Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks/Chapter 12

by Joseph Banks

 

CHAPTER XII

AUSTRALIA (ENDEAVOUR RIVER) TO TORRES STRAITS

June 20—August 26, 1770

 

Pumice-stone—Ship laid ashore—Kangooroos seen—White ants—Preserving plants—Chama gigas—Fruits thrown up on the beach—Excursion up the country—Making friends with the Indians—A kangooroo killed—Turtle—Indians attempt to steal turtle and fire the grass—Didelphis—Among the shoals and islands—Lizard Island—Signs of natives crossing from the mainland—Ship passes through Cook's passage—Outside the grand reef—Ship almost driven on to the reef by the tides—Passes inside the reef again—Corals—Straits between Australia and New Guinea.

 

June 20th. Observed that in many parts of the inlet, a good way above the high-water mark, were large quantities of pumice-stones probably carried there by freshes or extraordinarily high tides, as they certainly came from the sea. Before night the ship was lightened, and we observed with great pleasure that the springs, which were now beginning to lift, rose as high as we could wish.

21st. Fine clear weather; began to-day to lay plants in sand.^[1] By night the ship was quite clear, and in the night's tide (which we had constantly observed to be much higher than the day's) we hauled her ashore.

22nd. In the morning I saw her leak, which was very large: in the middle was a hole large enough to have sunk a ship with twice our pumps, but here Providence had most visibly worked in our favour, for it was in a great measure plugged up by a stone as big as a man's fist. Round the edges of this stone had all the water come in, which had so nearly overcome us, and here we found the wool and oakum, or fothering, which had relieved us in so unexpected a manner.

The effect of this coral rock upon her bottom is difficult to describe, but more to believe; it had cut through her plank and deep into one of her timbers, smoothing the gashes still before it, so that the whole might easily be imagined to have been cut with an axe.^[2]

Myself employed all day in laying in plants; the people who were sent to the other side of the water to shoot pigeons, saw an animal as large as a greyhound, of a mouse colour, and very swift;^[3] they also saw many Indian houses, and a brook of fresh water.

24th. Gathering plants, and hearing descriptions of the animal, which is now seen by everybody. A seaman who had been out in the woods brought home the description of an animal he had seen, composed in so seamanlike a style that I cannot help mentioning it; "it was (says he) about as large and much like a one-gallon cagg, as black as the devil, and had two horns on its head; it went but slowly, but I dared not touch it."

25th. In gathering plants to-day I had the good fortune to see the beast so much talked of, though but imperfectly; he was not only like a greyhound in size and running, but had a tail as long as any greyhound's; what to liken him to I could not tell, nothing that I have seen at all resembles him.

26th. Since the ship has been hauled ashore, the water has, of course, all gone backwards; and my plants, which for safety had been stowed in the bread room, were this day found under water. Nobody had warned me of this danger, which never once entered my head. The mischief, however, was now done, so I set to work to remedy it to the best of my power. The day was scarcely long enough to get them all shifted, etc.; many were saved, but some were entirely spoiled.

28th. We have ever since we have been here observed the nests of a kind of ant, much like the white ant in the East Indies, but to us perfectly harmless: they were always pyramidal, from a few inches to six feet in height, and very much resembled the Druidical monuments which I have seen in England. To-day we met with a large number of them of all sizes ranged in a small open place, which had a very pretty effect. Dr. Solander compared them to the runic stones on the plains of Upsala in Sweden; myself to all the smaller Druidical monuments I had seen.

1st July. Our second lieutenant found the husk of a cocoanut full of barnacles cast up on the beach;^[4] it had probably come from some island to windward.

2nd. The wild plantain trees, though their fruit does not serve for food, are to us of a most material benefit. We made baskets of their stalks (a thing we had learned from the islanders), in which our plants, which would not otherwise keep, have remained fresh for two or three days; indeed, in a hot climate it is hardly practicable to manage without such baskets, which we call by the island name of papa mija. Our plants dry better in paper books than in sand, with the precaution that one person is entirely employed in attending them. He shifts them all once a day, exposes the quires in which they are to the greatest heat of the sun, and at night covers them most carefully up from any damp, always being careful, also, not to bring them out too soon in the morning, or leave them out too late in the evening.

