John MacGillivray

“ Near the beach, by the side of the saltwater creek, I saw a beautiful species of Ruellia with terminal spikes of blue flowers, and spiny-toothed leaves, and a bushy shrub eight or ten feet high, with alternate exstipulate, simple, oval leaves, bearing a solitary, axillary, round fruit, resembling a greengage plum; the fleshy pulp covering the hard round stone has rather a bitter taste, but it is not disagreeable when ripe. ”

“ The country here to the west and the south-west was open undulating forest land, which had been burned some short time before, and the grass just growing again, formed beautiful feed for our horses and sheep.
Towards evening about six or eight natives made their appearance, on the same side of the river as our camp; when about two hundred yards from us they shipped their spears in their throwing-sticks, and with other warlike gestures gradually drew near to us, making a great noise, doubtless thinking to frighten us. ”

“ Newcomers were continually making their appearance, and all the party were now suddenly observed to have furnished themselves with spears, none of which had been seen at first, and which had probably been concealed among the long grass at the spot to which they had led us. These weapons are made of polished coconut-wood, eight to ten feet long, sharp at each end, and beautifully balanced, the thickest part being two-fifths of the distance from the point; one end was usually ornamented with a narrow strip of palm leaf, fluttering in the breeze like a pennon as usually carried. ”

“ It is well wooded with low trees and brushwood, and mixed up with them there is a profusion of cocoa-palms scattered about in clumps, from the margin of the beach to the shoulders of the hill; long coarse grass, at this time of a beautiful light green tint, covered the remainder. The usual fringing coral reef surrounds the island, running off to a great distance in one direction. The greater part of the shore and the projecting points are rocky (where the soft splintery mica slate has been exposed) with occasional sandy beaches. ”

“ On this--Peat Islet of the chart--the tussock grass grows in great luxuriance, and to a stranger presents a most singular appearance. Its clusters of stems--frequently upwards of a hundred or more in a bunch--are raised from the ground upon a densely matted mass of old and decayed roots, two or three feet high, from the summit of which the leaves, frequently six feet in length, arch gracefully outwards. The tussock grass has been likened to a palm on a small scale, but altogether it reminded me more of the Xanthorrhoea, or grass-tree of Australia. ”

“ Here one looks down upon the numerous quintas and cottages of the suburbs embosomed in gardens and vineyards, the orange groves and clumps of chestnut trees, the snow-white houses of Funchal with its churches and public buildings, the citadel frowning over the town, the calm waters of the bay with the vessels at anchor gently heaving to and fro on the long westerly swell, the Ilheo rock and batteries, the bold headlands, and the dim outline of the distant Desertas. Some of the streets are pleasantly shaded by rows of plane-trees (Platanus occidentalis) . ”

“ We started early this morning, and proceeded along the beach till we came to a small river, which was narrow and shallow, but the bottom being muddy, and it being low-water, we diverged towards the sea, where the sand was firmer, and there crossed it with little difficulty, without unloading the packhorses or carts. The tide runs but a short distance up this river, and as far as the tide goes it is fringed with a belt of mangroves. The banks are muddy, and so soft that a man sinks up to his knees in walking along them. ”

“ The glare of the red-tiled buildings, whitewashed or painted yellow, is relieved by the varied beauty of the suburbs and gardens, and the numerous wooded eminences crowned by churches and other conspicuous public edifices. Beyond the city the harbour again widens out to form an immense basin, studded with green islands, extending backwards some seventeen or eighteen miles further towards the foot of the Organ Mountains, remarkable for their pinnacled summits, the highest of which attains an elevation of 7800 feet above the sea. ”

“ On the very brink of starvation and death--death in the lone wilderness, peopled only with the savage denizens of the forest, who even then were thirsting for our blood--hope, sure and certain hope, had for one brief moment gladdened our hearts with the consoling assurance, that after our many trials, and protracted sufferings, we were again about to find comfort and safety. ”

“ The young women were got up with greater attention to dress and finery than when seen on shore, and some had their face blackened as if to heighten their attractions. The outer petticoat, worn on gala days such as this, differs from the common sort in being much finer in texture and workmanship, besides being dyed red and green, with intermediate bands of straw colour and broad white stripes of palm-leaf. It is made of long bunches of very light and soft shreds, like fine twisted grass, apparently the prepared leaf of a calamus or rattan. ”

