Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Volume II Part 3

Buccaneer's Archipelago.

Cygnet Bay.

Dangerous situation of the brig.

High and rapid tides.

Cape Leveque.

Examination of the coast to Cape Latouche Treville.

Remarkable effect of mirage.

Leave the coast for Mauritius.

Voyage thither.

Arrival at Port Louis.

Refit.

Some account of the island.

1821. July 9.

Our course was held to the south-west towards Cape Londonderry; on which, with a fresh South-East wind, we proceeded with rapidity.

July 12.

On the morning of the 12th, Eclipse Hill and Sir Graham Moore's Islands were seen, and in the afternoon we pa.s.sed Troughton Island; at sunset, Point Hillock bore South thirteen miles, whence we steered to the West-North-West and North-West, and rounded the north end of the long reef, to the westward of Cape Bougainville.

July 13.

The next morning, at daylight, Ca.s.sini Island was seen bearing South by West; here we were detained for two days by light baffling winds and calms.

July 14.

During the night of the 14th, the wind was light from the westward, and we stood off and on to the north of Ca.s.sini Island.

July 15.

At half-past one o'clock a.m., having sounded in thirty-three fathoms, we shoaled suddenly to fourteen, when the vessel's head was put to the southward, but the breeze was so very light, that she had hardly steerage way: by the light of the moon a line of breakers was seen two miles off, under our lee: we had now shoaled to nine fathoms on a rocky bottom, but its great irregularity prevented our dropping the anchor until the last minute, since it would have been to the certain loss of the only one we had. In order, therefore, to save it, if possible, the boat was lowered, and sent to sound between the vessel and the breakers. Finding we made no progress off the reef by standing to the southward, we tacked; and, a light breeze springing up from the westward, we drew off the bank on a north-west course, and in the s.p.a.ce of a mile and a half deepened the water gradually to thirty fathoms.

July 16.

The next morning, at a quarter past eight o'clock, the breakers were again seen; they were found to be 24 minutes 44 seconds West of Troughton Island. The wind was too light to allow of our approaching, we therefore tacked off to the westward, and soon lost sight of them; at noon we were in lat.i.tude 13 degrees 26 minutes 26 seconds. The breakers from the masthead, bearing south-east, distant eight or nine miles.

During the ensuing night, having a fresh breeze, we stood first to the westward, and afterwards to the south-east.

July 17.

At seven o'clock the next morning no land was in sight, but breakers were seen extending from South by West to South-West by South, about five miles off; and two miles beyond them was another line of breakers, bearing from South-South-West to South-West by West. As we steered obliquely towards them, they were noticed to extend still farther to the eastward, but apparently in detached patches; our soundings, as we stood on, shoaled to fifteen fathoms; and we were shortly within half a mile of an appearance of shoal-water, in thirteen fathoms on a rocky bottom. The wind now began to lessen; and, for fear of being becalmed, I was anxious to get an offing. By our observations, we found the breakers this morning were connected with those pa.s.sed yesterday, and are a part of Baudin's Holothurie Banks. The French charts of this part are very vague and incorrect; for our situation at noon upon their plan (with respect to the position of Ca.s.sini Island) was in the centre of their reefs.

At noon we were in 13 degrees 38 minutes South, when a freshening breeze from South-East enabled us to make progress to the southward. At two o'clock some of the Montalivet Islands were seen; and before three o'clock, an island was seen bearing South, which proved, as we stood towards it, to be the northernmost of a group lying off the north-west end of Bigge's Island; they were seen last year from Cape Pond, and also from the summit of the hills over Careening Bay.

July 19 to 21.

At daylight (19th) having laid to all night, this group was about six leagues off, bearing from South 35 1/2 to 49 degrees East, but a continuation of calms and light winds detained us in sight of them until the 21st.

This group consists of eight or nine islands, and appears to be those called by the French the Maret Isles; they are from one quarter to a mile and a half in extent, and are rocky and flat-topped; the sh.o.r.es are composed of steep, rocky cliffs. They are fronted on the west side by a rocky reef extending in a North-North-East and South-South-West direction.

