Volume II Part 5 (2/2)
August 19.
At daybreak Caffarelli Island bore South-South-East; and shortly afterwards we had the satisfaction of seeing Brue Reef; it appeared to be partly dry but of small extent.
We pa.s.sed within half a mile of the dry rock that lies a mile and a half from the west end of Caffarelli Island and afterwards endeavoured to steer between the range of islands, of which Caffarelli is the northernmost, and a group of rocky isles, marked 33; but finding we could not succeed from the scanty direction of the wind, then blowing a fresh breeze from South-East, we bore up round the west side of the latter and then steered by the wind towards a group of which the island 40 is the princ.i.p.al. On approaching 40 there appeared to be a channel round its south-end; but afterwards observing the sea breaking in the direction of our course, we tacked off to pa.s.s round the west extremity of the group, towards two small low islands, 50 and 51, that were seen in the distance bearing about South 84 degrees West. The tide, having been before in our favour, was now against us, and, setting with great strength, drove us near the rocks that front the islands to the northward of Island 40; the wind was however sufficiently strong to enable us to clear the dangerous situation we found ourselves in, but soon afterwards it fell to a light air and we were carried by the tide rapidly towards the low rocky extremity of the islets, which we were nearly thrown upon, when a breeze suddenly sprung up again from the South-East and enabled us to clear this impending danger. We were now drifting to the South by East through a wide channel, sounding in between fifty and sixty fathoms, rocky bottom.
Had the evening been less advanced and the wind favourable, we could have run through, and taken our chance of finding either anchorage or an open sea; and although this would certainly have been hazarding a great risk, yet it was of very little consequence in what part of the archipelago we spent the night, as the spots which we might consider to be the most dangerous might possibly be the least so. We had however no choice; we were perfectly at the mercy of the tide, and had only to await patiently its ebbing to drift us out as it carried us in.
By our calculations high-water should have taken place at a quarter past four o'clock; every minute therefore after that time was pa.s.sed by us most anxiously. Every now and then we were in the midst of the most violent ripplings and whirlpools, which sometimes whirled the vessel round and round, to the danger of our masts. Five o'clock at last arrived and the tide-eddies ceased, but the stream continued to run until a quarter of an hour afterwards, when at last the brig began to drift out slowly. To add now to the dilemma and the danger we were in a breeze sprung up against us: had it continued calm we should have been drifted back through the deepest part of the channel, over the same ground that the flood had carried us in: we however made sail and beat out, and before dark had made considerable progress; we then lost sight of the land until eleven o'clock when some was seen to the eastward: at half-past eleven we had a dead calm; and, to increase our anxiety, the tide had begun to flow and to drift us towards the land, which was then ascertained to be the group 33, on whose sh.o.r.es the sea was distinctly heard to break. As midnight approached the noise became still more and more plain; but the moon at that time rose and showed that our position was very much more favourable than we had conjectured; for, by bearings of Caffarelli Island and the body of 33 group, I found we were at least two or three miles from the sh.o.r.e of the latter.
August 20.
A few minutes after midnight we were relieved from our fears by the sudden springing up of a fresh breeze from South-West, and in a moment found ourselves comparatively out of danger.
At daylight we were eight miles to the north-east of Caffarelli Island; whence we steered to the South-West by West and South-South-West. Brue Reef was seen as we pa.s.sed by it. At noon our lat.i.tude was 16 degrees 14 minutes 1 second, Cape Leveque bearing South.
From noon until one o'clock we were steering South-South-West, but made no progress, on account of an adverse tide which occasionally formed such strong eddies and ripplings that we were several times obliged to steer off to get without their influence. The land of Cape Leveque is low, and presents a sandy beach lined by a rocky reef, extending off the sh.o.r.e for a mile, on many parts of which the sea was breaking heavily: the land was clothed with a small brush wood, but altogether the coast presented a very unproductive appearance, and reminded us of the triste and arid character of the North-West Cape.
