A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888

E >> Ernest Favenc >> The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888





The equipment of the vessel for the second voyage, and the construction
of charts of the first, occupied Captain King until December, when he
left Port Jackson to survey the entrance of Macquarie Harbour, which had
lately been discovered, on the western coast of Van Dieman's Land, and in
February, 18ig, he returned to Sydney.

King now started to return to the scene of his labours, this time
intending to make his way along the east coast and through Torres
Straits. With him went Surveyor-General Oxley, in the colonial brig, LADY
NELSON, to examine Port Macquarie, in New South Wales, where, it will be
remembered, Oxley reached the coast after his descent of the Main Range.
On the 8th of May, 1819, the two vessels left Port Jackson, and arrived
at their destination in two days. Here, after spending a short time in
the necessary examination, they parted company, the LADY NELSON returning
to Sydney with the Surveyor-General, and the MERMAID continuing her
voyage.

The east coast having been twice surveyed by Cook and Flinders, there was
little left beyond minor details for King to complete. An opening which
had escaped Captain Flinders was examined, finding good, well sheltered
anchorage within. They named it Rodd's Bay. Amongst other places they
landed at, was Cleveland Bay.


"Near the extremity of Cape Cleveland some bamboo was picked no, and also
a fresh green cocoa-nut that appeared to have been hastily tapped for
milk. Heaps of pumice stone was noticed upon this beach; not any of this
production had been met with floating. Hitherto no cocoa-nuts have been
found on this continent, although so great a portion of it is within the
tropic, and its north-east coast, so near to islands on which this fruit
is abundant. Captain Cook imagined that the husk of one, which his second
Lieutenant, Mr. Gore, picked up at the Endeavour River, and which was
covered with barnacles, came from the Terra del Espiritu Santo of Quiros;
but from the prevailing winds it would appear more likely to have been
drifted from New Caledonia, which island was at that time unknown to him;
the fresh appearance of the cocoa-nut seen by us renders, however, even
this conclusion doubtful; Captain Flinders also found one as far to the
south as Shoal Water Bay.

"In the gullies, Mr. Cunningham reaped an excellent harvest both of seeds
and plants. Here as well as at every other place that we had landed upon
within the tropic, the air is crowded with a species of butterfly, a
great many of which were taken. It is doubtless the same species as that
which Captain Cook remarks are so plentiful in Thirsty Sound. He says,
'We found also an incredible number of butterflies, so that for the space
of three or four acres the air was so crowded with them, that millions
were to be seen in every direction, at the same time that every branch
and twig were covered with others that were not upon the wing.' The
numbers seen by us were indeed incredible; the stem of every grass tree,
which plant grows abundantly upon the hills, was covered with them, and
on their taking wino, the air appeared, as it were, in perfect motion."


King landed at the Endeavour River to build a boat that he had on board
in frame--in all probability the very same spot that Captain Cook landed
upon forty-nine years before. He took the precaution to burn the grass
that the natives should not attempt the same trick upon him that they had
played on Cook. During the time the boat was building the inevitable
thieving of the natives took place, and the usual tactics of firing over
their heads had to be resorted to.


"On the 10th of July our boat was launched and preparations were made for
leaving the place which had afforded us so good an opportunity of
repairing our defects.

"The basis of the country in the vicinity of this river is evidently
granitic; and from the abrupt and primitive appearance of the land about
Cape Tribulation, and to the north of Weary Bay, there is every reason to
suppose that granite is also the principle feature of those mountains,
but the rocks that lie loosely scattered about the beaches and surface of
the bills on the south side of the entrance, are of quartzoze substance;
and this, likewise, is the character of the hills at the east end of the
northern beach. Where the rocks are coated with a quartzoze crust, that,
in its crumbled state, forms a very productive soil. The hills on the
south side of the port recede from the banks of the river, and form an
amphitheatre of low grassy land, and some tolerable soil, upon the
surface of which, in many parts, we found large blocks of granite heaped
one upon another. Near the tent we found coal, but the presence of this
mineral in a primitive country, at an immense distance from any part
where a coal formation is known to exist, would puzzle the geologist were
I not to explain all I know upon the subject.

