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
Had we even recognised the bay above alluded to by Dampier before we
passed round Cape Leveque, we could not have anchored in it for the wind
was blowing strong from the northward, and a heavy swell was rolling,
which would have placed us in rather a dangerous situation, besides its
being exposed to easterly winds, which for the last two or three days had
blown very strong. During the time we had been among these islands, we
had not met with a single spot that we could have anchored upon without
the almost certain loss of our anchor; and the weather had been so very
thick and hazy that only the land in the vicinity of the vessel's
situation could be at all distinguished; and these disadvantages, added
to the great strength of the wind and the rapidity of the tides, had
materially prevented us from making ourselves better acquainted with the
place. It is remarkable that as soon as we passed round the Champagny
Isles, hazy weather commenced, and continued without intermission until
we were to the westward of Cape Leveque. The French complain of the same
thing; and they were so deceived by it that, in their first voyage, they
laid down Adele Island as a part of the main, when it is only a sandy
island about two or three miles long. No natives were seen on any of the
islands but there were many large smokes on the horizon at the back of
Cygnet Bay.
We were now beginning to feel the effects of this fatiguing duty.
One-fourth of the people who kept watch were ill with bilious or feverish
attacks, and we had never been altogether free from sickness since our
arrival upon the coast. Mr. Montgomery's wound was, however, happily
quite healed, and Mr. Roe had also returned to his duty; but Mr.
Cunningham, who had been confined to the vessel since the day we arrived
in Careening Bay, was still upon the sick list. Our passage up the east
coast, the fatigues of watering and wooding at Prince Regent's River, and
our constant harassing employment during the examination of the coast
between Hanover Bay and Cape Leveque, had produced their bad effects upon
the constitutions of our people. Every means were taken to prevent
sickness: preserved meats were issued two days in the week in lieu of
salt provisions; and this diet, with the usual proportions of lemon-juice
and sugar, proved so good an anti-scorbutic that, with a few trifling
exceptions, no case of scurvy occurred. Our dry provisions had suffered
much from rats and cockroaches; but this was not the only way these
vermin annoyed us, for, on opening a keg of musket ball cartridges, we
found, out of 750 rounds, more than half the number quite destroyed, and
the remainder so injured as to be quite useless.
August 21.
The following day we made very little progress, from light winds in the
morning and a dead calm the whole of the evening. At sunset we anchored
at about four miles from the shore, in seventeen fathoms sandy ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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