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
which appeared to extend right across the opening towards which all eyes
had been turned with so much eagerness, and over which the tide was
boiling and whirling with great force. To attempt to cross would have
been madness; there was nothing, therefore, to be done but patiently
await the rising of the tide.
ESCAPE POINT.
The nearest land, a mangrove point bearing South-South-East one mile, we
afterwards named Escape Point, in grateful memory of the providential
escapes we experienced in its vicinity. Where the boats were anchored we
had nearly five feet at low-water, and the tide ran past them at the rate
of five miles an hour. As soon as possible we again started, in a south
by west direction, and proceeded for about five miles, when the boats
were anchored, near the western shore, which we proposed to visit at
low-water. From the yawl's masthead I traced the shore all round, except
to the south-east, where I could see an opening about a mile wide. The
western land was slightly elevated, perhaps to 70 feet, and clothed with
rather large trees, while to the eastward the land appeared very low. As
the tide ebbed, we found, to our disappointment and mortification, that
the flat over which we reckoned to secure a passage to the mainland,
never became quite dry (the tide here falling only 18 feet) while from
its soft and treacherous character, it was impossible to cross it on
foot.
MOUTH OF THE FITZROY.
All doubt about our being in the mouth of a river was put an end to by
finding that, during the last of the ebb, the water was nearly fresh.
This discovery was hailed by us all with a pleasure which persons only
familiar with the well-watered and verdant fields of England cannot fully
comprehend.
Our success afforded me a welcome opportunity of testifying to Captain
Fitzroy my grateful recollection of his personal kindness; and I
determined, with Captain Wickham's permission, to call this new river
after his name, thus perpetuating, by the most durable of monuments, the
services and the career of one, in whom, with rare and enviable
prodigality, are mingled the daring of the seaman, the accomplishments of
the student, and the graces of the Christian--of whose calm fortitude in
the hour of impending danger, or whose habitual carefulness for the
interests of all under his command, if I forbear to speak, I am silent
because, while I recognise their existence, and perceive how much they
exalt the character they adorn, I feel, too, that they have elevated it
above, either the need, or the reach of any eulogy within my power to
offer!
I felt pretty confident that the first rush of the tide upon its reflux
would be violent, and had made preparation accordingly. In the first
watch these anticipations were realized, and I was roused from a
momentary doze by a loud roaring, which I at once recognized to be the
voice of thunder, heralding the advancing tide.
TIDE-BORE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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