During the calm weather, in the vicinity of this group, we had seen many fish and sea-snakes; one of the latter was shot and preserved; its length was four feet four inches; the head very small; it had neither fins nor gills, and respired like land-snakes; on each scale was a rough ridge: it did not appear to be venomous. A shark was also taken, eleven feet long; and many curious specimens of crustacea and medusa were obtained by the towing-net. Some of the latter were so diaphanous as to be perfectly invisible when immersed in the water. Among the former were a species of phyllosoma, and the Alima hyalina of Leach.*

(*Footnote. Cancer vitreus. Banks and Solander ma.n.u.scripts. Lin. Gmel.

tome 1 page 2991. Astacus vitreus. Fabr. Syst. ent. page 417 n. 8.)

At daylight we were about four leagues to the West-North-West of Captain Baudin's Colbert Island; at the back of which were seen some patches of the Coronation Islands. The night was pa.s.sed at anchor off the northernmost Coronation Island.

July 23.

And the following afternoon we anch.o.r.ed at about half a mile from the sandy beach of Careening Bay.

As soon as the vessel was secured, we visited the sh.o.r.e, and recognised the site of our last year's encampment, which had suffered no alteration, except what had been occasioned by a rapid vegetation: a sterculia, the stem of which had served as one of the props of our mess-tent, and to which we had nailed a sheet of copper with an inscription, was considerably grown; and the gum had oozed out in such profusion where the nails had pierced the bark that it had forced one corner of the copper off.

The large gouty-stemmed tree on which the Mermaid's name had been carved in deep indented characters remained without any alteration, and seemed likely to bear the marks of our visit longer than any other memento we had left.

The sensations experienced at revisiting a place which had so seasonably afforded us a friendly shelter and such unlooked-for convenience for our purposes, can only be estimated by those who have experienced them; and it is only to strangers to such feelings that it will appear ridiculous to say, that even the nail to which our thermometer had been suspended, was the subject of pleasurable recognition.

We then bent our steps to the water-gully, but, to our mortification, it was quite dried up, and exhibited no vestige of its having contained any for some time. From the more luxuriant and verdant appearance of the trees and gra.s.s than the country hereabout a.s.sumed last year, when the water was abundant, we had felt a.s.sured of finding it and therefore our disappointment was the greater.

July 24.

After another unsuccessful search in the bight, to the eastward of Careening Bay, in which we fruitlessly examined a gully that Mr.

Cunningham informed me had last year produced a considerable stream, we gave up all hopes of success here, and directed our attention to the cascade of Prince Regent's River; which we entered the next afternoon, with the wind and tide in our favour, and at sunset reached an anchorage at the bottom of St. George's Basin, a mile and a half to the northward of the islet that lies off the inner entrance of the river, in seven fathoms muddy sand.

July 26.

The following morning at half-past four o'clock Mr. Montgomery accompanied me in the whale-boat to visit the cascade; we reached it at nine o'clock and found the water, to our inexpressible satisfaction, falling abundantly.

While the boat's crew rested and filled their baricas, I ascended the rocks over which the water was falling and was surprised to find its height had been so underrated when we pa.s.sed by it last year: it was then thought to be about forty feet, but I now found it could not be less than one hundred and fifty. The rock, a fine-grained siliceous sandstone, is disposed in horizontal strata, from six to twelve feet thick, each of which projects about three feet from that above it, and forms a continuity of steps to the summit, which we found some difficulty in climbing; but where the distance between the ledges was great we a.s.sisted our ascent by tufts of gra.s.s firmly rooted in the luxuriant moss that grew abundantly about the water-courses. On reaching the summit, I found that the fall was supplied from a stream winding through rugged chasms and thickly-matted cl.u.s.ters of plants and trees, among which the panda.n.u.s bore a conspicuous appearance and gave a picturesque richness to the place. While admiring the wildness of the scene, Mr. Montgomery joined me; we did not however succeed in following the stream for more than a hundred yards, for at that distance its windings were so confused among rocks and spinifex that we could not trace its source. After collecting for Mr. Cunningham, who was confined on board by sickness, a few specimens of those plants which, to me, appeared the most novel, we commenced our descent, and reached the bottom in safety; by which time the tide was ebbing so rapidly that we set off immediately on our return with a view of arriving on board by low-water, in order that no time might be lost in sending the boats up with our empty water-casks.