3rd. The pinnace, which had been sent out yesterday in search of a passage, returned to-day, having found a way by which she passed most of the shoals that we could see, but not all. This passage was also to windward of us, so that we could only hope to get there by the assistance of a land breeze, of which we have had but one since we lay in the place; so this discovery added but little comfort to our situation. The crew of the pinnace had, on their return, landed on a dry reef, where they found great plenty of shellfish, so that the boat was completely loaded, chiefly with a large kind of cockle (Chama gigas), one of which was more than two men could eat; many, indeed, were larger. The coxswain of the boat, a little man, declared that he saw on the reef a dead shell of one so large that he got into it, and it fairly held him. At night the ship floated and was hauled off. An alligator was seen swimming alongside of her for some time. As I was crossing the harbour in my small boat, we saw many shoals of garfish leaping high out of the water, some of which leaped into the boat and were taken.

5th. Went to the other side of the harbour, and walked along a sandy beach open to the trade-wind. Here I found innumerable fruits, many of plants I had not seen in this country. Among them were some cocoanuts that had been opened (as Tupia told us) by a kind of crab called by the Dutch Boers krabba (Cancer latro) that feeds upon them. All these fruits were incrusted with sea productions, and many of them covered with barnacles, a sure sign that they have come far by sea, and as the trade-wind blows almost right on shore must have come from some other country, probably that discovered by Quiros, and called Terra del Espiritu Santo [New Hebrides], as the latitudes according to his account agree pretty well with ours here.

6th. Set out to-day with the second lieutenant, resolved to go a good way up the river, and see if the country inland differed from that near the shore. We went for about three leagues among mangroves: then we got into the country, which differed very little from what we had already seen. The river higher up contracted much, and lost most of its mangroves: the banks were steep and covered with trees of a beautiful verdure, particularly what is called in the West Indies mohoe or bark-tree (Hibiscus tiliaceus). The land was generally low, thickly covered with long grass, and seemed to promise great fertility, were the people to plant and improve it. In the course of the day Tupia saw a wolf, so at least I guess by his description, and we saw three of the animals of the country, but could not get one; also a kind of bat as large as a partridge, but these also we were not lucky enough to get. At night we took up our lodgings close to the banks of the river, and made a fire; but the mosquitos, whose peaceful dominions it seems we had invaded, spared no pains to molest us as much as was in their power: they followed us into the very smoke, nay, almost into the fire, which, hot as the climate was, we could better bear the heat of than their intolerable stings. Between the hardness of our bed, the heat of the fire, and the stings of these indefatigable insects, the night was not spent so agreeably but day was earnestly wished for by all of us.

7th. At last it came, and with its first dawn we set out in search of game. We walked many miles over the flats and saw four of the animals, two of which my greyhound fairly chased; but they beat him owing to the length and thickness of the grass, which prevented him from running, while they at every bound leaped over the tops of it. We observed, much to our surprise, that instead of going upon all fours, this animal went only upon two legs, making vast bounds just as the jerboa (Mus jaculus^[5]) does.

We observed a smoke, but when we came to the place the people were gone. The fire was in an old tree of touchwood. Their houses were there, and branches of trees broken down, with which the children had been playing, were not yet withered; their footsteps, also, on the sands below high-water mark proved that they had very lately been there. Near their oven, in which victuals had been dressed since noon, were the shells of a kind of clam, and the roots of a wild yam which had been cooked in it. Thus were we disappointed of the only good chance we have had of seeing the people since we came here, by their unaccountable timidity. Night soon coming on, we repaired to our quarters, which were upon a broad sand-bank under the shade of a bush, where we hoped the mosquitos would not trouble us. Our beds of plantain leaves spread on the sand, as soft as a mattress, our cloaks for bed-clothes, and grass pillows, but above all the entire absence of mosquitos, made me and, I believe, all of us sleep almost without intermission. Had the Indians come they would certainly have caught us all napping; but that was the last thing we thought of.

8th. The tide serving at daylight, we set out for the ship. On our passage down we met several flocks of whistling ducks, of which we shot some. We saw also an alligator about seven feet long come out of the mangroves and crawl into the water. By four o'clock we arrived at the ship.

