Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owe - Volume 1 by John MacGillivray (recommended reading txt) 📖

desire. Meanwhile he was supported chiefly by the contributions of the officers of the garrison, themselves not well able to spare much. While leading this lonely life he seems gradually to have given way to gloomy despondency. I recollect one passage in his diary (which I once saw for an hour) where he expresses himself thus: "Another year has gone by, and with it all signs of the promised vessel. Oh! God, even hope seems to have deserted me." At length a vessel from Sydney arrived, bringing a large supply of stores of every kind for the mission, but it was too late, for Father Anjello and his sorrows were alike resting in the tomb. One day news came that he was ill; a boat was sent immediately for him, and found him dying. He was removed to the settlement and next day he breathed his last-another, but not the last victim to the climate. His death-bed was described to me as having been a fearful scene. He exhibited the greatest horror of death, and in his last extremity blasphemously denied that there was a God!

(*Footnote. I regret that the arrangements for this work will not admit of my publishing in the Appendix a Port Essington vocabulary, consisting of about 650 words, in four dialects, formed in 1844, and corrected and improved in 1848; the manuscripts will be deposited in the library of the British Museum.)

In concluding the subject of the Aborigines, I may add that at present the natives of Port Essington have little to thank the white man for. The advantage of being provided with regular food and other comforts enjoyed by such as are in service are merely temporary, and, like the means of gratifying two new habits-the use of tobacco and spirits-to which they have become passionately addicted, will cease when the settlement is abandoned. The last importation of the whites was syphilis, and by it they will probably be remembered for years to come.

STATION AT CORAL BAY.

During our stay at Port Essington, I made an excursion in the decked boat of the settlement (which Captain Macarthur kindly allowed me the use of) to Coral Bay, a station for invalids very pleasantly situated on the western side of the harbour, twelve miles from Victoria. We found there my old friend Mr. Tilston,* the assistant-surgeon, with some convalescents under his charge. This is a much cooler and pleasanter locality than the neighbourhood of the settlement, still the heat was at times very great. I had here pointed out to me a kind of tea-tree, or Melaleuca, which had a short time before been recognised by a Malay as that producing the valuable cajeput oil, and on trial, the oil procured from the leaves by distillation, was found to be scarcely inferior in pungency to that of the Melaleuca cajeputi of the Moluccas. Here, too, we saw some of the playhouses of the greater bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis) and had the pleasure of witnessing the male bird playing his strange antics as he flew up to the spot and alighted with a dead shell in his mouth, laid it down, ran through the bower, returned, picked up the shell, and rearranged the heap among which it was placed, flew off again and soon returned with another-and so on.

SAIL FROM PORT ESSINGTON.

On November 16th we got underweigh at daylight, but the wind died away in the afternoon, and we anchored halfway down the harbour. Next day we got out to sea on our voyage to Sydney. We were all glad to leave Port Essington-it was like escaping from an oven. During our stay the sky was generally overcast, with heavy cumuli, and distant lightning at night, but no rain fell, and the heat was excessive. These were indications of the approaching change of the monsoon-the rainy season, with a wind more or less westerly, usually commencing in December and continuing until March.

December 3rd.

Latitude 11 degrees 2 minutes South longitude 123 degrees 11 minutes East. Today we may be said to have cleared the land after a dead beat to the westward, between the Sahul Bank and the islands of Timor and Rottee. It took us eleven days to make good less than 300 miles. The land was in sight during the greater portion of this time, and we had a good view of the noble mountain-range of Timor, also of Rottee and the Strait of Semao, which last we entered with the intention of passing through, but the wind headed us and we had to pass to the southward of Rottee. For a few days after leaving Port Essington we experienced very light and variable winds, which gradually settled into south-westerly, with occasional gloomy blowing weather and frequent squalls at night.

RETURN TO SYDNEY.

At length on January 24th, 1849, a long and monotonous passage of sixty-eight days brought us to Sydney, from which we had been absent for nine months.


CHAPTER 1.5.

Fate of Kennedy's Expedition. Sail on our Third Northern Cruise. Excursion on Moreton Island. History of Discoveries on the South-East Coast of New Guinea and the Louisiade Archipelago, from 1606 to 1846. Find the Shores of the Louisiade protected by a Barrier Reef. Beautiful appearances of Rossel Island. Pass through an opening in the Reef, and enter Coral Haven. Interview with Natives on Pig Island. Find them treacherously disposed. Their mode of Fishing on the Reefs. Establish a system of Barter alongside the Ship. Description of the Louisiade Canoes, and mode of management. Find a Watering Place on South-East Island. Its Scenery and Productions. Suspicious conduct of the Natives. Their Ornaments, etc. described.

FATE OF KENNEDY'S OVERLAND EXPEDITION.