"Upon referring to the late Sir Joseph Banks' copy of the ENDEAVOUR log,
I found the following remark:--'June 21st and 22nd, 1770--Employed
getting our coals on shore.' There remains no doubt that it is a relic of
that navigator's voyage, which must have been lying undisturbed for
nearly half a century."


Leaving the Endeavour, the next object of interest they fell in with was
the wreck of a vessel, which, on examination, proved to be the FREDERICK,
but no signs of the fate of her crew were to be seen. They next had a
narrow escape of being wrecked themselves on a bank at the mouth of a
river running into Newcastle Bay, which King christened Escape River, and
which was afterwards destined to come into fatal prominence as the scene
of Kennedy's death.

Off Good Island, in Torres Straits, the arm of their anchor broke.


"A remarkable coincidence of our two losses upon the two voyages has now
occurred. Last year, at the North-West Cape, we lost two anchors just as
we were commencing the survey; and now, on rounding the North-East Cape,
to commence our examination of the north coast, we have encountered a
similar loss; leaving us, in both instances, only one bower anchor to
carry on the survey."


Eleven weeks now since they had left Port Jackson, during that time King
had laid down the different projections of the coast, and the track
within the Barrier Reefs and between the Percy Islands and Cape York;
surveyed Port Macquarie, examined Rodd's Bay, and constructed the boat at
the Endeavour River.

Frequent rain between Cape Grafton and Torres Straits not only increased
the danger of navigation, but the continued dampness of the small cabins,
and--from the small size of the vessel--no stove to dry them, caused much
sickness; but on the voyage from the straits to the western head of the
Gulf of Carpentaria--Cape Arnhem--they found drier air, and finer
weather, which soon restored the invalids to perfect health.

King sailed across the Gulf, and sighted the land again at Cape Wessel,
and on the 30th July anchored off the "COCODRILES' EYLANDTS" of the old
charts. Here King discovered a river which he named the Liverpool, and is
doubtless the Spult of the Dutch navigators. Up this river, the
commander, accompanied by Bedwell and Cunningham, made a long excursion,
but the country was too flat for him to gain much information.

At Goulburn Island, where they landed at their old watering place, they
were again attacked by their friends, the natives, as of old. There is no
doubt that the bad habits of these blacks had been induced by their long
intercourse with the Malays.

Leaving Goulburn Island they passed round Cape Van Dieman, steering so as
to see several parts of the coast of Melville Island, in order to check
the last year's survey. After rounding the cape they kept a course down
the western side of Bathurst Island. On the 27th they made land on the
south side of Clarence Strait, in the vicinity of the Vernon Islands.


"This was the last land seen by us on leaving the coast in May, 1818."


Captain King's next important discovery was the now well-known Cambridge
Gulf. On Adolphus Island, in the Gulf, he buried one of his seamen, named
William Nicholls, and in memorial, the north-west point of the island was
named after him. From this point King was very anxious to examine the
coast most carefully, as the French ships, under M. Baudin, had seen but
very little of it; but he had been unable to find fresh water in
Cambridge Gulf, and his stock was running low. They were very weak
handed, three men, besides Mr. Bedwell, being ill.


"The greater part of the crew were affected with ophthalmia, probably
caused by the excessive glare and reflection of the sun's rays from the
glassy surface of the sea."


Under these unfavourable circumstances they were obliged to make for
Coepang. King says:--


"In the space between Cape Bougainville and Cape Voltaire, which was
named Admiralty Gulf, we have given positions to at least forty islands
or islets. Having now emerged from the archipelago of islands which front
this part of the north-west coast, we seized the opportunity of taking
leave of it for the present, and directed our course for Timor."


Here he heard that some of the crew of the wrecked vessel, the FREDERICK,
that they had seen on the east coast, had arrived, but the greater number
of the crew in the long boat had not been heard of.

On the 12th January, 1820, the MERMAID returned to Port Jackson, having
surveyed five hundred miles of coast, in addition to five hundred and
forty surveyed on the previous voyage, and a running survey of the east
coast from Percy Islands to Torres Straits, which had not formerly been
narrowly examined.




CHAPTER XVIII.



