John Lort Stokes

“ Assisted by our boats the whole party embarked in the early part of the afternoon, and appeared highly delighted to find themselves again on board the schooner. I was much impressed with the emphatic manner in which Lieutenant Lushington bid the shore a hearty farewell. The same evening the Lynher was moved round to Port George the Fourth—thus affording us an opportunity of welcoming all our former fellow-voyagers once more on board the Beagle; where we spent one of those delightful evenings, known only to those who have been long separated from the rest of the world. ”

“ We closed at Port Usborne our explorations in King's Sound, the result of which enabled us to fill up the gap long existing in the charts of the N.west coast of Australia, and which had for years been the theme of much ingenious geographical speculation. The result of our labours, if it had been less brilliant than eager anticipation at the onset led us to hope for, had nevertheless been on the whole satisfactory. ”

“ The landscape presented to my view, was an almost uninterrupted level; open woodlands, with here and there a few grassy spots, were its prevailing features. I could see nothing of the river itself beyond the reach in which the boats were lying; its upper extremity bore S. by W. and was about half a mile from our halting place. I made a discovery in climbing this tree, which I hoped to make available in our farther ascent of the Fitz-Roy, should we be so fortunate as to accomplish its further exploration, or in any similar circumstances during our examination of these untrodden wilds. ”

“ I could not survey it without allowing my thoughts to carry me away in pleasing reflections upon the gradual progress of human ingenuity by the advance of which, the same intellect that first contents itself with the mere floating of the single tree, at length shapes a forest into timbers and launches the floating fortress in triumph on the deep! ”

“ The rude savage—separated from all his former companions, made at once an intimate and familiar witness of some of the wonders of civilization, carried by his new comrades to their very country, and brought face to face with his traditionary foes, the dreaded northern men, and now returning to recount to his yet ruder brethren the wonders he had witnessed—could not fail to interest the least imaginative. ”

“ A coast range of brown grassy hills prevented our seeing anything of the interior. To seaward there was neither islet nor reef to interrupt the blue surface of water that bounded our view in the far north-west.
Descending we embarked from a cove on the N.E. side, where the boats had been ordered to meet us; between this and one on the opposite side there was only a narrow neck of low land. It is singular that we should not have seen any natives, or even traces of them anywhere excepting at Raft Point, during the whole of this cruise. ”

“ We landed to pass the night at a rocky point on the east side of the river, one mile south from the most western islet of the chain just described as almost preventing our ascent. The depth of the river at this point was about twelve feet at low-water; and its breadth some four or five hundred yards. We found the water fresh at all times of tide, which here rose only eight feet; being ten feet less than its greatest rise eight miles nearer the mouth, where the time of high-water at the full and change of the moon occurs at 4h. ”

“ Ten miles brought us abreast of the high land we had first seen, and six more to the southern point of a bay, lying on its south-western side, where the duties of the survey again obliged us to land. We considered ourselves now entering once more on the new lands of Australia, as Captain King could scarcely have had even a distant glimpse of this part; his extreme southern position being abreast of Freshwater Cove, from whence he describes the view of the coast as follows. "The land to the southward trended deeply in, and appeared to me much broken in its character." ”

“ After passing the extreme N.W. point of the mainland, seen from the ship, we discovered a deep bay, which once reached, would afford safe anchorage for a fleet. Near its northern point a large stream of water fell into the sea in glittering cascades; off this a ship may anchor in twelve fathoms within a quarter of a mile; close to the west is a small sandy beach. ”

“ Among all other savages of whom I have read, or among whom I have had any opportunity of judging for myself, except the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, a perpetual and never satisfied curiosity seems to be the leading habit of their minds: here, however, wonder is rarely expressed, curiosity seldom apparent—yet their indifference is not stupidity, or their simplicity cunning. ”

“ As this was the first part of the coast, since leaving Port Usborne, that a sailing vessel could approach without great risk, we proceeded to examine that channel more minutely, and were sorry to find the extensive coral reefs which fronted the islands, left a space of only half a mile between; a black pointed rock ten feet above high-water, marks the edge of the western reef, where it is covered by the tide; keeping this close on the starboard hand, will conduct a ship into good anchorage in 13 and 15 fathoms. ”

“ A point prevented our seeing the eastern extreme, which Mr. Helpman was sent to examine; he found it extended two miles in an E.N.E. direction, and like the other parts of it, to be lined with a scanty growth of mangroves, and flanked by high rocky land. The shape of this inlet resembles that of a bottle with a broad base, and being subject to a tidal change of level of 36 feet, it is easy to imagine with what violence such a body of water must rush through the narrow entrance to keep on a level with the slow-moving waters of the bay outside. ”

“ They swarmed around us, and by the light of the fire, the blanket bags in which the men sought to protect themselves, seemed literally black with their crawling and stinging persecutors. Woe to the unhappy wretch who had left unclosed the least hole in his bag; the persevering musquitoes surely found it out, and as surely drove the luckless occupant out of his retreat. I noticed one man dressed as if in the frozen north, hold his bag over the fire till it was quite full of smoke, and then get into it, a companion securing the mouth over his head at the apparent risk of suffocation ”

“ Those who have known the communion of sentiment and interest, which it is the tendency of one common purpose to create among all by whom that purpose is shared, can most readily and most perfectly understand with what deep and mutual interest Lieutenant Grey and myself heard and recounted all that each had done since our parting at the Cape. ”