The most eventful occurrence during our stay in Sydney, was the arrival of the schooner which we had left at Port Albany, awaiting the arrival of Mr. Kennedy. She brought the sad news of the disastrous failure of his expedition, and of the death of all but three composing the overland party, including their brave but ill-fated leader. I was present at the judicial investigation which shortly afterwards took place, and shall briefly relate the particulars. I shall not easily forget the appearance which the survivors presented on this occasion-pale and emaciated, with haggard looks attesting the misery and privations they had undergone, and with low trembling voices, they gave their evidence.

It would appear that their difficulties commenced at the outset, as many weeks passed before they got clear of Rockingham Bay, its rivers, swamps, and dense scrubs, fenced in by a mountain chain. Six weeks elapsed before they were enabled to pursue a northerly course, the scrubs or dense brushes still continuing, requiring the party to cut their way. The carts were abandoned on July 18th, and the horses were packed. Sickness early made its appearance, the stock of provisions was getting low, the horses long failing in strength were dying of weakness, and their flesh was used as food.

On November 10th, or upwards of five months after leaving Rockingham Bay, having made less than 400 miles in a direct line towards their destination, and three of the party having been completely knocked up, and the remainder in a feeble state; nineteen of their horses dead, and their provisions reduced to one sheep, forty-six pounds of flour, and less than one pound of tea-Mr. Kennedy resolved to form a light party consisting of himself, three men, and the aboriginal Jackey-Jackey, and push on for Cape York, distant about 150 miles, to procure assistance for the remainder, and save them from impending death by the combined influences of sickness, exhaustion, and starvation.

On November 13th Kennedy started, leaving eight men at the camp at Weymouth Bay. Near Shelburne Bay one of the party accidentally shot himself, and another was too ill to proceed; consequently, it was determined to leave them behind in charge of the third man, with a horse for food, while Kennedy and the black pushed on for Port Albany. At length near Escape River, within twenty miles of Cape York, a tribe of natives with whom they had had some apparently friendly intercourse, tempted by their forlorn condition and a savage thirst for plunder, attacked them in a scrub and with too fatal success, as the gallant leader of this unfortunate expedition breathed his last after receiving no less than three spear wounds. The affecting narrative of what passed during his last moments as related by his faithful companion, is simply as follows: "Mr. Kennedy, are you going to leave me?" "Yes, my boy, I am going to leave you," was the reply of the dying man, "I am very bad, Jackey; you take the books, Jackey, to the Captain, but not the big ones, the Governor will give anything for them." "I then tied up the papers;" he then said, "Jackey, give me paper and I will write." "I gave him paper and pencil, and he tried to write; and he then fell back and died, and I caught him as he fell back and held him, and I then turned round myself and cried; I was crying a good while until I got well; that was about an hour, and then I buried him; I dug up the ground with a tomahawk, and covered him over with logs, then grass, and my shirt and trousers; that night I left him near dark."

About eight days after, Jackey-Jackey, having with wonderful ingenuity succeeded in escaping from his pursuers, contrived to reach Port Albany, and was received on board the vessel, which immediately proceeded to Shelburne Bay to endeavour to rescue the three men left there. The attempt to find the place was unsuccessful, and from the evidence furnished by clothes said by Jackey to belong to them, found in a canoe upon the beach, little doubt seemed to exist as to their fate. They then proceeded to Weymouth Bay, where they arrived just in time to save Mr. Carron, the botanical collector, and another man, the remaining six having perished. In the words of one of the survivors: "the men did not seem to suffer pain, but withered into perfect skeletons, and died from utter exhaustion."

Such was the fate of Kennedy's expedition, and in conclusion, to use the words of the Sydney Morning Herald, "it would appear that as far as earnestness of purpose, unshrinking endurance of pain and fatigue, and most disinterested self-sacrifice, go, the gallant leader of the party exhibited a model for his subordinates. But the great natural difficulties they had to encounter at the outset of the expedition so severely affected the resources of the adventurers, that they sunk under an accumulation of sufferings, which have rarely, if ever been equalled, in the most extreme perils of the wilderness."

SAIL ON OUR SECOND NORTHERN CRUISE.

Our stay in Sydney was protracted to the unusual period of three months and a half, affording ample time for refreshing the crews after their long and arduous labours, thoroughly refitting both vessels, and completing the charts. The object of our next cruise, which was expected to be of equal duration with the last, was to undertake the survey of a portion of the Louisiade Archipelago, and the south-east coast of New Guinea. For this purpose we sailed from Sydney on May 8th, deeply laden, with six months provisions on board, arrangements having also been made for receiving a further supply at Cape York in October following.

The Bramble joined us at Moreton Bay, where we did not arrive until May 17th, our passage having been protracted beyond the usual time by the prevalence during the early part of light northerly winds and a strong adverse current, which on one occasion set us fifty-one miles to the southward in twenty-four hours. We took up our former anchorage under Moreton Island, and remained