Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume I Part 34

REPAIR OF THE BOATS.

Nothing however could be done but to have the boats rendered as seaworthy as possible and, having given this order, the want the men experienced for water was the best guarantee that they would execute this task with the utmost diligence. As soon as I saw them at their work I started with a party in search of water whilst another party under Mr. Smith dug for it; and Mr. Walker superintended the rearrangement of the stores and the digging up the seaweed for the purpose of recovering lost articles. I returned just before nightfall from a vain search; Mr. Smith had been equally unsuccessful in his digging operations, and we thus had to lie down upon the sand parched with thirst, our only chance of forgetting our misfortunes being a few minutes sleep.

THE BOATS NEARLY READY.

March 2.

The men continued working hard at the boats, and it appeared that their task would be concluded this day. I once more started to look for water and to examine the island; but our search was again unsuccessful. On measuring the distance that the sea had risen I found that it had spread up in the direction of our boats fifty-three yards above high water mark; but what will give a better idea of the hurricane is the circ.u.mstance of my catching a cormorant on the beach, about seven o'clock on the morning of the 1st, and during the height of the storm, the bird not even attempting to fly, being in appearance completely appalled at the violence of the wind. It was reported to me at night that another hour's work in the morning would render the boats fit for sea.

Sunday March 3.

The men had slept but little during the night for they were oppressed with thirst; and when I rose in the morning I saw evident symptoms of the coming of another roasting day. They were busy at the boats as soon as they could see to work, whilst Mr. Smith and myself ascended the cliffs to get a view towards the main. When I looked down upon the calm and gla.s.sy sea I could scarcely believe it was the same element which within so short a period had worked us such serious damage. To the north-east we could see the lofty white sandhills in Lyell's Range; to the eastward nothing was visible; yet this was the point to which I had determined to steer, for several reasons. In the first place, the land in that direction had never been visited; and secondly, I had found the sh.o.r.es of Dorre Island covered with great forest trees, which must have been washed across the bay, and which from their size could only have been brought out from the continent by some large and rapid stream, which we at this moment would gladly have seen as there was only about a pint and half of water per man left.

SAIL FOR THE MAIN.

When we returned to breakfast I found the boats nearly ready for sea, and about eleven o'clock they had been all hauled down, the stores stowed away, and everything made ready for launching, and off we went, not a little rejoiced at the prospect of soon having an abundant supply of that liquid on which our lives depended. There was scarcely any wind but that little was right aft so that between sailing and pulling we made about five knots an hour. The boats were however so heavily laden that the men found it very laborious work, for they were exposed to the rays of a burning sun and had nothing to drink but half a pint of water, which was all I could allow them.

We however persevered from soon after eleven A.M. until five P.M., when the men began to get disheartened from seeing no signs whatever of land, and I ordered my boat's crew to knock off pulling for a little, and in Mr. Walker's boat, which was about a mile astern, they did the same. In twenty minutes time I made my crew again take to their oars, but the other boat did not in this instance follow our example, so that we kept dropping her rapidly astern. This was very annoying; but as I was anxious at all events to get a glimpse of the land before sundown we still pulled away, trusting that the other boat would soon follow in our wake.

GROUND ON A SANDBANK.

About half an hour before sunset we sighted the land: several low rounded hills were the first things seen; then what I conceived to be very lofty trees rose in sight, and almost at the same moment the boat grounded on a sandbank.

EXTENSIVE SHALLOWS.

I had observed this shoal several miles before we came to it and it appeared to extend as far as I could see both north and south, but, as I had no doubt that we should find sufficient water on it to enable us to cross, I had given it no attention. I now however on looking more carefully could perceive no limit to its extent in those directions and, as I thought I saw deep water immediately to the eastward of us, I ordered the men to jump out and track the boat over. This they did; but on coming to what appeared to be deep water we found it was only a continuation of the same sandbank, covered with seaweed, which gave the water a darker appearance. The men now alternately tracked or pulled the boat for about five miles over a continuation of the sandbank; a work very fatiguing to those who were already exhausted by several days'

continuous exertion on a very short allowance of water in a tropical climate. It had now been for some time night, and we had taken a star for our guide which just before sunset I had seen rising over the main. I thought we had at last gained the sh.o.r.e, at least the boat was close to a dark line rising above the water which appeared like a wooded bank; two of the men now waded onwards to find out the best place for landing and to light a fire that the crew of the other boat might know where we were.