King's Third Voyage--Early misadventures--Examines North-West coast
closely--The Mermaid careened--Unforeseen result--Return to Sydney--The
Bathurst--King's Fourth Voyage--Last of the MERMAID--Love's
stratagem--Remarkable cavern--Extraordinary drawings--Chasm
Island--South-West explorations--Revisits his old camp--Rich
vegetation--Greville Island--Skirmish at Hanover Bay--Reminiscence of
Dampier--His notes on the natives and their mode of living--Cape
Levêque--Buccaneers' Archipelago--Provisions run out--Sails for the
Mauritius--Survey of South-West re-commenced--Cape Chatham--Oyster
Harbour anchorage--A native's toilet--Seal hunt--Friendly
intercourse--Cape Inscription--Vandalism--Point Cloates not an
island--Vlaming Head--Rowley Shoals--Cunningham--Botanical
success--Rogers Island closely examined--Mainland traced further--An
amazing escape from destruction--Relinquishment of survey--Sails for
Sydney--Value of King's work--Settlement on Melville Island--Port
Essington--Colonisation--Fort building--A waif--Roguish
visitors--Garrison life--Change of scene--Raffles Bay--Dismal
reports--Failure of attempt.

King, now got ready for his third voyage, and on the 14th June, 1820,
left Port Jackson to again encounter the perils of the north coast in his
little cutter, with the addition to his company of Mr. James Hunter, as
surgeon.

His late voyage had led him to recommend to vessels the passage of the
Barrier Reef, between the reef and the shore, instead of the outside
passage, that had been usually adopted by northern bound ships. His start
was unfortunate; heavy weather set in, the cutter lost her bowsprit, and
they had to put back. On the way up, after repairs had been effected, the
little craft struck heavily on a sandbank, and damaged her hull
considerably, but the voyage was continued.

On the 19th of August the voyagers were at their former anchorage at
Goulburn Island, taking in fresh water, and watching narrowly for their
old friends the natives, who were so long in making their appearance.
They cut off Lieutenant Roe, when by himself, and nearly succeeded in
spearing him; he was only rescued, when quite exhausted, by the boat's
crew coming to his assistance.

King proceeded to examine that part of the north-west coast that M.
Baudin had overlooked, more minutely than he had been enabled to do
before. Reaching Hunter's River on September 14th, an opportunity was
offered for filling the water casks. The harbour of this river is of
considerable size, and in most parts offers good anchorage, with
abundance of fuel and water. The harbour was called Prince Frederic's,
and the sound that fronts it, York Sound.


"After passing Point Hardy we entered a fine harbour, bounded on the west
by a group of islands, and on the east by the projection of land that
forms the western side of Prince Frederic's Harbour. The flood tide was
not sufficient to carry us to the bottom, so we anchored off the east end
of the southernmost island of the group, which, on the occasion of the
anniversary of the late king's coronation, was subsequently called the
Coronation Islands. The harbour was called Port Nelson, and a high, rocky
hill that was distinguished over the land to the southward received the
name of Mount Trafalgar."


From the alarming increase of the leak which the MERMAID had sprung, it
was found necessary to find a place to careen her in, in order, if
possible, the damage might be repaired, that they might continue the
survey, or, at least, ensure their safe return to Port Jackson. On the
sandy beach of a bay, which they named Careening Bay, a place was found
in every way suitable.


"These repairs were completed by the 28th, but just as we were
congratulating ourselves upon having performed them, a fresh defect was
discovered, which threatened more alarming consequences than the others.
Upon stripping off some sheets of copper, the spike nails which fastened
the planks were found to be decaying, and many were so entirely
decomposed by oxidation that a straw was easily thrust through the vacant
holes. As we had not enough nails to replace the copper, for that was now
our only security, we could not venture to remove more than a few sheets
from those parts which appeared to be the most suspicious, under all of
which we found the nails so defective that we had reason to fear we might
start some planks before we reached Port Jackson. . . When the repairs
were completed, and the people were more at leisure, I made an excursion
as far as Bat Island, off Cape Brewster. . . . Bat Island is a mass of
sandstone superincumbent upon a quartzoze basis, and intersected by
nearly vertical veins of white quartz, the surface of which was in a
crystallised state. The floor of the cavern was covered with heaps of
water-worn fragments of quartzoze rock containing copper pyrites, in some
of which the cavities were covered by a deposit of greenish calcedony.
The sides of the cavern had a stalagmitical appearance, but the recess
was so dark that we could not ascertain either its formation or
extent. . . . On first entering it we were nearly overpowered by a strong,
sulphurous smell, which was soon accounted for by the flight of an
incredible number of small bats, which were roosting in the bottom of
the cave, and had been disturbed at our approach. We attempted to grope
our way to the bottom, but not having a light, were soon obliged to give
up its further examination. . . . From the summit of this place a set of
bearings were obtained, particularly of the islands to the northward and
westward, and Mr. Cunningham secured here specimens of eighteen different
sorts of plants."


