A Voyage to Terra Australis — Volume 2: Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schoonerFlinders, Matthew
History
A Voyage to Terra Australis — Volume 2: Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schooner
Flinders, Matthew
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Voyages and travels
We landed at dusk, at the foot of the mount; and ascended the top next
morning [SUNDAY 6 FEBRUARY 1803] before the heat of the sun became
excessive, passing in the way several streamlets which were coursing
rapidly down to the sea. The view was fully equal to what had been
anticipated, and extended to a projection half way to Point Arrowsmith on
one side, and over all the islands in the entrance to Mount Alexander on
the other. Out of thirty-nine bearings taken at this station, the
following are selected as being most essential to the survey of the
coast.
The tents, N. 2 ° 50' E.
Point Alexander, the extremity, N. 60 0 E.
Outer, and rather flat isle, N. 86° 15' to 88 22 E.
Mount Alexander, the top N. 37 30 E.
Cape Grey, the outer rocks near it, S. 65 5 E.
A southern projection of the coast, S. 14 8 E.
We returned to the ship in the afternoon, and the natives had not then
approached the tents since the theft of the axe; but next morning [MONDAY
7 FEBRUARY 1803] two of them advanced, bringing some small fruits; and on
being invited to eat fish, they sat down and were immediately seized,
some others who followed, running away on hearing their cries. In a
little time the eldest and most intelligent of them was liberated; on his
promising by signs to restore the axe, and being made to understand that
his companion would be carried off, should he fail. We observed from the
ship much running of the natives amongst the bushes, and peeping about
the tents; and least they should attempt any mischief, a spring was put
upon the cable, and a six-pounder, with grape shot, kept ready; but after
one of the prisoners was released they seemed to have less anxiety, and
several swam back across a salt creek, to their usual place of residence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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