“ It appears to me that there are two distinct varieties of the Papuan race inhabiting the south-east portion of New Guinea. The first occupies the western shores of the Great Bight, and probably extends over the whole of the adjacent country, along the banks of Aird River, and the other great freshwater channels. Judging from the little that was seen of them during the voyage of the Fly, these people appear to agree with the Torres Strait Islanders--an offshoot, there is reason to believe, of the same stock--in being a dark and savage race, the males of which go entirely naked. ”

“ The discontent increased, some of the men left in a state of great excitement, and went for their spears and throwing sticks. One or two rockets were sent up soon after to amuse them, on which the few remaining women and children hurried to their sheds of bark and hid their faces in terror. When a blue light was burned, and lit up the gloomy shadows of the neighbouring bush, it disclosed the spectral figures of many armed men among the trees, singly and in groups, intently watching our motions. ”

“ This morning a horse fell into a rocky waterhole, and finding it impossible to get him out alive, we killed him, and cured the flesh as before, drying it in the sun on a stage; the blood, heart, and liver furnished us with a good day's food. Our meat being well dried by five o'clock in the afternoon, we sprinkled some salt upon it, and put it in bags for the convenience of carrying. We left one of our round tents, and such other things as we could possibly spare behind us at the camp, as our horses were now so weak they could not carry their loads. ”

“ It is a very shy bird, frequenting the margin of the island, usually seen perched on some detached or solitary branch, as if sunning itself, and darting off into the dense brush upon being approached.
Small lizards were plentiful, but we met with no large ones or snakes during our rambles on the Duchateau Isles. These islands are probably much resorted to by turtles, as they were daily seen swimming about, and one was caught on shore during our stay by a party of natives. ”

“ The view, as we closed the land, standing in from the south-westward for the roadstead of Horta, was very fine--on our left we had the beautiful island of Fayal rising to the height of 3000 feet, its sides gradually sloping towards a range of maritime cliffs, while the lower grounds, in full cultivation, indicated--along with numbers of neat white-washed cottages and occasional villages--a well peopled and fertile country, contrasting strongly with those from which we had lately returned. ”

“ Some women on the beach retired as we were about to land, but a number of boys and a few men received us, and after a preliminary halt to see that our guns were put to rights after the ducking, we all started together by a narrow path winding up a rugged wall of basaltic rock, fifty feet in height. From the summit a steep declivity of a couple of hundred yards brought us to the village of Tassai, shaded by coconut-trees, and beautifully situated on a level space close to the beach on the windward side of the island, here not more than a quarter of a mile in width. ”

“ The grotesque and stupid look of the old bird standing by its eggs or young--irresolute whether to defend them or not, and staring with an intensely droll expression at the intruders--is very amusing; at length on being too closely approached, it generally disgorges the contents of its stomach--consisting at this time of very fine flying-fish--and after some half shuffling, half flying movements, manages to get on wing and be off. ”

“ The islands of the North-East coast of Australia hitherto and subsequently visited during the survey, afford all the gradations between the simplest form of a sandbank upon a coral reef scantily covered with grass, a few creeping plants and stunted bushes on one hand--and on the other a high, rocky, well-wooded island with an undulating succession of hills and valleys. ”

“ The latitude of this camp was 12 degrees 35 minutes South.
And thus we settled down in the spot which was to be the burial place of so many of our party--which was fated to be the scene of so much intense suffering, and of such heart-sickening hope deferred. Wearied out by long endurance of trials that would have tried the courage and shaken the fortitude of the strongest, a sort of sluggish indifference prevailed, that prevented the development of those active energies which were so necessary to support us in our critical position. ”

“ Within 200 yards of the township we came upon a great expanse of several hundred acres of bare mud, glistening with crystals of salt, bordered on one side by a deep muddy creek, and separated from the shore by thickets of mangroves. The country for several miles around is barren in the extreme, consisting for the most part of undulating, stony, forest land. I have heard, however, that there is much good pastoral country at the back. ”

