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) 📗

on one side, and flat on the other. The convex side was curiously painted red, in circular rings and crosses. On the flat side was a handle, cut out of the solid wood. In the same hut I found four wooden swords, three and a half feet long, and four inches broad, sharp at both edges, and thick in the centre, with a slightly curved, round handle, about six inches long. They were made of very hard wood, and were much too heavy to wield with one hand. I also found a number of fishing lines, made from grass, with hooks attached of various sizes, made from mussel shells.

After I had carefully examined all these things, I left them where I found them. In the centre of the camp were four large ovens, for cooking their food. These ovens were constructed by digging a hole in the ground, about three feet in diameter, and two feet deep. The hole is then filled to within six inches of the top with smooth, hard, loose stones, on which a fire is kindled, and kept burning till the stones are well heated. Their food, consisting principally of shell and other fish, is then placed on the stones and baked.

There were no vessels in the camp in which they could boil anything, and it is my opinion, from what I afterwards saw of their habits, that their cookery is confined to roasting and baking. In the camp were several large shells for holding water, and some calabashes, made by taking out the inside of a gourd, which grows plentifully near the camp. These calabashes would hold from one to three pints each.

June 12.

This morning Taylor endeavoured to cross the river with the rope for working our punt, but although an expert swimmer, and a very strong man, he was unable to do so, from the strength of the tide which was running out. We saw several natives fishing in the river from their canoes, which are about five feet long and one and a half feet wide, made of bark, with small saplings tied along the side, and are paddled with small pieces of bark held in either hand. We made signs to them to come to us, with which three of them complied. We made them understand that if they would take our rope across, and make it fast to a dead tree on the other side of the river, we would give them a tomahawk. They consented to undertake the task, and after great exertion succeeded in performing it, and received their reward, with which they seemed quite satisfied and highly pleased. We succeeded in getting everything across this river by ten o'clock P.M., for the moon being up we would not stop till we had finished. Our horses we took about a quarter of a mile up the river, and they crossed where it was narrower and not so deep. Several natives, who had not yet seen our horses, assembled on the banks of the river to see them cross, and when they came out of the water commenced shouting to frighten them, continuing their noise for about twenty minutes. Seeing at length, however, that the beasts submitted to be led quietly along the beach, they came near the camp, and we made them a present of a few fish-hooks. They returned to their camp before sunset.

The river we crossed this day was not so deep as either of the former ones. There is, apparently, a sandbank across all the rivers emptying themselves into Rockingham Bay, near the mouth, and this one formed no exception to the rule. The tide runs up very strongly, I should think from a mile and a half to two miles.

There is a mangrove swamp running up some distance on the northern side of the river, till it joins the freshwater swamps. There is not so much fresh water running out of this river as from the last, and fresh water is only procurable from the south side near the swamp-it being impossible to penetrate the scrub on the northern side to obtain it. At low-water the river is very shallow, with a muddy bottom.

June 13.

On our mustering this morning, Carpenter was missed from the camp. It was discovered that he had absconded during the night, carrying off with him a damper weighing about eleven pounds, two pounds of tea, and ten pounds of sugar. We had breakfast as quickly as possible, and Mr. Kennedy sent four men on horseback to scour the country around in search of him. They returned from an unsuccessful search, but had received intelligence from the blacks that he was not far off.

June 14.

A party went out early this morning, in search of Carpenter, and caught sight of him about two miles from the river, sharing his damper with the blacks. As soon, however, as he saw the party approaching, he decamped into the bush, and was again lost sight of. On coming up to the spot where he was seen, the bags in which he had carried away the tea and sugar were found; the sugar was nearly consumed, but the tea appeared untouched. In the evening Carpenter returned, and on begging Mr. Kennedy's pardon, he was forgiven. Throughout the expedition he was of very little service, being, in fact, little better than an idiot.

This evening we saw a large alligator, about twenty feet long, rising to the surface of the water, close to our camp. He appeared to be attentively watching our sheep, which were feeding by the side of the river, on the Dolichos and Ipomoeas which were growing on the sand. The natives here had a great many dogs, which, towards evening, rushed on our sheep and drove them among the bushes in all directions. We had great difficulty in getting them together before dark.

June 15.

We proceeded inland two or three miles to the edge of the freshwater swamps, and camped there. Mr. Kennedy went with a party into the swamps to ascertain if it were possible to make a road for the carts to pass through. Wall and myself went out collecting specimens.

