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) 📗

morning the first thing. In the meantime I went on shore with the Captain to get the bullock in to kill, Barrett, as well, on horseback, and we found it was impossible to get him in-he was so wild: he was therefore shot at the far and south end of the island, with the intention of bringing as much as possible of the carcass away. It getting late in the evening, however, none was taken away, nor is there time now to do so, and to do also an act of duty and humanity to the yet living human beings.

Sunday, 24th December.

Before ten A.M., a dead calm; at turn of tide or rather before, weighed anchor, but the tide took us towards Cape York a mile; the tide now turned, and a gentle breeze took us through the strait. The breeze continued, and at sundown we anchored five miles south of Point Shadwell, Mount Adolphus bearing North-North-West, seven leagues; employed during the day conversing with Jackey, taking down in pencil what he had to say, changing the subject now and then by speaking of his comrades at Jerry's Plains. I did so as he told me what kept him awake all last night was thinking about Mr. Kennedy. Saw three native fires on our voyage here, one on this south end of Albany Island, one between it and here, and one on shore abreast of us.

December 25th, Monday.

At daylight in the morning a dead calm, and the hottest day we have had, the sun was so glaring that the altitude could not be taken. At about a quarter before ten A.M. a light breeze came on and we left our anchorage, the breeze increased a little, before eleven; saw what appeared to be an island at first; on nearing, found it to be a canoe, about fifteen feet long, with seven or eight natives in it, shearing about, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another. After a little we heard them calling out, "paoud," "whappee," "chauca," some of them standing up. I named to the Captain that I thought they must be from Cape York, from their words, and that it would be at least desirable to glean information from them, if possible, concerning Mr. Kennedy. The Captain said, "We will not call out paoud," (which means peace) but occasionally the words chauca (tobacco) biskey (biscuit) were called out from the ship. They from this drew close to the vessel, very wary, however, in doing so. Jackey was placed in the fore-top, and word came that Jackey knew all these fellows, that they were the party who speared Mr. Kennedy. One black was allowed to come on board, and whilst he was partly in the ship, word came to me by Parker (a seaman) that Jackey wanted to speak to me. On going to Jackey, he said, "That fellow," pointing to the one named, "is the fellow that speared Mr. Kennedy; I gave him a knife, keep him, bale (don't) let him go. All those fellows threw spears at Mr. Kennedy." This native was immediately secured. He struggled hard, and it was as much as three men could do to secure him. The other blacks in the canoe now jumped overboard, and observing now that the native secured had a part of a bridle round his arm, and a piece of sinew, or tendon of a horse, and Jackey being so positive as to identity, it was determined to examine the canoe, and an order was given to fire over their heads, whilst they (the blacks) were endeavouring to recover their canoe. The ship's long-boat was sent after the canoe, but in the meantime the blacks had recovered it, and a hard chase took place, the blacks paddling away towards the shore. The boat overhauled them, when a shot was fired from the boat, and as the boat closed upon them I saw the blacks jump overboard again, and afterwards the ship's boat bring back the canoe. During this time several shots were fired over them, and near them, from the ship. The boat returned in about twenty minutes from the time of leaving, with the canoe. Barrett said to me when alongside that he was speared, and that he had shot the black who had speared him, and who was now in the canoe nearly dead. It appears that one black had stuck to his canoe, and on the ship's boat nearing it, had thrown a spear into Barret's arm, and was on the eve of throwing another at him, when Barrett shot him. I went into the canoe, and examined the black, and found the ball had gone through his body, entering on the one side and coming out on the other side. The ball must have gone through the stomach, from its direction. He was now dying-nearly dead. The canoe was chopped up, and, with the black, disappeared a short time afterwards. I dressed Barrett's wounds, three of them, of a triangular shape, in the lower and fleshy part of the forearm. From the canoe were brought the leg part of a pair of trousers, three spears, a piece of iron of a saddle, hooks and lines, etc.; and a piece of moleskin was taken off the native's leg, which Jackey says was part of his trousers, which he tied round Mr. Kennedy's head when he buried him, Jackey being sure that they had dug up Mr. Kennedy. I observed at the time that the native was nearly on board, the moment the blacks saw Jackey, they looked at each other as if everything was not right. Previously to their jumping overboard, when Jackey showed the native the spear wound over his eye, he would quickly turn away and not look him in the face. Whilst the native was being secured, after being removed to the fore part of the vessel, a mutton bone with meat was offered him which he grappled at and ate voraciously, saying, "paoud, paoud." The wind increased and was fair, and Jackey pointed out a hill ahead of us which he said was like Pudding-pan Hill, near which the three men were left. This Hill was Pudding-pan Hill, according to the chart. As we neared Pudding-pan Hill, Jackey said, that is not the place, that he had been mistaken, and, on continually looking at it, he became the more confirmed and positive, and said it was no use whatever to land there, but that we must go further on; we passed the hill; in the meantime, the Captain and I consulted as to what should be done, knowing this was the only Pudding-pan Hill on the chart; but Jackey, who had been placed on the fore-top, became more and more positive, saying at length, "Do you think I am stupid?-Mr. Kennedy sent me from the camp to look out the coast, so that I might know it again when I came back in the ship, and I will tell you when we come to it, the ship must go on that way further," pointing to the south. Proceeding on, towards evening, off Hannibal Bay, we saw numerous native fires, and in one spot I observed about forty natives. Before sundown a canoe was making off to us, but after sunset we gradually lost sight of it, and some time after this we anchored.