On laying down upon the chart the plan of this part, I found Cape Leveque to be the point which Dampier anch.o.r.ed under when on his buccaneering voyage in the Cygnet in 1688. He says: ”We fell in with the land of New Holland in 16 degrees 50 minutes, we ran in close by it, and finding no convenient anchoring, because it lies open to the North-West, we ran along sh.o.r.e to the eastward, steering North-East by East, for so the land lies. We steered thus about two leagues, and then came to a point of land, from whence the land trends east and southerly for ten or twelve leagues; but how, afterwards, I know not. About three leagues to the eastward of this point there is a pretty deep bay with abundance of islands in it, and a very good place to anchor in or to hale ash.o.r.e.
About a league to the eastward of that point we anch.o.r.ed in twenty-nine fathom, good hard sand and clean ground.” He then proceeds to say: ”This part of it (the coast) that we saw is all low, even land, with sandy banks against the sea, only the points are rocky, and so are some of the islands in the bay.”*
(*Footnote. Dampier volume 1 page 462.)
From this description I have little hesitation in settling Cape Leveque to be the point he pa.s.sed round. In commemoration, therefore, of his visit, the name of Buccaneer's Archipelago was given to the cl.u.s.ter of isles that fronts Cygnet Bay, which was so-called after the name of the s.h.i.+p in which he sailed. The point within Cape Leveque was named Point Swan after the Captain of the s.h.i.+p; and to a remarkable lump in the centre of the Archipelago the name of Dampier's Monument was a.s.signed.
During the last four days we have laid down upwards of eighty islands upon the chart, and from the appearance of the land it is not improbable but that there may be as many more behind them.
Had we even recognised the bay above alluded to by Dampier before we pa.s.sed round Cape Leveque, we could not have anch.o.r.ed in it for the wind was blowing strong from the northward, and a heavy swell was rolling, which would have placed us in rather a dangerous situation, besides its being exposed to easterly winds, which for the last two or three days had blown very strong. During the time we had been among these islands, we had not met with a single spot that we could have anch.o.r.ed upon without the almost certain loss of our anchor; and the weather had been so very thick and hazy that only the land in the vicinity of the vessel's situation could be at all distinguished; and these disadvantages, added to the great strength of the wind and the rapidity of the tides, had materially prevented us from making ourselves better acquainted with the place. It is remarkable that as soon as we pa.s.sed round the Champagny Isles, hazy weather commenced, and continued without intermission until we were to the westward of Cape Leveque. The French complain of the same thing; and they were so deceived by it that, in their first voyage, they laid down Adele Island as a part of the main, when it is only a sandy island about two or three miles long. No natives were seen on any of the islands but there were many large smokes on the horizon at the back of Cygnet Bay.
We were now beginning to feel the effects of this fatiguing duty.
One-fourth of the people who kept watch were ill with bilious or feverish attacks, and we had never been altogether free from sickness since our arrival upon the coast. Mr. Montgomery's wound was, however, happily quite healed, and Mr. Roe had also returned to his duty; but Mr.
Cunningham, who had been confined to the vessel since the day we arrived in Careening Bay, was still upon the sick list. Our pa.s.sage up the east coast, the fatigues of watering and wooding at Prince Regent's River, and our constant hara.s.sing employment during the examination of the coast between Hanover Bay and Cape Leveque, had produced their bad effects upon the const.i.tutions of our people. Every means were taken to prevent sickness: preserved meats were issued two days in the week in lieu of salt provisions; and this diet, with the usual proportions of lemon-juice and sugar, proved so good an anti-s...o...b..tic that, with a few trifling exceptions, no case of scurvy occurred. Our dry provisions had suffered much from rats and c.o.c.kroaches; but this was not the only way these vermin annoyed us, for, on opening a keg of musket ball cartridges, we found, out of 750 rounds, more than half the number quite destroyed, and the remainder so injured as to be quite useless.
August 21.
