Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1.: With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During; The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43.; By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative; Of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.Stokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1.: With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During; The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43.; By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative; Of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.
Stokes, John Lort
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Natural history -- Australia
Had not the distance and our scant supply of food, rendered such a step
imprudent, I should have been very glad to have towed him to the ship. I
really believe he would have trusted himself with us, for that or a much
longer distance; but this could not be, and therefore, after endeavouring
to make him understand that we should sleep some distance to the south,
where there was a larger boat, alluding to the ship, we filled his basket
with bread, gave him as much water as he could drink, and bidding him
farewell, reluctantly cut him adrift: I shall not soon forget the
sorrowful expression of his countenance, when this apparently
inhospitable act was performed; it did not seem however to quench his
regard for his new friends, for so long as we could see him he was hard
at work paddling in our wake. I noticed that the beads given him
yesterday were gone; this fact, coupled with the smokes seen during the
day, satisfied me that he had friends in the neighbourhood, to whom I
hoped he would report favourably of his new acquaintances; we had
certainly endeavoured to obtain his goodwill. Simple-hearted, trusting
savage, farewell!
NATIVE SPEARS.
The woodcut represents the difference between the spear used by the
natives of this district and those of Swan River.
We soon reached Whirlpool Channel, through which the tide again hurried
and whirled us with almost frightful rapidity; we were in one part of it
shot down a fall of several feet, the boat's bow being fairly buried in
the boiling current. Emerging from this channel the hoary face of the
remarkable headland already described, burst on our view; and as it was
necessary if possible to reach its summit, we landed in a small bay, near
the southern extremity.
By following a winding ravine we gained the crest of this singular
platform, which we found formed of a fine-grained sandstone, with some
beautiful specimens of crystallised quartz on its higher parts, over
which was a slight sprinkling of vegetation, consisting of a few small
gumtrees and patches of coarse grass. The weather was unusually cloudy,
with squalls from the North-East; towards the evening it was fine with a
moderate breeze from East-South-East. As it was late when we reached the
boat, we spent the night where we landed.
March 27.
We were early on the move pursuing our southerly course, the morning
being rather gloomy with a fresh North-East wind, which raised a good
deal of sea in the mouths of the larger bays. As the day closed we
reached a cove half a mile north of Tide-Race Point, where we passed the
night.
March 28.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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