The Bushman — Life in a New CountryLandor, Edward Wilson
History
The Bushman — Life in a New Country
Landor, Edward Wilson
Western Australia -- Description and travel
On Friday, the 10th April they made the coast of New Guinea, which
presented a low and thickly-wooded coast-line, backed by mountains of
magnificent height and beauty; the country being apparently very
rich, with many villages, embowered in cocoa-nut trees, scattered
along the shore. While coasting along, in search of a convenient
place to land, they encountered a native vessel of most extraordinary
size and character, which we will allow Mr. Yule to describe in his
own words: --
"At daybreak, as the sun was rising, I was very much struck with the
grandeur of some very distant mountains in a south-eastern direction
-- one in particular, the outline of whose summit was only visible
above the intervening clouds; immense ranges of mountains were also
distinctly visible this side of it, extending in a N.W. and S.E.
direction. It is seldom the rising sun has disclosed to my sight so
splendid a view as then presented itself; but in a few minutes, when
the sun's disk appeared, the beautiful scene vanished, leaving only
inferior cloud-topped mountains visible, together with the rich and
undulating foreground. We shortly afterwards saw the strange sail
seen last night. Although she was much nearer, she proved more
unaccountable than before. As there was not sufficient wind to
enable us to weigh, I resolved to send Mr. Pollard in the second gig
to take a nearer view of this extraordinary vessel. I watched the
boat until Mr. Pollard must have gone nearly five miles from us, when
the boat's sails appeared a mere speck when close to the wonderful
stranger. On this officer's return, he informed me he had approached
within bow-shot of the vessel, which proved to be a gigantic double
canoe, which he conceives must have measured fifty or sixty feet
long, kept apart and together by a platform from fifteen to twenty
feet broad, which extended nearly the whole length of the canoes, the
after-end being square with the sterns of the boats; six or eight
feet of this was left clear for the three steersmen, who guided the
vessel with three long paddles over the stern. With the exception of
this part of the platform, the whole was covered by a strong,
well-built house, made of cane, the roof being flat, and about five
or six feet above the platform. This roof answered the purpose of an
upper deck, affording the crew the means of conveniently walking on
it. This extraordinary craft was propelled by two large mat sails,
each spread between two bamboo masts, the heels of which were fixed
in the same step, the mastheads being spread (athwartships) from
twenty to thirty feet asunder, the sail being triangular between
these bamboo masts, which were supported by diagonal shores fore and
aft on either side; besides these two large sails, the canoe had
numerous smaller (square) ones suspended from the principal masts;
there was also a small square sail forward. The whole of the spars
and rigging was ornamented with a sort of flags and streamers. Mr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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