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
Although we were not very successful in obtaining supplies on this
occasion, we found on a subsequent visit, when our stay was longer, that
they could be obtained at a very moderate price; firewood and water may
also be obtained without difficulty.
Off the town of Ki Doulan the water is too deep for a ship to anchor, but
the shoal which projects from the point of the island three miles north
of the town affords good anchorage in both monsoons.
There seem to be clear passages between all the islands in this group,
though contracted in places by reefs, which, from the clearness of the
water, can be distinctly seen from the masthead.
ISLAND OF VORDATE.
On the morning of the 6th we got underweigh, and passing to the westward
of the Ki group, saw the Nusa Tello Islands indistinctly through the haze
to the westward of us. At dawn on the 7th we made the high land of
Vordate, but light winds prevented our making much progress till the
evening, when a light air carried us along the land, and soon after
sunset we anchored in twenty fathoms off a small village. Daylight on the
8th did not impress us with a favourable idea of our anchorage, for it
appeared we had entered by a narrow and deep channel between two reefs
upon which there was not more than 4 1/2 fathoms.
At 8 a chief came off from the village in a large canoe pulled by about a
dozen men, with a tom-tom beating in the bow. He was very anxious to get
some arrack, and promised plenty of supplies.
After breakfast we landed, and were saluted by one gun from a proa hauled
up on the beach. Our arrival had evidently caused much excitement among
the natives, who came down in great numbers, and formed a semicircle
round the boat. They were nearly all armed with cresses and steel-headed
spears. Several of them wore a sort of breastplate made of hide, and
their heads were ornamented with a profusion of richly coloured feathers
and long horn-like projections formed of white calico; long necklaces of
shells hung down to their waists, and all had their hair dyed in the same
way as at Oliliet. Here we again noticed the carved horns surmounting the
gables of the houses.
THE ORAN KAYA.
Soon after we landed, the Oran Kaya made his appearance, and seemed to be
in a great state of alarm. As soon as he got within the circle of his
countrymen he commenced a series of most profound salaams, bending his
head down till he touched my feet. By way of reassuring him, I presented
him with a fine gaudy red shawl, which for a time had the desired effect;
and he then produced a document in Dutch, signed by Lieutenant Kolff,
which appeared to be a certificate of good conduct. By means of the
vocabulary and dictionary I tried to make them understand that we only
wanted some pigs, vegetables and poultry, for which we had brought money
to pay or goods to exchange. These he promised to procure for us, and to
send them on board, earnestly making signs all the time that we should go
away as soon as possible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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