The
many patches of ripplings we now saw in every direction westward, assured
us that the Amphinome Shoals were close at hand; on patches one and two
miles west and south of the ship there was only six and nine feet.
VISIT THE SHORE.
October 17.
In the morning another party visited the shore, landing under a low
sandhill, sixty feet high, bearing South by East six miles, called Mount
Blaze, in latitude 20 degrees 0 minutes South and longitude 119 degrees
40 minutes East. This was found to stand on a projection, with two small
rocky islets on either side. Eastward from it cliffy points separating
shoal mangrove bays, formed the character of the coast; whilst in the
opposite direction extended a bay, fifteen miles wide, over the western
point of which we recognised the sandhills seen on our visit to this part
in July, 1840; the shores of this great bay were fronted for some
distance by shoal water.
Behind Mount Blaze the country was swampy, with mangroves, for a few
miles; it then gradually rose, and on the bearing of South 7 degrees
East, distant nearly fifteen miles, were seen conical-sided flat-topped
hills about two hundred feet high. This was the first remarkable
elevation in the country we had seen during the two hundred miles of the
coastline traced by the Beagle; it appears to be the North-East
termination of the high land seen southward from the Turtle Isles.
Some small burrowing animal had so excavated the ground in the vicinity
of Mount Blaze, that at each step we sunk in knee-deep; a few quails were
shot, but no varieties of birds were seen beyond what had been already
observed at the other points of the coast visited.
Weighing, we stood to the westward, after making a short stretch to the
north-east; but shoal water, at the end of six miles, obliged us to go on
the other tack. The change in the direction of the flood- tide, from
westerly to northerly, did not leave much hope of our finding a passage
to the westward. At sunset the anchor was dropped in 9 fathoms, with a
shoal patch of 5 fathoms two miles to the eastward, Mount Blaze, just
visible from the masthead, bearing south sixteen miles. During the
afternoon we had crossed no less than five lines of ripplings, on which,
at low-water, there was only from 2 to 5 fathoms.
October 19.
After the noon observation another attempt was made to find a passage to
the westward; but at the end of eighteen miles we found ourselves embayed
among patches of ripplings and breakers. The western sandhills, seen
yesterday, bore at this time South by East fifteen miles. Two-thirds of
the distance from the shore was a continued line of broken water.
Finding, by sounding with the boats, that there was no passage for the
ship, we retraced our track east; and in the evening anchored again in 7
fathoms, between two ridges of 4.
AMPHINOME SHOALS.
The outer breaker of the Amphinome Shoals bore North 37 degrees West
three miles, which placed it in latitude 19 degrees 41 minutes South and
longitude 119 degrees 24 minutes East; and as these shoals extend
eighteen miles off such low land, they may fairly be considered
dangerous.
BEDOUT ISLAND.
Next evening we anchored off the east side of Bedout Island, having, in
the morning, nineteen miles to the east of it and twenty-two from the
mainland, passed over a ridge of 5 fathoms.
October 21.
We spent the day on Bedout, the centre of which we found to be in
latitude 19 degrees 35 minutes 45 seconds South, longitude 119 degrees 08
minutes 45 seconds East. It is a circular sand islet twenty feet high,
and half a mile in extent. Off its western side ripplings and rocks
extend nearly three miles; in other parts it is fronted by a circular
reef a mile in extent, and of a different kind from the Turtle Isle
reefs, being composed of live corallines and fan-like leaves, which
giving way readily to the feet, we suddenly found ourselves immersed
almost up to our necks; within fifty yards of the island this became
worse. The reefs and beaches abounded with turtles of two kinds, the
Mydas and a species of the Imbricated. We were in time for the noddy's
eggs; but the other birds had hatched theirs, and left for sea, returning
only at night. From their great abundance and constant visits they had
formed a kind of guano on the island. Among the varieties of the
feathered tribe was the golden plover.
On the following afternoon we stood over, South-South-East for the main;
but were again prevented by shoal water from approaching within twelve
miles of the nearest part, which was the western point of the bay seen
from Mount Blaze. Broken water and dry sands extended between south and
east, and to the south-west the entrance of Breaker Inlet and other parts
of the last year's survey were readily distinguished.
October 22.
During the forenoon the boats completed the soundings, and in the evening
the ship was anchored under the North Turtle Isle. Thus terminated the
examination of this hitherto unexplored part of the coast, which had been
the field of many years' speculation. One of the most remarkable points,
is the great rise of twenty-eight feet in the tide, which can only be
accounted for by the fact of the water being heaped up in the concavity
formed by the coast; on the first part of the bight the direction of the
flood was from West, and on the latter from West-North-West. We had found
that no river or other interesting feature existed; and that it was the
most dull and uniform portion of the continent we had seen, or that could
possibly be imagined.
BREAKER INLET.
While I have no reason to believe that an examination of Breaker Inlet,
which, from the numerous sandbanks forming the Amphinome Shoals, has
probably a considerable outlet, would lead to a discovery of any
importance, nevertheless, I regret that the heavy surf which breaks
across its entrance at this season of the year entirely prevented my
exploring it.
The winds we had experienced on this part of the coast were light, from
the eastward, during the night, and moderate from North-North-West to
West-South-West towards the latter part of the day, the morning being
frequently calm. On one or two occasions in the night we had slight
squalls from South-East accompanied by lightning; but, commonly speaking,
the weather was very fine, the temperature on board being generally 77,
the maximum being 82 and the minimum 75 degrees. On shore it was about
five degrees higher.
EXMOUTH GULF.
The necessary chronometric and magnetic observations were completed, and
a supply of turtles taken on board by the evening of the 26th, when after
leaving a paper in a bottle, recording our visit and describing the
nature of the coast eastwards, we left with the intention of exploring
Exmouth Gulf, which was the only remaining portion of the north-western
shore of the continent that had not been visited by Captain King or
ourselves. But as we were forced away from the land by southerly winds as
we approached the North-West Cape, and as there was no certainty of
procuring water, I have been obliged to content myself with the report of
a whaler who went in there and found it to be the mouth of a large inlet
conveying a vast body of water into the interior, occasionally, I
imagine, even as far as the neighbourhood of the north-east shore of
Shark's Bay, as Captain Grey speaks of finding there extensive plains of
mud and sand, at times evidently flooded by the sea and presenting no
limit in a north-east direction.
Continuing our passage we arrived at Swan River on November 23rd.