Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley - Volume 2 - John MacGillivray (best novels of all time .txt) 📗

made very good soup.

During the morning of the next day (May 31st) I was employed in procuring specimens and seeds of various plants, and in the afternoon we all resumed our preparations for starting, as we expected Mr. Kennedy back next day. He however did not arrive in the camp, and on the following afternoon I obtained specimens of a very pretty plant of the natural order Onagrariae, with opposite, oblong, simple leaves, and large purple flowers.

The following day (June 3rd) Mr. Kennedy and his party returned to the camp, with the intelligence that it was impossible to proceed in a north or north-westerly direction, in consequence of the swamps. Mr. Kennedy had penetrated them in some places, where the scrub was not too thick; but could not get through them in any place, on account of the water, and the dense scrub. He informed us that he found we should be obliged to cross a river on the beach to the south-west of the camp before we could hope to make any progress.

The two following days were occupied with completing our arrangements for starting; as it was determined on the following morning to strike our tents and proceed at once on our expedition.

As I may now consider our expedition as fairly begun, it may, for the sake of clearness and arrangement, be advisable to continue my narrative in the form of a journal; detailing from day to day the various occurrences which took place. It must be remembered, however, that in narrating the particulars of our journey, I am obliged to trust largely to memory, and to very imperfect memoranda; and to these difficulties must I refer, in excuse for the defects, with which I am well aware this narrative abounds.

Up to the present time, the whole of the party, and especially its unfortunate leader, had remained in good spirits, and, buoyed up with sanguine hopes of success, were eager to set out on their pilgrimage of discovery.

June 5.

We breakfasted at an early hour this morning, and proceeded at once to harness our horses to the carts, three to each cart. The carts contained about seven hundredweight each. This business having been completed, and the packhorses saddled and loaded, we started at nine o'clock A.M., and proceeded along the beach. Mr. Kennedy and Jackey rode in front, followed by the three carts. After Wall, riding one horse and leading two packhorses, came Goddard, Douglas, Mitchell, and Dunn, leading three packhorses, then Niblet in the rear, riding one and leading two horses, followed by Carpenter driving the sheep, and myself on foot, carrying Mr. Kennedy's mountain barometer, which he had given into my charge during the journey; and I was also to take the time for that gentleman, in his observations.

After travelling in this order about two miles, we came to a large river,* emptying itself into Rockingham Bay. This river was about one hundred and fifty yards wide, and although the tide ran up it about a mile, fresh water was procurable from it considerably nearer the sea.

(*Footnote. Mackay River of the Admiralty chart of Rockingham Bay.)

At nearly high-water I tasted fresh water on one side of the river, and salt on the other, and about two hours after high-water, there was no difficulty in obtaining plenty of excellent water on either side of the river, in different places. There is a great deal of fresh water running into the sea here, and at the same distance from the sea as the mouth of the river, it is in some places mixed with salt water, whilst in others it is quite fresh. The banks of this river are low and sandy, and a short distance above where we joined it, it is skirted on either side by a thick mangrove swamp, for the distance of about a mile, where it joins the freshwater swamps, covered with thick scrub. On my proceeding up the river, it became narrower in its channel as it approached the swamps, from which it appeared to be principally supplied. It had a tortuous course, and when I left it, was turning to the westward.

A boat was sent to us by Captain Stanley of H.M.S. Rattlesnake to assist us in carrying our stores across, which we effected with some difficulty by ten o'clock P.M., the horses and some of the sheep swimming across, while the remainder of the latter were taken in the boat. We pitched Mr. Kennedy's tent on sand, at the side of the river, and it being dark, and not knowing where to obtain water on that side of the river, I and five others recrossed it, and went back about three-quarters of a mile to a small creek running parallel to the beach. We filled our kegs, and returned to the camp in time to have supper by twelve o'clock, after which we rolled ourselves in our blankets, and, wearied by the fatigues we had undergone, slept soundly till daylight.

This was a very harassing day to us, as we were all constantly in the water, loading and unloading the boat. It is but just to state, that Captain Stanley of the Rattlesnake, both in landing our horses and stores, and in crossing this river, rendered us every assistance in his power, and seemed throughout to take a strong interest in the expedition, and its object.

While landing our things at the other side of the river, the natives assembled in great numbers about our luggage. As they appeared to be friendly, we permitted them to come within about 150 yards of our landing-place; with some few we had a little difficulty, but for the most part they would sit down quietly as soon as a sign was made for them to do so.