On the 9th, leaving Careening Bay, passing between Cape Brewster and the
Coronation Islands, they enter a spacious sound, which received the name
of Brunswick Sound. And here they also found and named the Prince
Regent's River, afterwards the scene of Grey's discomfiture. Here it was
patent that, in spite of their late repairs, the cutter leaked so much
that, for the safety of the crew, King had reluctantly to return to
Sydney; and when off Botany Bay, narrowly escaped total wreck during a
dark and stormy night.

The tiny craft that had carried King so far and so safely was now laid up
for repairs, and a brig of one hundred and fifty tons was purchased and
re-christened the BATHURST. On the 26th of May, 1821, King sailed from
Port Jackson upon his fourth and last voyage to the north coast,
accompanied by the merchant ships DICK and SAN ANTONIO, bound for
Batavia, who requested permission to accompany King through Torres
Straits.

Meantime, the MERMAID had been thoroughly repaired and fitted out,
leaving Port Jackson to carry the first establishment to Port Macquarie,
on which service she was wrecked.

Their company now numbered thirty-three, but three days after they left
port, King says:--


"A discovery was made of another addition to the crew. Upon opening the
hold, which had been locked ever since the day before we sailed, a young
girl, not more than fourteen years of age, was found concealed among the
casks, where she had secreted herself in order to accompany the boatswain
to sea. Upon being brought on deck she was in a pitiable plight . . .
that her acquaintances, of which she had many on board, could scarcely
recognise her. Upon being interrogated, she declared she had, unknown to
all on board, concealed herself in the hold the day before the vessel
sailed, and that her swain knew nothing of the step she had taken. As it
was now inconvenient to return to put her on shore, and as the man
consented to share his rations with her, she was allowed to remain; but
in a very short time heartily repented of her imprudence, and would
gladly have been re-landed, had it been possible."


Along the east coast the BATHURST was accompanied by the DICK and SAN
ANTONIO, both going north, and near the wreck of the FREDERICK, they had
a trifling brush with the natives. While here, Mr. Cunningham visited
Clack's reef:


"The reef abounded with shells, of which they brought back a large
collection, but not in any great variety; an indifferent CYPRAEA was the
most common, but there were also some VOLUTAE and other shells, besides
trepang and ASTERIAE in abundance.

"Mr. Cunningham observed a singularly curious cavern upon the rock, of
which he gave me a description in the following account of the island:--

"'The south and south-eastern extremes of Clack's Island presented a
steep rocky bluff, thinly covered with small trees. I ascended the steep
head, which rose to an elevation of a hundred and eighty feet above the
sea.

"'The remarkable structure of the geological feature of this islet led me
to examine the south-east part, which was the most exposed to the
weather, and where the disposition of the strata was, of course, more
plainly developed. The base is a coarse granular, silicious sandstone, in
which large pebbles of quartz and jaspar are imbedded. This stratum
continues for sixteen to twenty feet above the water; for the next ten
feet there is a horizontal stratum of black schistose rock, which was of
so soft a consistence, that the weather had excavated several tiers of
galleries, upon the roof and sides of which some curious drawings were
observed, which deserve to be particularly described. They were executed
upon a ground of red ochre (rubbed on the black schistus), and were
delineated by dots of white argillaceous earth, which had been worked up
into a paste. They represented tolerable figures of sharks, porpoises,
turtles, lizards (of which I saw several small ones among the rocks),
trepang, star-fish, clubs, canoes, water-gourds, and some quadrupeds,
which were probably intended to represent kangaroos and dogs. The
figures, besides being outlined by the dots, were decorated all over with
the same pigment in dotted transverse belts. Tracing a gallery round to
windward, it brought me to a commodious cave, or recess, overhung by a
portion of the schistous sufficiently large to shelter twenty natives,
whose recent fire places appeared on the projecting area of the cave.

