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
Bongaree was busily employed preparing his fish, when my bearings were
concluded. The natives of Port Jackson have a prejudice against all fish
of the ray kind, as well as against sharks; and whilst they devour with
eager avidity the blubber of a whale or porpoise, a piece of skate would
excite disgust. Our good natured Indian had been ridiculed by the sailors
for this unaccountable whim, but he had not been cured; and it so
happened, that the fish he had speared this morning were three small rays
and a mullet. This last, being the most delicate, he presented to Mr.
Westall and me, so soon as it was cooked; and then went to saunter by the
water side, whilst the boats' crew should cook and eat the rays,
although, having had nothing since the morning before, it may be supposed
he did not want appetite. I noticed this in silence till the whole were
prepared, and then had him called up to take his portion of the mullet;
but it was with much difficulty that his modesty and forbearance could be
overcome, for these qualities, so seldom expected in a savage, formed
leading features in the character of my humble friend. But there was one
of the sailors also, who preferred hunger to ray-eating! It might be
supposed he had an eye to the mullet; but this was not the case. He had
been seven or eight years with me, mostly in New South Wales, had learned
many of the native habits, and even imbibed this ridiculous notion
respecting rays and sharks; though he could not allege, as Bongaree did,
that "they might be very good for white men, but would kill him." The
mullet accordingly underwent a further division; and Mr. Westall and
myself, having no prejudice against rays, made up our proportion of this
scanty repast from one of them.
We rowed northward, round the west end of Inglis' Island, leaving a
hummocky isle and a sandy islet to the left; but on coming to a low point
with a small island near it, the rapidity of the flood tide was such,
that we could not make head way, and were obliged to wait for high water.
I took the opportunity to get another set of bearings, and then followed
the example of the boat's crew, who, not finding oysters or any thing to
eat, had fallen asleep on the beach to forget the want of food.
It was high water at eleven o'clock, and we then passed between the islet
and sandy point, and across two rather deep bights in Inglis' Island; and
leaving three rocks and as many small islands on the left hand, entered
the passage to the west of the ship, and got on board at two in the
afternoon.
This island is twelve miles long, by a varying breadth of one to three
miles. Its cliffs and productions are much the same as those of Cotton's
Island; but in the south-eastern part it is higher, and the size and
foliage of the wood announced more fertility in the soil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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