10th. Four Indians appeared on the opposite shore; they had with them a canoe made of wood with an outrigger, in which two of them embarked, and came towards the ship, but stopped at the distance of a long musket shot, talking much and very loud to us. We called to them, and waving, made them all the signs we could to come nearer. By degrees they ventured almost insensibly nearer and nearer till they were quite alongside, often holding up their lances as if to show us that if we used them ill they had weapons and would return our attack. Cloth, nails, paper, etc. etc., were given to them, all which they took and put into the canoe without showing the least signs of satisfaction. At last a small fish was by accident thrown to them, on which they expressed the utmost joy imaginable, and instantly putting off from the ship, made signs that they would bring over their comrades, which they very soon did, and all four landed near us, each carrying in his hand two lances, and his stick to throw them with. Tupia went towards them; they stood all in a row in the attitude of throwing their lances; he made signs that they should lay them down and come forward without them; this they immediately did, and sat down upon the ground. We then came up to them and made them presents of beads, cloth, etc., which they took, and soon became very easy, only jealous if any one attempted to go between them and their arms. At dinner-time we made signs to them to come with us and eat, but they refused; we left them, and they going into their canoe, paddled back to where they came from.

11th. The Indians came over again to-day; two that were with us yesterday, and two new ones, whom our old acquaintance introduced to us by their names, one of which was Yaparico. Though we did not yesterday observe it, they all had the septum or inner part of the nose bored through with a very large hole, in which one of them had stuck the bone of a bird as thick as a man's finger, and four or six inches long, an ornament no doubt, though to us it appeared rather an uncouth one. They brought with them a fish which they gave to us, in return I suppose for the fish we had given them yesterday. Their stay was but short, for some of our gentlemen being rather too curious in examining their canoe, they went directly to it, and pushing it off, went away without saying a word.

12th. The Indians came again to-day and ventured down to Tupia's tent, where they were so pleased with their reception that three stayed, while the fourth went with the canoe to fetch two others. They introduced their strangers (which they always made a point of doing) by name, and had some fish given them; they received it with indifference, signed to our people to cook it for them, which was done, ate part and gave the rest to my dog. They stayed the best part of the morning, but never ventured to go above twenty yards from their canoe. The ribbons by which we had tied medals round their necks on the first day we saw them, were covered with smoke; I suppose they lay much in the smoke to keep off the mosquitos.

14th. Our second lieutenant had the good fortune to kill the animal that had so long been the subject of our speculations. To compare it to any European animal would be impossible, as it has not the least resemblance to any one I have seen. Its fore-legs are extremely short, and of no use to it in walking; its hind again as disproportionally long; with these it hops seven or eight feet at a time, in the same manner as the jerboa, to which animal indeed it bears much resemblance, except in size, this being in weight 38 lbs, and the jerboa no larger than a common rat.

15th. The beast which was killed yesterday was to-day dressed for our dinner, and proved excellent meat. In the evening the boat returned from the reef, bringing four turtles; so we may now be said to swim in plenty. Our turtles are certainly far preferable to any I have eaten in England, which must be due to their being eaten fresh from the sea before they have either wasted away their fat, or, by the unnatural food which they receive in the tubs where they are kept, acquired a fat of not so delicious a flavour as it is in their wild state. Most of those we have caught have been green turtle from two to three hundred pounds in weight; these, when killed, were always found to be full of turtle-grass (a kind of Conferva I believe). Two only were loggerheads, which made but indifferent meat; in their stomachs were nothing but shells.

16th. As the ship was now ready for her departure, Dr. Solander and I employed ourselves in winding up our botanical bottoms,^[6] examining what we wanted and making up our complement of specimens of as many species as possible. The boat brought three turtles again to-day, one of which was a male, who was easily to be distinguished from the female by the vast size of his tail, which was four times longer and thicker than hers; in every other respect they were exactly alike. One of our people on board the ship, who had been a turtler in the West Indies, told me that they never sent male turtles home to England from thence, because they wasted in keeping much more than the females, which we found to be true.

17th. Tupia, who was over the water by himself, saw three Indians, who gave him a kind of longish root about as thick as a man's finger and of a very good taste.