June 6.

Early this morning Lieutenant Simpson of the Rattlesnake left us, he having stayed all night at the camp, and we were now left entirely to our own resources. We loaded our carts and packhorses, and proceeded about three miles inland, but again finding it impossible to cross the swamps, we returned to the beach, and about dusk came to another river, also emptying itself into Rockingham Bay, about two miles south-west of the first we had to cross. This river was much wider than the first, being about two hundred yards wide where we crossed it near the mouth. At the mouth of this river is a sandbank, over which the water is about four feet deep. Inside the bank the water is ten feet deep. The tide flows up for about a mile; there appears to be a great quantity of fresh water discharged into the sea from the river, which, I think, is principally supplied from the swamps. These swamps lie at the foot of a high mountain range, and probably the rivulets descending from the range spread over the flat ground, and form channels by which they reach the sea. Fresh water can be obtained on either side the river very near the sea. I tasted fresh water on one side, salt in the middle, and slightly brackish on the other side, as we crossed over it. Small boats only can enter this river, on account of the sandbank at the mouth. Its course turned to the south-west about two miles up. Its banks were sandy and barren, at least close to the water; on the north side of the river there is a mangrove swamp, extending some distance up the stream; on the south side the banks are higher, and are covered with Casuarinas and Acacias, the soil being sandy and pretty well covered with grass, the land slightly undulating, for about one and a half or two miles up the river. It being too late to think of crossing the river to-night, we hobbled our horses, and having pitched Mr. Kennedy's tent, slept on the sand till morning.

June 7.

As soon as we had breakfasted this morning, we prepared to cross, to assist us in which undertaking we contrived to construct a sort of punt by taking the wheels and axletrees off one of the carts. We then placed the body of the cart on a large tarpaulin, the shafts passing through holes cut for them, the tarpaulin tightly nailed round them. The tarpaulin was then turned up all round, and nailed inside the cart; by this means it was made almost water-tight. We then fastened our water-bags, filled with air, to the sides of the cart, six on each side, and a small empty keg to each shaft. We tied our tether ropes together, and made one end fast on each side of the river, by which means our punt was easily pulled from one side to the other. By this contrivance we managed to get most of our things over during the day, and at night a party slept on either side, without pitching the tents.

June 8.

One party continued employed in getting the remainder of the things across the river, whilst the others went in search of the horses, which had rambled to some distance to seek for better grass. The grass had hitherto continued plentiful in places all the way. The horses were brought up to the river by eleven A.M., and were with some difficulty got across; after which they were hobbled, and we camped for the night near the beach, in good grass.

June 9.

Mr. Kennedy, with Jackey and three others, left the camp this morning for the purpose of ascertaining the most practicable route for our carts. During the day a great number of natives came around our camp, but appeared very friendly; they are a finer race of men than those usually seen in the southern districts of the colony, but their habits and mode of life seem very similar. They left us before dark, without making any attempt at plunder.

June 10.

Mr. Kennedy returned to the camp this evening; he still found the swamps were impassable, the water and mud lying on them in many parts, from three to four feet deep; there were patches of dry land here and there covered with good but coarse grass.

We saw here large flocks of black and white ducks, making a whistling noise similar to some I have seen near Port Macquarie; Mr. Wall shot three of them, and they proved very good to eat, but they were not new, belonging to the genus Dendrocygna eytoni.

June 11.

We started early this morning and proceeded along the beach for three or four miles, when we came to another river, similar in its character to the one we crossed on the 8th, with low sandy banks, and dry bushy land on each side. We unloaded and hobbled our horses, and prepared our punt as before.

Near to this spot we came to a native encampment, consisting of eighteen or twenty huts of an oval form, about seven feet long, and four feet high; and at the southern end of the camp, was one large hut eighteen feet long, seven feet wide, and fourteen feet high. All of them were neatly and strongly built with small saplings stuck in the ground, arched over, and tied together at the top with small shoots of the climbing palm, which I have already described. They were covered with the bark of the large Melaleucas which grow in the swamps, fastened to the saplings with palm shoots. A small opening is left at one end, from the ground to the top, and the floors were covered with long dried grass.

The natives being absent from the camp, I entered the large gunyah, and found in it a large shield of solid wood, two feet in diameter, convex