Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 2: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — John Shaqi
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 2: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822King, Philip Parker
History
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 2: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822
King, Philip Parker
Australia -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Australia
The following day the weather was so clear that, in the early part of the
morning, we distinctly saw the summit of the land at the back of Cape
Tribulation, bearing North 43 degrees West (magnetic); it must have been
fifty-five or sixty miles off; the fall of the land towards the extremity
of the cape was also seen, bearing North 35 degrees 50 minutes West
fifty-six miles.
In the afternoon I went on shore near the north extremity of the Cape, to
procure some bearings; after which we strolled about, and found a
temporary stream of water falling into the sea. In walking past a grove
of pandanus trees, which grew near the water, we disturbed a prodigious
quantity of bronze-winged butterflies, reminding us, in point of number,
of the Euploea hamata, at Cape Cleveland in 1819. It proved to be a
variety of the Urania orontes (Godart) of Amboyna and the other Indian
Islands. Mr. Cunningham took advantage of the Dick's boat going to the
bottom of the bay, to cut grass: near their landing-place he found some
natives' huts; some of which were of more substantial construction than
usual, and were thatched with palm leaves: inside of one he found a
fishing rod, and a line, five or six fathoms long, furnished with a hook
made from a shell, like the hooks of the South Sea Islanders: he also
found a small basket, made from the leaf of a palm-tree, lying near the
remains of their fireplaces, which were strewed with broken exuviae of
their shell-fish repasts.
A canoe twelve feet long, similar to the one described at Blomfield's
Rivulet (volume 1) was also seen; and, like it, was not more than nine
inches wide at the bilge. A small kangaroo was seen by Mr. Cunningham
feeding upon the grass, but fled the moment that it saw him approaching.
Nothing more was seen of the natives, nor were any heard, or suspected of
being near us; had there been any number the party would have been placed
in an awkward situation, for upon landing, they all incautiously, and
very imprudently, separated, to amuse themselves as they were inclined,
without regarding the situation of the boat, which was soon left dry by
the ebbing tide; and it was eight o'clock at night before they succeeded
in launching her. Immediately after its return, for which we had been
waiting four hours, we got underweigh, and were only just in time to save
the breeze, which carried us out into the offing: after a short calm, the
wind gradually freshened from South-South-West, and we steered on under
easy sail towards Cape Tribulation.
June 19.
On passing the cape two reefs were seen to seaward, which had previously
escaped our notice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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