“ As they rise, the mangrove, the pioneer of such fertility as the sea deposits, hastens to maturity, clothing them with its mantle of never-fading green, and thus bestowing on these barren reefs the presence of vegetable life.
Our course now lay along the western foot of the curious headland just described, a rapid tide soon hurried us past its frowning shadows into a very winding channel scarcely half a mile wide, and more than 20 fathoms deep ”

“ A solitary overspreading tree, and a white patch on its eastern extremity renders this island conspicuous, and is of this importance, that it guides a stranger to the only safe anchorage among the islands on the eastern shore of King's Sound. As a further guide to Port Usborne it is situated at the southern extremity of all these islands, and where the coast suddenly trends away to the eastward. ”

“ A spot, sixty miles in a S.S.E. direction from Hanover Bay, indicates their furthest distance towards the interior. The rugged nature of the country in the neighbourhood of this coast, and its vast distance from the interior, from whence it is further removed than any other part of the continent, justify the expression of an opinion that this was an ill-chosen spot for the debarkation of an expedition for inland research; though unquestionably its proximity to our E. Indian possessions, would make it, if suitable in other respects, a most valuable spot for colonization. ”

“ Seabirds, frightened from their resting places, screamed fearfully, and the dismal howl of the wild dog, equally alarmed, sometimes fell on the ear amidst the roaring of the dangerous element, which in the intense darkness of the night we could not but admire. ”

“ New feelings accompany new perceptions; and gazing for the first time upon a vast and unknown land, the mind, restless and active, as the roving life by which it is informed, expands for the reception of the crowding fancies, called into life as by the wand of the magician. ”

“ The western shore ran in a N.W. by W. direction, a straight rocky coast, over which rose abruptly a range of barren heights. The tide stream gradually weakened as we approached the head of the bay, where it scarcely exceeded half a knot, and the soundings decreased to seven fathoms, with a kind of muddy sand bottom; but the clearness of the water, and the equal duration of the flood and ebb streams, afforded the most conclusive evidence of the small opening we now discovered in the S.E. corner of the bay being nothing more than an inlet. ”

“ Whilst gazing on this wild scene, I could not help speculating on the probable cause the natives would assign for this great conflagration; the bright glare of which must have extended over several miles of country, perhaps alarming and doubtless causing deep consultation amongst the wise men of their tribes. It may also have taxed their power of invention, as they never use large fires in the night, except in wild stormy weather, when the creaking trees, and moaning wind, give them a dread of a visit from the Evil Spirit. ”

“ Landing, I hastened to the south point of the cove, to secure the necessary data for the chart, before the surrounding objects were veiled in darkness. We again appeared to be in a sterile white sandstone region, where, with the exception of a few land birds, there was a total absence of animal life, and almost that of the vegetable, for even the gumtrees common in this part, were not to be seen. Our view to the southward was very limited, embracing only the Montgomery Islands of Captain King ”

“ To meet with a countryman in a foreign land, is of itself generally an agreeable incident: the tones of one's native language, or the reminiscences of one's earlier and happier years, which such a meeting recalls, are sure to bestow upon it a pleasure of its own. ”

“ A beautiful stream of water fell into the sea, in leaping cascades, half a mile inside the cove. Several rock kangaroos were seen on the heights; and after securing observations with some early stars, for latitude, which placed Raft Point in 16° 4' S., we tried an experiment to get a shot at the kangaroos, by setting fire to the grass and small wood growing at the base, and in the interstices of the rocks. ”

“ We reached the summit of the island by following up a ravine, which formed the only break in the cliffs that faced the S.E. side of the island. There was a thick growth of red gums and the papyrus, on its sides, and near the summit we found rocks containing iron; a vein of the same vitrified matter I have described as seen at Swan Point, separated it from the prevailing rock of the island, which was composed of sandstone and fragments of quartz. ”

“ Before ascending the hill we crossed a flat clothed with rich grass, out of which we flushed several Pheasant-cuckoos.* We found one of their nests on the ground containing four eggs, in size and colour they resembled the domestic pigeon. The nimble manner in which these birds hop along the branches of trees, with their long tails whisking behind, give them, at the first glance, more the appearance of monkeys than birds. ”

“ From a high part overlooking its steep southern side we had a very commanding view. The centre of a string of small islets bore north one mile; there extended 2 miles in a west direction, from the north point of the harbour; both these and Entrance Isle escaped Captain King's notice, owing to the distant view he had of this part of the coast. A point bearing S.W. distant 3 miles, was the extreme of the mainland that we could see in the direction we were going. We found the sandstone of this Island not of the same ancient red colour as that on the shore fronting it. ”

“ Our white faces, curious garments, moving boats, the regular motions and unaccustomed sounds of our heavy oars, must indeed have filled them with amazement. I have since frequently remarked, that our oars created more wonder, or alarm, among the various tribes who first learnt through us the existence of their white brethren, than almost any other instrument of which they could at all understand the use ”

“ In speaking of it, he says, "I was invited to the top of this hill by the certainty of a good view of the interior over the low land forming the south-eastern shore of the harbour, and most amply was I repaid for the toil of ascending it, by feasting my eyes on a most luxuriant well-watered country, lying at the eastern foot of a remarkable peak, visible from Port George the Fourth. To the N.E. there lay a range of hills,* apparently of no great elevation. ”