The following day we made very little progress, from light winds in the morning and a dead calm the whole of the evening. At sunset we anch.o.r.ed at about four miles from the sh.o.r.e, in seventeen fathoms sandy ground.
During the afternoon we were surrounded by an immense number of whales, leaping out of the water and thras.h.i.+ng the sea with their fins; the noise of which, from the calmness and perfect stillness of the air, was as loud as the report of a volley of musketry. Some remorae were also swimming about the vessel the whole day, and a snake about four feet long, of a yellowish brown colour, rose up alongside, but instantly dived upon seeing the vessel.
August 22.
High-water took place the next morning at twenty-six minutes after six o'clock, at which time we got underweigh with a moderate land-breeze from South-South-East, and steered to the southward along the sh.o.r.e. At noon we were in lat.i.tude 16 degrees 30 minutes 19 seconds, Cape Borda bearing South 42 1/2 degrees East. Soon after noon the sea-breeze sprung up from the northward and, veering to North-West, carried us to the southward along the coast which is low and sandy. At three o'clock we were abreast of a point which was conjectured to be the land laid down by the French as Emeriau Island; the name has therefore been retained, with the alteration only of Point for Island. To the eastward of Cape Borda the coast falls back and forms a bay, the bottom of which was visible from our masthead and appeared to be composed of sand-downs. From Point Emeriau the coast trends to the south-west, and preserves the same sandy character. At five o'clock Lacepede Islands, which were seen by Captain Baudin, were in sight to the westward; and at sunset we anch.o.r.ed in eight fathoms, at about three leagues within them. These islands are three in number, and appear to be solely inhabited by b.o.o.bies and other sea-fowl: they are low and sandy and all slightly crowned with a few shrubby bushes; the reef that encompa.s.ses them seemed to be of great extent.
August 23.
The next day we were steering along the sh.o.r.e, and pa.s.sed a sandy projection which was named Cape Baskerville, after one of the mids.h.i.+pman of the Bathurst. To the southward of Cape Baskerville the coast trends in, and forms Carnot Bay; it then takes a southerly direction. It is here that Tasman landed, according to the following extract from Dalrymple's Papua: ”In Hollandia Nova, in 17 degrees 12 minutes South (Longitude 121 degrees, or 122 degrees East) Tasman found a naked, black people, with curly hair, malicious and cruel; using for arms, bows and arrows, hazeygaeys and kalawaeys. They once came to the number of fifty, double armed, dividing themselves into two parties, intending to have surprised the Dutch, who had landed twenty-five men; but the firing of guns frightened them so, that they fled. Their proas are made of the bark of trees; their coast is dangerous; there are few vegetables; the people use no houses.”
At noon our lat.i.tude was 17 degrees 13 minutes 29 seconds. At four o'clock we were abreast of Captain Baudin's Point Coulomb, which M. De Freycinet describes to be the projection at which the Red Cliffs commence. The interior is here higher than to the northward, and gradually rises, at the distance of eight miles from the sh.o.r.e, to wooded hills, and bears a more pleasing and verdant appearance than we have seen for some time past; but the coast still retains the same sandy and uninviting character. During the afternoon we had but a light sea-breeze from the westward; and at sunset the anchor was dropped in thirteen fathoms fine soft sand, at about six miles from the sh.o.r.e. Large flocks of b.o.o.bies flew over the vessel at sunset, directing their course towards the reefs of Lacepede Islands, and in the direction of the Whale Bank, which, according to the French chart of this part, lies in the offing to the westward. As no island was noticed by us in the position a.s.signed to Captain Baudin's Carnot Island, the bay to the southward of Cape Baskerville has received that name. The smokes of fires have been noticed at intervals of every four or five miles along the sh.o.r.e, from which it may be inferred that this part of the coast is very populous. Captain Dampier saw forty Indians together, on one of the rocky islands to the eastward of Cape Leveque, and, in his quaint style, gives the subjoined interesting account of them:
<script>