I saw them to my surprise not ascend a wooded bank but disappear amongst the trees; and still through the silence of the night I heard the splash of men walking through water, and in a minute or two afterwards the cries and screams of innumerable startled waterfowl and curlews, who came flying in flocks from amongst the mangrove trees.

FAIL IN MAKING THE LAND.

The men returned and reported that there was no land or any sign of land hereabouts; that the mangroves were a belt of trees upon a sandbank and that the water deepened inside; that the tide evidently rose very high, from the tufts of seaweeds in the bushes; that it was then rapidly coming in (which was evident enough, for the boat was afloat) and that the other side of the mangrove bushes was an open sea.

This was unpleasant intelligence. That it was untrue I felt a.s.sured; but one man, who certainly could not have seen more than a hundred yards ahead of him on so dark a night, spoke as confidently as if he had seen fifty miles, and this discouraged the others: so by way of keeping their minds occupied I got under weigh again and stood off a little to the southward in the hopes of falling in with the other boat. We cheered at intervals of a few minutes, and fired a gun, whereupon ensued a great screaming, whistling, and flapping of wings amongst the waterfowl, but no human voices were heard in reply.

ANCHOR OFF MANGROVE CREEK FOR THE NIGHT.

When we had gone as far to the southward as I thought prudent I stood out from the sh.o.r.e for about a mile so as to have a good peep in amongst the mangrove bushes in the morning for the other boat, and having dropped our anchor we laid down as we best could for the night; and, speculating upon what explanation the native wise men would give to their fellows of the unknown and novel sounds they had this night heard upon the coast, I soon fell asleep.

CHAPTER 15. THE GASCOYNE RIVER.

REACH AND ENTER A MANGROVE CREEK.

March 4.

Early in the morning I had a good lookout kept for the other boat, which I was very anxious to see in order that I might have a sufficiently numerous party for the purpose of landing and looking for water; as I always held it to be better, upon first appearing amongst natives who had never before seen Europeans, to show such strength as might impress them with a certainty that we were well able to resist any attack which they might naturally feel inclined to make on such strange and incomprehensible intruders as white men must necessarily appear to them.

Soon after the sun rose we descried the other boat about three miles to the southward of us; and I despatched two men to wade along the flats and communicate with Mr. Walker: they were to direct him to get under weigh and to make the best of his course, either by tracking, pulling, or sailing, until he reached the point where I might land.

The men whom I sent quickly made his boat, which I perceived moving slowly up the flats; and as soon as the men rejoined me we started. The wind was fair, being from the southward, and I wished to reach some gently elevated hills which I saw about eight miles to the north by east of our present position.

SEARCH FOR AND COMPLETE OUR WATER.

We soon came to a very promising opening which proved to be a creek, with a mouth of about two hundred yards wide, running up in a north-east direction, and having five fathoms of water inside, but with a bar entrance. When we had proceeded up it about two miles it became so narrow that there was not sufficient s.p.a.ce left for the men to use their oars; therefore, making fast the two boats, I landed with a party to look for water.

I stepped very gingerly and cautiously on the mud, for sh.o.r.e there was none; and I had the satisfaction of descending at once, mid-leg deep in the odious slime; but this being endured the worst was over, and, at the head of my sticking and floundering party, I waded on, putting to flight whole armies of crabs who had taken up their abode in these umbrageous groves, for such they certainly were. The life of a crab in these undisturbed solitudes must be sweet in the extreme; they have plenty of water, mud, and shade; their abodes are scarcely approachable by the feet of men, and they can have but little to disturb their monotonous existence save the turmoils of love and domestic war.

