Discoveries in Australia Volume II Part 17

Our host now took us to see the village, and then conducted us to the house we were to occupy during our sojourn at Pritie, which was a large homely-built edifice erected for the Resident's use when he visits this neighbourhood. We spent the dusk of the evening in pigeon-shooting, but did not meet with much success; for the birds perched for the most part on the summits of trees so lofty that they were quite out of shot-range.

Many of these giants of the forest must have attained the height of at least two hundred feet. They formed a grand element in the landscape, especially when their huge trunks rose by the side of the limpid water of the stream that intersects the vale of Pritie. Between their topmost boughs, to the north, the amphitheatre of hills which I have mentioned lifted up their indistinct forms, round which the shades of night were gathering, towards the heavens, that soon began to glisten with a mult.i.tude of faint stars.

EVENING REPAST.

By the time we got within doors, after our unsuccessful stroll, we were quite tired, and well prepared to enjoy our dinner. The dignified air a.s.sumed by our guide, evidently for the purpose of showing off, and the ostentatious liberality with which he proffered the goodly viands sent by the commandant, amused us highly. An account of our fare may be acceptable to the gastronomic reader, who will thus be enabled to determine whether he should envy or pity the voyager to the distant sh.o.r.es of Timor. First came tea and coffee; then, in the course of an hour, followed fowls, cooked in all sorts of ways, with a proportion of rice. The good things were brought in by a train of domestics some fifty yards long, headed by a paunchy, elderly man, who greatly reminded us of Caleb Balderston. If there was a word said by any of the lookers-on--for many came to have a gaze at the lions--he was out in a moment, and brought the offender to account. In short, by his officious attention he afforded us much amus.e.m.e.nt, and greatly contributed to our proper enjoyment of the dinner. Our candles were original ones--a few threads of cotton drawn through a roll of bees' wax.

Dinner being over, we retired to pa.s.s as cold a night as we had felt for some time, having only a few coa.r.s.e mats to cover us; so that long before daylight we were obliged to get up and walk about for the purpose of warming ourselves. The first of the morning we spent again pigeon-shooting; the birds were large and wild, yet we managed to get a few.

THE HILLS IN A MIST.

This excursion gave us an opportunity of beholding the mountains of Timor under a remarkable aspect. From various openings in the woody plain we could perceive their sides, clothed in grey mist, above which sometimes we caught a glimpse of a pinnacle rising through the clear air, and just touched by the rays of the morning sun. Here and there the slopes of the hills were dimly seen through the vapour, which in other places, however, rolled along in thick ma.s.ses, completely hiding the uplands from view.

Nearly every gorge and valley was filled with heavy volumes of fog, whilst in some, a slight steam only rising, allowed the trees to be faintly discovered. There is nothing more grand than the aspect of lofty peaks and crags and precipices imperfectly revealed through a morning mist. It seems as though the darkness of night, unwilling to depart, lingers still fondly around them. Their hollows and recesses are still wrapt in gloom, when all else around is beaming with light. Within the tropics the contrast thus afforded has a startling effect; but the influence of the sun is not long to be resisted; the mist soon begins to disperse; valley after valley opens its depths to the view; the outline of each rocky peak becomes more and more defined against the deep blue sky, and presently the whole scene appears before you clear and bright, with every line sharply drawn, every patch of colour properly discriminated, a splendid panorama of towering hills and waving forests.

Whilst I was gazing at this picture, the report of a fowling piece behind me drew my attention, and on turning I was surprised to see the old commandant out shooting likewise, and with him no less a person than Caleb Balderston, as we had christened his faithful domestic. In their company we returned to Pritie.

MUSTER OF THE PARTY.

Soon after breakfast our party began to muster, each man armed with a long-condemned Tower musket. On one of them I was surprised to recognize the name of a marine who had belonged to the Beagle in 1827. The powder they used was of the coa.r.s.est kind, carried in small pieces of bamboo, each containing a charge, and fitted in a case of skin, something like our cartouch boxes. As a subst.i.tute for b.a.l.l.s they used BOLTS OF STONE, from two to three inches long. Besides a musket, each had a huge knife or chopper, stuck in his belt. I was much struck with the simple contrivance they had for shoes: a piece of the fan palm plaited together and tied under the foot. The number of uses to which this tree is applied is astonis.h.i.+ng--for making water-buckets, for thatching houses, filling up the panel-work of doors, and a variety of others I could mention.

