Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; 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 SeaStokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; 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
A meagre-looking apology for a soldier, leaning against a tree, suggested
to us that we must be near the Resident's dwelling: we were so. It soon
appeared that it was the last of the large houses before mentioned, and
that the soldier was the sentinel.
VISIT THE RESIDENT.
We were speedily ushered into the presence of D.T. Vanden Dungen
Gronovius. What sort of person, reader, do you picture to yourself with
such a name? Great of course; and in truth such was he, not only in
height and bulk, but as he soon informed us, in deeds likewise; he talked
fast, and smoked faster, and possessed a general knowledge of all the
recent discoveries. We learned from him that the Zelee and Astrolabe were
laid on their beam ends for twenty-four hours in the hurricane of last
November, when the Pelorus was lost at Port Essington. After listening to
some strange and amusing stories about Borneo, where the Resident had
been Superintendent for twelve years, we took our leave. I was glad to
find that Mr. Gronovius entertained views more liberal than Dutchmen
generally do. He had, as he told me, written to the Governor-General at
Batavia, requesting that Coepang might be made a free port, and
emigration allowed. He most kindly offered us horses and guides for
riding or shooting.
FORT CONCORDIA.
The observations for latitude, longitude, etc. were made in Fort
Concordia,* near the flagstaff. I was surprised to find this fort so much
out of repair; the only guns fit to be fired out of were two brass
six-pounders, the carriages indeed of which were not trustworthy. On
these guns I noticed the same mark as on that we found at Houtman's
Abrolhos, namely, two sides of a triangle bisecting two small circles. I
never see an old fort without thinking of the anecdote of a party from
the Beagle visiting one at Valdivia on the west coast of South America.
The guns were very much out of repair, and when the remark was made to
the old Spaniard who showed the fort, that they would not bear to be
fired out of ONCE, with a shrug of his shoulders he replied that he
thought they would bear it TWICE! But to return to Fort Concordia: it
stands on a madreporic rocky eminence, about 60 feet in elevation,
commanding the straggling town of Coepang, which, certainly, from the
anchorage** does not impress the stranger with a favourable opinion of
the industry of its inhabitants, though it improves in proportion as you
retreat from the beach. The foot of the height on which the fort stands
is washed by a small rapid stream that skirts the south side of the town.
Its course from the eastward is marked by a deep gorge, on the sides of
which a stranger might feast his eyes on the riches of tropical scenery.
Here and there above the mass of humbler vegetation, a lofty tapering
coconut tree would rear its graceful form, bowing gently in the passing
breeze. On every hill was presented the contrast of redundant natural
verdure, clothing its sides and summit, and of cultivated fields along
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