After about two miles of wading of this description, which we considerably increased by turning and winding about to avoid soft places, we at length fairly stepped on terra firma and found ourselves at the base of some almost imperceptibly-sloping ground which gradually rose into low, red, sandy, loamy hills, thinly covered with gra.s.s, bushes, and stunted trees. Across these we bent our steps in a south-east direction, no change whatever taking place in the character of the country as far as we went or as far as we could see. But our travels in this line only extended for about three miles, when we suddenly came upon a lagoon of fresh water lying between two of the hills. All bent the knee at once, at this discovery, to plunge their faces deep in the pool, and, presently raising them up again, a black watery line, extending round the countenance, showed plainly how deeply each one had dipped.

Mr. Smith and myself laughed heartily at our dirty-faced companions, who knelt on their hands and knees round the pool; and whilst they were filling the beakers with water we rested under the shade of the bush for a few minutes, and then walked off towards the interior; but from the undulating low nature of the ground our view was very limited, and as far as we could see there was no sign whatever of any change in the character of the country. On returning again to the party we found the beakers and men equally full of water and ready for a start to the boats.

WADING THROUGH THE MUD.

When we reached again the mangrove flats a most amusing scene commenced; wading through the mud was bad enough before, but now that each man had a heavy keg of water upon his shoulders the movements became truly ludicrous, more especially as both landsmen and sailors were equally out of their element. Each desperate plunge elicited from the sufferers oaths and expressions which only those who have seen sailors completely at a nonplus on sh.o.r.e can conceive. They were half humorous, half pathetic, and never did I see men more thoroughly woebegone and bedaubed with mud than the party when we made the boats again.

Those whom I had left behind now greedily drank the water of which they were so much in want, and, as it was necessary to complete our stock of it here, after we had dined I despatched all hands but Mr. Smith and one man back to the lagoon. Mr. Smith was too unwell to go again and I remained with him. This party took their rations with them as they were to remain by the lagoon all night in order, as they termed it, "to have a good bouse out of water, and a good wash," and were to return to the boats as soon after daylight as possible.

We had remarked tracks of natives on sh.o.r.e but, as I saw by their fires that they were now at least eight or ten miles from us, I was under no apprehension of an attack from them. The mosquitoes however threatened to be very troublesome, and when I say that just about sunset we were completely blackened from the numbers that covered us I do not in the least exaggerate; we could not make a fire to keep them away, and I therefore quietly resigned myself to my fate. Poor Smith, who was already very feverish, pa.s.sed a night of perfect torment, and awoke in the morning seriously ill. We soon heard the voices of the party returning and, having helped them and their loads of water out of the mud, we returned down the creek.

COAST THE LAND TO THE NORTHWARD.

March 5.

On standing out there was a fresh breeze blowing from the south-east, and when we were about half a mile from the sh.o.r.e the water to the northward deepened a great deal, for although it was now nearly low tide we had here two and a half fathoms with sandy bottom. All along the shoals we had met with abundance of sh.e.l.l and other fish, and the pearl oyster was very abundant; indeed the sh.e.l.lfish along these banks were more numerous and varied than I had ever before found them. I saw but few sh.e.l.ls which I recognised as belonging to the southern portions of Australia, whilst many were identical with those which occur to the north-west.

EXAMINE ANOTHER MANGROVE CREEK. CHARACTER OF THEIR SCENERY.

There was no high land whatever in sight; but one low hill, which just appeared above the mangrove tops, bore north by east. After running north-east for about two miles with the same depth of water we came to another opening in the mangroves of a more promising character than several small ones which we had previously pa.s.sed, and as, from the greater depth of the water, the extraordinary low character of the coast, and the circ.u.mstance of the driftwood upon Dorre Island, I expected to find a large river hereabouts, I determined to examine even the smallest openings most narrowly; we therefore ran straight for this one, and found that it had a shoal mouth with only four feet water at the entrance. The opening ran east 1/2 north, and after we had followed it up for about half a mile it became very narrow and shoaled to two feet, so we turned about and again pulled away to sea. This opening, as well as the first we had entered, appeared rather like a ca.n.a.l running through a woody grove than an arm of the sea; the mangrove trees afforded an agreeable shade, and were of the most brilliant green, whilst the blue placid water not only washed their roots but meandered through the sinuosities of the forest like a quiet lake till sight of it was lost in the distance.