I found a beautiful species of Loranthus, growing on acacia trees, and producing on its long pendulous shoots abundance of beautiful scarlet flowers; the tube of the corolla was two inches long, with a very short limb, and the plant has lanceolate, glossy leaves. This most interesting parasite-covering the acacia trees-when in flower forms a most gorgeous sight; presenting a beautiful contrast to the dull foliage of the surrounding trees. I also found a scarlet passionflower,* very beautiful, with three-lobed glaucous leaves; and a Nymphaea, (waterlily) growing in the waterholes and small creeks, producing large purple flowers, and peltate leaves; besides a number of other new and interesting plants. Mr. Wall succeeded in obtaining a specimen of a beautiful little marsupial animal, resembling an opossum in form, but not larger than the common rat, the colour pure white, with very small black spots.

(*Footnote. Disemma coccinea. See Volume 1.)

Mr. Kennedy and party returned in the evening, after having been in the water up to their knees all day. He reported that it was altogether impossible to make a road.

June 16.

Mr. Kennedy and party proceeded again this morning to enter the swamps, but in a different direction, in the hope of finding some spot where a road might be made, but returned with no better success. This day we killed the best sheep we had yet slaughtered; it weighed 53 pounds, those we had previously killed weighed from 40 to 48 pounds; they did not keep fat, but up to this time we were enabled to fry all the meat, which mode of cookery was more speedy and convenient for us than boiling or any other way.

June 17.

We proceeded this evening along the edge of the swamps, crossing several small creeks. In many places the wheels of the carts sank to the axletrees in consequence of the rottenness of the ground near the creeks. At length we camped, after travelling about five miles.

June 18.

This day was Sunday, and at eleven o'clock Mr. Kennedy assembled the whole party under the shade of some large trees and read prayers. This was a practice always persevered in when practicable, and unless for some very pressing reason, we uniformly set apart the Sabbath as a day of rest, such an interval from our toils being in fact absolutely necessary.

June 19.

Again Mr. Kennedy started this morning, accompanied by five men, into the swamps, determined, if possible, to find a road by which we might cross them, and get to the foot of the mountain ranges on the south. He remained out during this and the two following days. The natives appear to be very numerous in the neighbourhood of Rockingham Bay. There was an old camping-place with twelve or fourteen old huts near our camp, but it was not visited by the natives during our stay there. They generally came to look at us every day, but always kept at a distance; on some days we saw as many as from eighty to a hundred. The women and children always kept farther from us than the men; I think more from fear of our dogs and horses than of ourselves. The weather was cool, with showers occasionally during the day, and at night steady rain set in.

June 20.

The rain continued throughout the day.

June 21 and 22.

The rain still continued. Two of our horses were found bogged in a creek near the camp, but were soon released without injury; they had strayed into the creek to eat the aquatic grass, which is plentiful on almost all the creeks between the swamps and the sea. The soil here was rather stiffer than we had found it before, being a light sandy loam, and in places clayey. There were not so many shells to be seen, and what there were, were principally bivalves.

Mr. Kennedy returned this evening, and having again found it impossible to cross the swamps, we were obliged to return to the beach, where the travelling was far better than among the trees. While travelling inland a man was always obliged to walk before the carts, to cut down small trees.

At this time we had only two meals per day; breakfast at daylight, and dinner when we had completed our day's work, and camped. The time for dinner was therefore irregular, depending on the nature of the country over which we travelled. Some days we dined at one o'clock, on others not till dark. Whenever any birds were shot, they were boiled for supper; but as yet we had killed very few.

Mr. Kennedy appeared to be, in every respect, admirably fitted for the leader of an expedition of this character. Although he had innumerable difficulties and hardships to contend with, he always appeared cheerful, and in good spirits. Travelling through such a country as we were in, such a disposition was essential to the success of the expedition. He was always diverting the minds of his followers from the obstacles we daily encountered, and encouraging them to hope for better success; careful in all his observations and calculations, as to the position of his camp, and cautious not to plunge into difficulties, without personal observation of the country, to enable him to take the safest path. But having decided, he pursued his deliberate determination with steady perseverance, sharing in the labour of cutting through the scrub, and all the harassment attendant on travelling through such a wilderness, with as much (or greater) alacrity and zeal as any of his followers.