During our absence Mr. Roe, who was fast recovering from the effects of his fall, had obtained the sun's meridional alt.i.tude upon the islet at the entrance of the river, which gave 15 degrees 25 minutes 46 seconds for its lat.i.tude, differing from the plan of last year by only fifteen seconds.

July 27.

The following day the boats were despatched up the river, but as the ebb-tide ran until after four o'clock it was late at night before they reached the cascade, having experienced some delay by running upon the sandbanks, which, above Alligator Island, are very numerous and form a narrow winding channel of not more than twelve feet deep; these banks are dry at low-water, and are composed of a yellow quartzose sand. At midnight, as soon as the launch and cutter were loaded, for it did not take more than half an hour to fill the casks, I despatched them to the vessel with orders to return the following night for another load, and in the meantime I purposed continuing the examination of the river, of which we knew nothing beyond a few miles above the cascade.

July 28.

We were, however, unable to set out until half flood the next morning, on account of the shoalness of the channel.

For ten miles we found little or no variation either in its character or course: its windings were only just sufficient to intercept a clear view; for so direct was its course, that from this part the high round hill near the entrance was seen midway between the hills that form the banks of the river.

Proceeding a little way farther, we were suddenly whirled into a rapid amongst large stones, in the midst of which, as the stream was running at the rate of five or six knots, the grapnel was instantly dropped, which had the effect of reversing the boat's head. After this the grapnel was weighed, and by very great exertions we extricated ourselves from the rapid, and then landed at a hundred yards below the fall, on the east bank, where the mangroves were so thick that it was with difficulty we penetrated through them: having succeeded, we walked to the bank near the rapid, and found that it was occasioned by the tide falling over a barrier of rocks, which probably at low-water confines the fresh water above this place; a few minutes afterwards it was high-water, and the tide suddenly ceased to run; when the water became quite smooth and motionless.

A fresh-water rivulet, at that time the mere drainings of what occasionally is a torrent, joined the main river, just above the rapid, by a trickling stream; and made us the more desirous of extending our knowledge of this extraordinary river: we therefore re-embarked, and, pa.s.sing the rapid, pulled up the river against the tide for a mile farther, where it was suddenly terminated by a beautiful fresh-water rivulet, whose clear, transparent stream was so great a contrast to the thick, muddied water we had so long been pulling through that it was a most gratifying sight, and amply repaid us for all our fatigue and exertions. The fresh water was separated from the salt tide by a gentle fall over rounded stones; but as the boat was unable to pa.s.s over them, we had only time to fill our water-vessels, in order to be certain of returning over the first rapid, before the strength of the stream rendered it dangerous to pa.s.s. The bed of the river at this second fall appeared to be about two hundred and fifty yards in breadth: its farther course was lost sight of by a sharp turn, first to the North-East, and then to the South-East, between high and rocky hills.

Large groves of panda.n.u.s and hibiscus and a variety of other plants were growing in great luxuriance upon the banks, but unhappily the sterile and rocky appearance of the country was some alloy to the satisfaction we felt at the first sight of the fresh water; as we did not, however, expect to find a good country, the pleasure was not much diminished, and we set off on our return, perfectly satisfied with the success of our labours: we were at this time about fifty miles from the sea.

The ebb-tide had fallen for an hour when we pa.s.sed the first falls, but there was no appearance of that violence which we witnessed in the morning; probably because the stream had not reached its strength.