18th. The Indians were over with us to-day and seemed to have lost all fear of us, becoming quite familiar. One of them, at our desire, threw his lance, which was about eight feet in length; it flew with a degree of swiftness and steadiness that really surprised me, never being above four feet from the ground, and stuck deep in at a distance of fifty paces. After this they ventured on board the ship and soon became our very good friends, so the captain and I left them to the care of those who stayed on board, and went to a high hill about six miles from the ship; here we overlooked a great deal of sea to leeward, which afforded a melancholy prospect of the difficulties we were to encounter when we came out of our present harbour. In whatever direction we turned our eyes shoals innumerable were to be seen, and no such thing as a passage to the sea, except through the winding channels between them, dangerous to the last degree.

19th. The Indians visited us to-day, and brought with them a larger quantity of lances than they had ever done before. These they laid up in a tree, leaving a man and a boy to take care of them, and came on board the ship. They soon let us know their errand, which was by some means or other to get one of our turtles, of which we had eight or nine lying upon the decks. They first by signs asked for one, and on being refused showed great marks of resentment. One who asked me, on my refusal, stamping with his foot, pushed me from him with a countenance full of disdain and applied to some one else. As, however, they met with no encouragement in this, they laid hold of a turtle and hauled it to the side of the ship where their canoe lay. It was, however, soon taken from them and replaced; they nevertheless repeated the experiment two or three times, and after meeting with so many repulses, all in an instant leaped into their canoe and went ashore, where I had got before them, just ready to set out plant-gathering. They seized their arms in an instant, and taking fire from under a pitch kettle which was boiling, they began to set fire to the grass to windward of the few things we had left ashore, with surprising dexterity and quickness. The grass, which was four or five feet high and as dry as stubble, burnt with vast fury. A tent of mine, which had been put up for Tupia when he was sick, was the only thing of any consequence in the way of it, so I leaped into a boat to fetch some people from the ship in order to save it, and quickly returning, hauled it down to the beach just in time.

The captain in the meanwhile followed the Indians to prevent their burning our linen and the seine which lay upon the grass just where they had gone. He had no musket with him, so soon returned to fetch one, for no threats or signs would make them desist. Mine was ashore, and another loaded with shot, so we ran as fast as possible towards them and came up just in time to save the seine by firing at an Indian who had already fired the grass in two distinct places just to windward of it. On the shot striking him, though he was full forty yards away, he dropped his fire and ran nimbly to his comrades, who all ran off pretty fast.

I had little idea of the fury with which the grass burnt in this hot climate, nor of the difficulty of extinguishing it when once lighted. This accident will, however, be a sufficient warning for us, if ever we should again pitch tents in such a climate, to burn everything around us before we begin.

22nd. One of our people who had been sent out to gather Indian kale, straying from his party, met with three Indians, two men and a boy. He came upon them suddenly as they were sitting among some long grass. At first he was much afraid, and offered them his knife, the only thing he had which he thought might be acceptable to them; they took it, and after handing it from one to another returned it to him. They kept him about half an hour, behaving most civilly to him, only satisfying their curiosity in examining his body, which done, they made him signs that he might go away, which he did, very well pleased. They had hanging on a tree by them, he said, a quarter of the wild animal, and a cockatoo; but how they had been clever enough to take these animals is almost beyond my conception, as both of them are most shy, especially the cockatoos.

23rd. In botanising to-day on the other side of the river we accidentally found the greater part of the clothes which had been given to the Indians left all in a heap together, doubtless as lumber not worth carriage. Maybe had we looked further we should have found our other trinkets, for they seemed to set no value on anything we had except our turtle, which of all things we were the least able to spare them.

24th. While travelling in a deep valley, the sides of which were steep almost as a wall, but covered with trees and plenty of brushwood, we found marking-nuts (Anacardium orientale) lying on the ground. Desirous as we were to find the tree on which they had grown, a thing that I believe no European botanist has seen, we were not with all our pains able to find it, so after cutting down four or five trees, and spending much time, we were obliged to give over our hopes.