“ Still the natives of the Prince of Wales Islands rank themselves with the islanders and exhibit a degree of conscious superiority over their neighbours on the mainland and with some show of reason; although themselves inferior to all the other islanders, they have at least made with them the great advance in civilisation of having learned to cultivate the ground, a process which is practised by none of the Australian aborigines. ”

“ At Coral Haven we have already seen considerable variety displayed in the various styles of painting the body. Pounded charcoal mixed up with coconut oil, and lime obtained from burnt shells similarly treated, are the pigments made use of. The most common fashion of painting is with a broad streak down the forehead, and a circle round each eye. Occasionally the entire body is blackened, but often the face only--with daubs of paint on the temples, cheek, and round the mouth and one or both eyes, rendering a forbidding countenance inexpressibly hideous in our sight. ”

“ At daylight in the morning a dead calm, and the hottest day we have had, the sun was so glaring that the altitude could not be taken. At about a quarter before ten A.M. a light breeze came on and we left our anchorage, the breeze increased a little, before eleven; saw what appeared to be an island at first; on nearing, found it to be a canoe, about fifteen feet long, with seven or eight natives in it, shearing about, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another. ”

“ No mammalia were procured on South-east Island--indeed the only one seen was a flying-squirrel which I caught a glimpse of one evening at the river-mouth as it sprung off among the mangroves from the summit of a dead tree--it appeared to be of the size of an ordinary rat, and was probably a Petaurus. Wild pigs must be very numerous--as indicated by fresh marks where they had been wallowing in the beds of the ditch-like rivulets, their footprints everywhere, and well-beaten tracks through the jungle. ”

“ It may safely be assumed that the aborigines of the whole of Australia (exclusive of Van Diemen's Land) have had one common origin; in physical character the natives of Cape York seem to me to differ in no material respect from those of New South Wales, South or Western Australia, or Port Essington,* and, I believe I am borne out by facts in stating that an examination of vocabularies and grammars (more or less complete) from widely remote localities, still further tends to prove the unity of the Australian tribes as a race. ”

“ Among our numerous visitors we occasionally saw a woman or two, but none were favourable specimens of their kind. Unlike the men, whose only covering was the breech-cloth formerly described, the women wore a short petticoat of grass-like stuff, probably the pandanus leaf divided into fine shreds--worked into a narrow band which ties round the waist. They usually, when alongside the ship, held a small piece of matting over the head with one hand, either to protect them from the sun or partially to secure themselves from observation, as in their manners they were much more reserved than the men. ”

“ The only clue that gave rise to the supposition that the natives had found the body, was the fact that part of Mr. Kennedy's trousers was found in the canoe taken by the schooner Ariel. Jackey said there were other trousers in the saddlebag, exactly like those he had on at the time of his death. The saddlebags, there is not the slightest doubt, have been found by the natives. Poor Jackey was very quiet, but felt, and felt deeply, during the day. When pointing out the spot where Mr. Kennedy died, I saw tears in his eyes, and no one could be more indefatigable in searching for the remains. ”

“ Many of the walks in the neighbourhood of the city are exceedingly beautiful; one of the pleasantest leads along the line of the aqueduct. Here the botanist fresh from Europe, will find subjects of interest at every step, and the entomologist may revel to his heart's content among gaudily coloured Heliconiae, Hesperiae, and Erycinae, or watch the larger butterflies of the restricted genus Papilio, slowly winging their lazy flight among the trees just beyond the reach of his insect net. ”

“ I therefore considered all that we could do would be to thoroughly examine the coast with the whaleboat, close in shore, and the brig as near as she prudently could approach.
At daylight despatched the whaleboat, in charge of the second officer, with four seamen, Jackey, and his two companions, with particular orders to keep close to the beach, and to land occasionally, to examine all the native camping places and canoes; to make strict search for anything that might tend to point out the fate of the unfortunate men. ”

“ The four huts composing the village were placed in two adjacent clearings, fifty or sixty yards in length, screened from the beach by a belt of small trees and brushwood, behind is the usual jungle of the wooded islands of the Archipelago, with a path leading through it towards the centre of the island. A solitary hut stood perched upon the ridge near the summit shaded by cocoa-palms, and partially hid among the bushes and tall grass. ”