Tuesday, 26th December, 1848.

At twenty minutes to six A.M., got underweigh with a light breeze; in the centre of Hannibal Bay, Risk Point ahead. In about ten minutes we struck on a coral reef, and soon got off again; we anchored this day in Shelburne Bay, opposite where Jackey wished us to proceed to recover the three men; he was sure this was the place, seeing the mountain which Mr. Kennedy called Pudding-pan Hill, and other mountains there, which were wanting at the Pudding-pan Hill of the chart; he was perfectly confident as to this being the right place and it may be here stated that this hill is the very facsimile of the Pudding-pan Hill of the chart. In sailing in the bay we found the water getting very shallow, from three to four, and lastly, when we anchored, two and a half fathoms, and this unfortunately, was a long way off from the land, say three or four miles; after consultation with the Captain and Jackey, our main guide, we determined on going on shore at the place pointed out by Jackey before daylight on the following morning; during this afternoon several fires, about five, were in sight along the coast in the bay, and not many natives seen; I saw five; after a time it had been determined who should be the party to go to recover the three men. The Captain, Jackey, Barrett, Thomas (the sailor), and myself, formed the party. The evening was employed in getting our guns in good order for the morrow. The Captain thought he observed on shore natives with wearing apparel on.

Wednesday, 27th December, 1848.

At three o'clock A.M., the Captain called me, and such had been the preparation last night that in a quarter of an hour we were in the longboat, steering for the shore, and just as daylight was peeping we were near the shore in shallow water, and a fire sprung up nearly in front of us a little way in from the beach. The boat struck on the ground, and we waded through the water for about a hundred yards or more knee deep. Jackey took the lead, the Captain and I following, Barrett and Tom behind, and mounted the low scrubby cliff about two hundred yards from where we saw the fire. On we trudged through dense scrub inland for about an hour, When Jackey said we must go further up that way, pointing more in the south part of the bay; that is where I want to go, said he, and that we had better cross there in the boat and recommence the trip. On reaching the coast we hailed the boat, which was anchored off a little, and waded out to it. Having seen a great smoke last evening and apparently one this morning, some distance beyond where Jackey wished us to land, he was asked if we should go first to this native fire and camp, and see if they have anything there belonging to the three men, and Jackey said, yes. We proceeded there, a distance of about four miles to the southernmost part of the bay, and landed, but could discover only the remains of a bushfire and no camp; we now left this part and proceeded to exactly where Jackey pointed out on the beach, more in the central part of the bay, some three miles across, and landed, telling the men in the boat to anchor a little higher up to the north, where Jackey said we should come out at by-and-bye. We left word with the men in the boat that we might be away for three hours or more, and that we should fire a gun on our return, which was to be answered by them.

Jackey was now head and leading man in every sense of the word, and away we went in a westerly direction, for about, say, five or six miles; Jackey telling us to look out behind and all about for the blacks. After proceeding some four miles of the distance, we came to a creek where we stopped for a few minutes; Jackey was evidently tired, not recovered, and could not walk fast, and although we went off at first at a good pace, Jackey was getting lame, and had been obliged to sit down three times on the journey. About two miles beyond this creek Jackey got up into a tree, and returned saying he could see the mountain near which the camp was,