26th. While botanising to-day I had the good fortune to take an animal of the opossum (Didelphis) tribe; it was a female, and with it I took two young ones. It was not unlike that remarkable one which De Buffon has described by the name of Phalanger as an American animal. It was, however, not the same. M. de Buffon is certainly wrong in asserting that this tribe is peculiar to America, and in all probability, as Pallas has said in his Zoologia, the Phalanger itself is a native of the East Indies, as my animals and that agree in the extraordinary conformation of their feet, in which particular they differ from all the others.

27th. This day was dedicated to hunting the wild animal. We saw several, and had the good fortune to kill a very large one weighing 84 lbs.

28th. Botanising with no kind of success, the plants were now entirely completed, and nothing new to be found, so that sailing is all we wish for, if the wind would but allow us.

10th August. Fine weather, so the anchor was got up, and we sailed down to leeward, hoping there might be a passage that way. In this we were much encouraged by the sight of some high islands where we hoped the shoals would end. By twelve we were among these, and fancied that the grand or outer reef ended on one of them, so were all in high spirits; but about dinner-time the people who were at the mast-head saw, as they thought, land all round us, on which we immediately came to an anchor, resolved to go ashore, and from the hills see whether it was so or not.

The point we went on^[7] was sandy and very barren, so it afforded very few plants or anything else worth our observation. The sand itself, indeed, with which the whole country in a manner was covered, was infinitely fine and white, but until a glass-house is built here that could be turned to no account. We had the satisfaction, however, to see that what was taken for land round us proved only a number of islands.

11th. The captain went to-day to one of the islands,^[8] which proved to be five leagues from the ship. I went with him. We passed over two very large shoals, on which we saw great plenty of turtle, but we had too much wind to strike any. The island itself was high; we ascended the hill, and from the top saw plainly the grand reef still extending itself parallel with the shore at about the distance of three leagues from us, or eight from the main. Through it were several channels exactly similar to those we had seen in the islands; through one of these, which seemed most easy, we determined to go. To ascertain, however, the practicability of it, we resolved to stay upon the island all night, and at daybreak send a boat to sound one of them, which was accordingly done. We slept under the shade of a bush that grew upon the beach very comfortably.

12th. Great part of yesterday and all this morning till the boat returned I employed in searching the island. On it I found some few plants which I had not before seen. The island itself was small and barren; there was, however, one small tract of woodland which abounded very much with large lizards, some of which I took. Distant as this isle was from the main, the Indians had been here in their poor embarkations, a sure sign that some part of the year must have very settled fine weather. We saw seven or eight frames of their huts, and vast piles of shells, the fish of which had, I suppose, been their food. All the houses were built upon the tops of eminences, exposed entirely to the S.E., contrary to those of the main, which are commonly placed under some bushes or hillside to break the wind. The officer who went in the boat returned with an account that the sea broke vastly high upon the reef, and that the swell was so great in the opening that he could not go into it to sound; this was sufficient to assure us of a safe passage out; so we got into the boat to return to the ship in high spirits, thinking our dangers now at an end, as we had a passage open for us to the main sea. On our return we went ashore on a low island,^[9] where we shot many birds: on it was the nest of an eagle, the young ones of which we killed; and another I knew not of what bird, built on the ground, of a most enormous magnitude: it was in circumference 26 feet, and in height 2 feet 8 inches, built of sticks.^[10] The only bird I have seen in this country capable of building such a nest seems to be the pelican. The Indians had been here likewise and lived upon turtle, as we could plainly see by the heaps of callipashes [carapaces] piled up in many parts of the island. Our master, who had been sent to leeward to examine that passage, went ashore upon a low island, where he slept; such great plenty of turtle had the Indians had when there, that they had hung up the fins with the meat left on them on trees, where the sun had dried them so well that our seamen eat them heartily. He saw also two spots clear of grass, which had lately been dug up; they were about seven feet long and shaped like a grave, for which indeed he took them.

13th. Ship stood out for the opening^[11] we had seen in the reef, and about two o'clock passed through it; it was about half a mile wide. As soon as the ship was well within it, we had no ground with 100 fathoms of line, so became in an instant quite easy, being once more in the main ocean, and subsequently freed from all fears of shoals, etc.