It was late before we could muster all our force; but we at length got away, commandant and all. I was much pleased with the respect everyone paid him, especially as he was one of those mild kind persons who require very little. Soon after leaving the village we halted in a shady spot, near a stream of water, some of our party being still missing. This gave me a good opportunity of comparing the features of the Malay and Timoree, for some of both were in attendance. The Malay has a much more open countenance than the Timoree, but is not so handsome, the latter having a more aquiline nose.

THE SHOOTING ARRANGEMENTS.

When they all arrived I counted fifty armed men. There were some whose grey hairs proclaimed their lengthened years; though there was a keenness in their eyes that revealed that the principle of vitality was strong within them yet; in others all the dash and vigour of youth was perceptible; many had a truly wild appearance, with their long bushy hair and ever restless eye. It was a picturesque sight to behold fifty such fine fellows scattered about in small groups in the deep shade of these solitudes.

All the necessary arrangements being made, we once more started. An hour's walk brought us to a rather large plain, where I and my companions were stationed, about a hundred yards asunder, whilst the rest of the party formed a circle, driving all the game in our direction.

Unfortunately those on the left commenced hallooing before those on the right, in which latter direction the only three deer in the circle ran from the noise, instead of towards us. Two of them were shot, and by the stone bolts above mentioned. We now went to fresh ground, when, provoking to say, the same thing happened again, not without our suspicions being raised that this was purposely contrived; so that after all we were obliged to leave without a single shot. Each deer, the largest of which, a doe, must have weighed a hundred pounds, was shot STANDING, for the natives have a peculiar cry, which arrests the animal's progress for a moment, while they fire.

THE JAVANESE COMMANDANT.

The deer were all brought up to the commandant, who begged our acceptance of them. We thanked him, and took the two smallest. By the time we reached Pritie they were skinned and hung up, ready to be put into the boats. The persons who had shot them had received their stone bolts again very little injured; the hole they make is enormous. We rewarded these people; but to the commandant we were really at a loss how to express our obligations. At length we thought of giving him some powder and shot, which was a present he seemed right glad to receive. I afterwards learnt the history of this excellent old Javanese, and was surprised and grieved to hear that a person so universally esteemed had been banished from Java and his family for some trifling political offence. His property was sold to purchase his freedom, and the proceeds were entrusted to the captain of a s.h.i.+p, who ran off with the whole, thus at once ruining a most worthy family, and reducing my good friend the commandant to the necessity of remaining in exile. I was glad to hear, on my second visit to Timor, that he was still alive and well, though without any prospect of an alleviation to his condition.

Wis.h.i.+ng him farewell, we left Pritie with some regret. By dark we had crossed Babao Bay, and reached the s.h.i.+p at half-past eight. It may be as well to mention that, looking from Coepang, the valley of Pritie is situated immediately under Timor Peak, the highest over the northern sh.o.r.e of Babao Bay. A small hut, on a projecting s.h.i.+ngle point, close to the westward, marks the landing place, where several canoes are generally to be seen hauled up. At high tide a boat can get in; but, as we have already said, there is a long mud flat at low-water.

THE TIMOREES.

The Timorees do not bear the character of being very industrious; the small portion of land they cultivate is turned up in the following manner: a slight fence is placed round the part required for the purposes of agriculture and a drove of bullocks is driven furiously backwards and forwards over it; which very much resembles the mode adopted for thras.h.i.+ng corn in some parts of South America.

The Rajahs of the western portion of Timor receive their appointment from the Resident at Coepang; and their installation I am told is rather a grand affair. Nearly all the Timorees speak Malay, a soft pleasant-sounding tongue, apparently easy to be acquired; but there were few of the Coepang people that spoke the native language. Some of the Timor customs are singular: if a woman, for example, dies in childbirth, she is buried on the spot where she breathes her last.

DUTCH SETTLEMENT IN NEW GUINEA.