We now stood north-north-west parallel to the sh.o.r.e, which was fronted by mangroves; and here we again had only two and a half feet of water. A very low chain of hills extended parallel to the sh.o.r.e and about two miles behind the mangroves. We thus continued running along the coast until we made a large opening which was about three-quarters of a mile across at the mouth. On either side of the entrance was a sandy point, covered with pelicans and wild-fowl who seemed to view our approach with no slight degree of surprise. As yet we did not know the proper entrance to the river (for such it was) so that where we ran into it we had only two feet of water. Three low hills were immediately in front of us, and I afterwards ascertained that the proper course for entering was to steer so as to keep the centre of the opening and the middle hill in the same line.

DISCOVER ONE MOUTH OF THE GASCOYNE RIVER, AND EXPLORE THE COUNTRY IN ITS VICINITY.

The opening now widened into a very fine reach, out of which the water was running rapidly, and when we had ascended about a mile I saw large trees, or snags (as they are called by the Americans) sticking up in the bed of the river; as these trees were of a very large size, and evidently had come from a different country to the one we saw upon the river banks, I felt a.s.sured that we had now discovered a stream of magnitude, and, the eager expectations which these thoughts awoke in our b.r.e.a.s.t.s rendering us all impatient, we hauled down our sail and took to the oars. The bed of the river however became choked with shallows and sandbanks, and when we had ascended it about three miles, the water having shoaled to about six inches, I selected a suitable place for our encampment and prepared to start and explore the country on foot.

SURVEY OF MOUTHS OF THIS RIVER AND BABBAGE ISLAND.

As soon as all had been made snug I moved up the river with three men.

Its banks were here about five feet high; the bed of white sand, and about half a mile across; the centre of the channel was full of salt water, and in breadth about a quarter of a mile. We had not proceeded more than a few hundred yards when we unexpectedly came upon another mouth of the river as large as that upon which we stood, and which ran off nearly west. The river itself appeared to come from the north-east, and we saw salt water still further up than where we were.

NATIVES AND A SHARK.

Just on the eastern bank of the stream was a clump of small trees and reeds which I walked up to examine with a desire to recognise any trees belonging to known species, but to my horror, on looking into the reeds, I saw what appeared to be a huge alligator fast asleep. The men now peeped at it and all agreed that it was an alligator. I therefore retreated to a respectful and suitable distance and let fly at it with a rifle; it gave, as we thought, a kind of shake, and then took no further notice of us. I therefore took a double-barrelled gun from one of the men and drove two b.a.l.l.s through the beast, and now feeling sure it must be dead (for it never moved) I walked up to it, when, upon examination, it turned out to be a huge shark, of a totally new species, which had been left in some hole by the tide where the natives had found and killed it, and, being disturbed by our approach, had run away, first hiding it in this clump of reeds. There were two natives and they had made off right up the bed of the river, taking the precaution to step in one another's tracks so as to conceal if possible their number.

CHARACTER OF THE RIVER.

To those who have never seen a river similar to the one we were now upon it is difficult to convey a true idea of its character. It consisted of several channels or beds divided from each other by long strips of land, which, in times of flood, become islands; the main channel had an average breadth of about two hundred and seventy yards; the average height of the bank at the edge of it was about fifteen feet, and the bed of the river was composed of porous red sand apparently incapable of containing water unless when previously saturated with it. After pa.s.sing the highest point reached by the sea this huge river bed was perfectly dry, and looked the most mournful, deserted spot imaginable. Occasionally we found in this bare sandy channel waterholes of eighteen or twenty feet in depth, surrounded with tea trees and vegetation, and the driftwood, washed high up into these trees, sufficiently attested what rapid currents sometimes swept along the now dry channel. Even the waterholes were nearly all dried up, and in the bottom of these the natives had scooped their little wells.