14th. For the first time these three months we were this day out of sight of land, to our no small satisfaction. A reef such as we have just passed is a thing scarcely known in Europe, or indeed anywhere but in these seas. It is a wall of coral rock, rising almost perpendicularly out of the unfathomable ocean, always covered at high-water, commonly by seven or eight feet, and generally bare at low-water. The large waves of the vast ocean meeting with so sudden a resistance make here a most terrible surf, breaking mountains high, especially when, as in our case, the general trade-wind blows directly upon it.

16th. At three o'clock this morning it dropped calm, which did not better our situation, for we were not more than four or five leagues from the reef, towards which the swell drove us. By six o'clock we were within a cable length of the reef, so fast had we been driven on it, without our being able to find ground with 100 fathoms. The boats were got out, to try if they could tow the ship off, but we were within forty yards when a light air sprang up, and moved the ship off a little. The boats being now manned tried to tow her away, but, whenever the air dropped, they only succeeded in keeping the ship stationary. We now found what had been the real cause of our escape, namely, the turn of the tide. It was the flood that had hurried us so unaccountably fast to the reef, which we had almost reached just at high-water. The ebb, however, aided by the boats' crews, only carried us about two miles from the reef, when the tide turned again, so that we were in no better situation. No wind would have been of any use, for we were so embayed by the reef that with the general trade-wind it would have been impossible to get out. Fortunately a narrow opening in the reef was observed, and a boat sent to examine it reporting that it was practicable—the other boats meanwhile struggling against the flood—the ship's head was turned towards it, and we were carried through by a stream like a mill-race. By four o'clock we came to an anchor, happy once more to encounter those shoals which but two days before we had thought ourselves supremely happy to have escaped from.

As we were now safe at an anchor, the boats were sent upon the nearest shoal to search for shell-fish, turtle, or whatever else they could get; Dr. Solander and I accompanied them in my small boat. On our way we met with two water-snakes, one five and the other six feet long: we took them both. They much resembled land snakes, only their tails were flattened sideways, I suppose, for the convenience of swimming, and they were not venomous. The shoal we went upon was the very reef we had so nearly been lost upon yesterday, now no longer terrible to us. It afforded little provision for the ship, no turtle, only 300 lbs. of great cockles; some of an immense size. We had in the way of curiosity much better success, meeting with many curious fish and mollusca, besides corals of many species, all alive, among which was the Tubipora musica. I have often lamented that we had not time to make proper observations upon this curious tribe of animals; but we were so entirely taken up with the more conspicuous links of the chain of creation, as fish, plants, birds, etc. etc., that it was impossible.

21st. We observed both last night and this morning that the main looked very narrow,^[12] so we began to look out for the passage we expected to find between New Holland and New Guinea. At noon one was seen, very narrow but appearing to widen; we resolved to try it, so stood in. The anchor was dropped, and we went ashore^[13] to examine whether the place we stood into was a bay or a passage; for as we sailed right before the trade-wind, we might find difficulty in getting out, should it prove to be the former. The hill gave us the satisfaction of seeing a strait, at least as far as we could see, without any obstructions: in the evening a strong tide made us almost certain.^[14]

26th. Fine weather and clear fresh trade: stood to the W. and deepened our water from 13 to 27 fathoms.

 

1. A mode of preserving for herbarium purposes.
2. "The manner these planks were damaged—or cut out, as I may say—is hardly credible; scarce a Splinter was to be seen, but the whole was cut away as if it had been done by the Hands of Man with a blunt-edge Tool."—Wharton's Cook, p. 280.
3. A kangaroo.
4. The absence of the cocoanut palm on the Australian coasts is one of the most singular facts in botanical geography.
5. Dipus jaculus.
6. i.e. affairs.
7. Cape Flattery.
8. Lizard Island.
9. Eagle Island.
10. No doubt the nest of the Jungle bird, a species of Megapodium.
11. Cook's passage.
12. York Peninsula.
13. On Possession Island.
14. Banks does not allude to Cook having here hoisted English colours and taken possession of the whole east coast of Australia from 38° S. to Cape York in the name of the king, as he had of several other places along the coast (Wharton's Cook, p. 312). Neither Cook nor Banks was aware that Torres had sailed through these straits in 1606 (see p. li.)