During our stay at Coepang I met the doctor of the Dutch settlement at Triton Bay, on the west coast of New Guinea. He gave me a very poor account of the inhabitants. The Dutch settlers, he says, can scarcely venture out of the fort; as the natives have bows and arrows, as well as muskets, with which they are excellent marksmen. Their firearms they obtain in exchange for birds of paradise, tortoise-sh.e.l.l and birds-nests, from vessels from the Arru, and other islands in the Eastern Archipelago.

When a vessel arrives on the coast they flock down from the interior to trade, which cannot be done without an interpreter. It is even then attended with great risk, owing to the extreme treachery of the natives.

Knives, stained blue, and cotton goods are in great request; but, although they of aware of the superiority of Europeans, they will not on any account allow them to live in their country. The inhabitants, however, are better disposed on the sh.o.r.es of Great Bay, a deep indentation on the north-east side of the island, where great quant.i.ties of nutmeg grow.

On the 5th the Mangles arrived from Sydney by the outer route through Torres Strait, having lost all her anchors, and been nearly wrecked in a south-east gale near Halfway Island. She was commanded by the same master, Mr. Carr, to whom I have before alluded as having given the first information concerning the survivors of the crew of the Charles Eaton.

ISLAND OF ROTTEE.

The next afternoon we weighed, and the following morning anch.o.r.ed, the water being deep, close in near Tykale Inlet, on the south-west side of Rottee, for observations,* and for the purpose of better determining the position of Pulo Douw, and the other islands in its neighbourhood.

(*Footnote. They placed the south point of the inlet in lat.i.tude 10 degrees 46 minutes 18 seconds South and longitude 0 degrees 43 minutes 50 seconds West of Coepang.)

An extensive coral flat fronts this part of Rottee, connecting it with the small islands lying off it.

We got from the natives some sh.e.l.ls of a kind of small green mussel of a very peculiar shape. The old men from whom I got them was making a meal from some rare sh.e.l.l-fish. He did not understand the value of money; and, strange to say, not a word of the Malay language. The same was the case with all his companions. At the part of Samow I visited the people all understood it, which is very remarkable, as only a narrow strait separates the islands. In this state of ignorance they may perhaps be purposely kept.

I here recognised several Australian shrubs and palms. The rock of which this port of Rottee is formed appeared of a madreporic nature, scattered about in huge blocks. At a little distance from the water it formed low broken cliffs from twenty to thirty feet in length; these were everywhere undermined by the sea, from which the land here was evidently emerging. I noticed several deserted huts and broken walls or fences, which bore the appearance of having had much labour bestowed on them at some time or other. They added much to the lonely appearance of the place, for there is nothing that imparts so great an air of desolation to a scene as the signs that it has once been inhabited by man. Tracts which have never before been trodden by human foot may be gazed on with pleasurable emotions; but there are always melancholy a.s.sociations connected with a spot which our fellow-creatures have once inhabited and abandoned.

The natives we saw belonged to the southern side of Tykale Inlet. They were occupied in looking after some weirs, from the size and number of which it would appear that they chiefly live on fish.

JEWELLERS OF PULO DOUW.

The inhabitants of Pulo Douw are a small wandering tribe from Savu, chiefly jewellers, as the Resident at Coepang informed me. It is a strange place for them to take up their abode in; perhaps they do not like the idea of living under a Rajah. They are, I believe, beautiful workmen; but with them all is not gold that glitters. There are plenty of coconuts in the island, but little water; the landing at all times is bad.

When at Coepang we saw some specimens of the gold, collected after heavy rains from the was.h.i.+ngs of the hills, and brought down for barter to the merchants in grains enclosed in small lengths of bamboo, containing each from six to eighteen drams. Thirty miles south-west of Diely, also, are some mines of virgin copper.

CHAPTER 2.6.

Sail from Rottee.

Search for shoal.

Dampier's Archipelago.

Examination of coast.

Strange weather.

Natives.

Pa.s.sage between Delambre and Huiy Islands.

Proceed to Montebello Isles.

Description of them.

Barrow's Island.

Tryal Rocks.

New kangaroo.

Abundance of turtle.

New wallaby.

Sail for Swan River.

Find Ritchie's Reef.

Islands between Barrow's and North-West Cape.

Table of soundings.

Swan River Native.

Anchor under Rottnest.

Vocabulary.

Erect beacons.

Bad weather.

Habits of a native dog.

Geological observations.

Sail from Swan River.

Error in position of Cape Naturaliste.