"'Many turtles' heads were placed on the shelfs or niches of the
excavation, amply demonstrative of the luxurious and profuse mode of life
these outcasts of society had, at a period rather recently, followed. The
roof and sides of this snug retreat were also entirely covered with the
uncouth figures I have already described.'

"As this is the first specimen of Australian taste in the fine arts that
we have detected in these voyages, it became me to make a particular
observation thereon. Captain Flinders had discovered figures on Chasm
Island [Note, below] in the Gulf of Carpentaria, formed with a burnt
stick, but this performance, exceeding a hundred and fifty figures, which
must have occupied much time, appears at least to be one step nearer
refinement than those simply executed with a piece of charred wood.
Immediately above this schistose stratum is a superincumbent mass of
sandstone, which appeared to form the upper stratum of the island."

[Note: "Chasm Island lies one mile and a half from a low point of GROOTE
EYLANDT, where the shore trends southward and seemed to form a bay. In
the deep sides of the chasms were deep holes or caverns, undermining the
cliffs; upon the walls of which I found rude drawings made with charcoal
and something like red paint upon the white ground of the rock. These
drawings represented porpoises, turtle, kangaroos, and a human hand; and
Mr. Westall, who went afterwards to see them, found the representation of
a kangaroo, with a file of thirty-two persons following after it. The
third person of the band was twice the height of the others, and held in
his hand something resembling the 'whaddie' or wooden sword of the native
chiefs of Port Jackson, and was probably intended to represent a chief.
They could not, as with us, indicate superiority by clothing or ornament,
since they wear none of any kind, and, therefore, with the addition of a
weapon similar to the ancients, they seem to have made superiority of
person the principal emblem of superior power, of which, indeed, power is
usually a consequence of the very early stages of society."]


From the wreck of the FREDERICK the crew had been busy during their stay
here procuring all the spars and planks that would be of use to them, and
on the 25th June the BATHURST got under weigh, and with her two
companions resumed their course to the northward, following the same
route as that traversed last year by the MERMAID--steering across the
Gulf of Carpentaria to Cape Wessell, which they sighted on the 3rd June.
Anchoring in South-West Bay, they landed at their former watering place
on Goulburn Island, but found the stream had failed, and the parched
appearance of the island showed that the season had been unusually dry.
Leaving South-West Bay, they passed to the eastward of New Year's Island,
and the following day sighted Cape Van Dieman. Here they parted company
with their companions, the DICK and SAN ANTONIO, by an interchange of
three cheers, the DICK having King's letters for conveyance to England.
The course of the BATHURST was now south-west towards Cape Londonderry,
sighting, during the next few days, Eclipse Hill, Sir Graham Moore's
Islands, and Troughton Island. Light baffling winds detained them for two
days in the vicinity of Cassini Island, and on the 23rd the BATHURST
anchored about half a mile off the sandy beach of Careening Bay.


"As soon as the vessel was secured we visited the shore, 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.

"No water in the gully where last year it was running, and no sign that
it had contained any for some time, yet from the luxuriant vegetation and
verdant appearance of the grass, it was the more astonishing. After
examining the bight to the eastward, where formerly there had been a
considerable stream, all hope of success in finding water here was given
up, and an anchorage made in St. George's Basin, finding an abundant
supply at the cascade in Prince Regent's River.

"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 passed 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, silicious 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
assisted our ascent by tufts of grass firmly rooted in the luxurious moss
that grew abundantly about the watercourses. On reaching the summit, I
found that the fall was supplied from a stream winding through rugged
chasms and thickly-matted clusters of plants and trees, among which the
pandanus 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 course. Large groves
of pandanus and hibiscus, and a variety of other plants, were growing in
great luxuriance upon the banks of the Prince Regent's River, 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."

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