John Lort Stokes

“ The habitations of the natives were of a more substantial kind than we should have expected to meet with in these lat.s, being snug oval-shaped huts, thatched with coarse grass. The extremely low level nature of the country, the reader can imagine, as also how much it surprised us to find that from the boat at high-water our eyes could wander over miles. Occasionally on the plains, rendered warm from their colour reflecting the powerful beams of the sun, were to be seen whirling clouds of dust, towering upwards until their centrifugal force became exhausted. ”

“ In other parts of the island there is a great quantity of ironstone; and the cliffs on the eastern side are mixed with this and pipe-clay; on the northern extreme are some lakes or swamps.
The soil is chiefly a mixture of sand and decomposed vegetable matter; but it cannot boast of fertility. The wood on the island, which consisted for the most part of gums, wattles, a few acacias, palms, and, near the beach, a straggling casuarina or two, bespoke this by its stunted appearance; but as cotton grows well at Port Essington, there can be little doubt that it will thrive here. ”

“ Some low grassy islets were scattered here and there, reposing in emerald verdure on the surface of the stream, which was reverting under the influence of the tide, towards its source, and now hurried the boat so rapidly through a narrow channel between the west side of a large island and a low line of earthy cliffs, as to carry her foul of a submerged tree and half fill and almost capsize her. In order to ascertain the extent of the damage, we landed on a small sandy beach, in which was the fresh print of a native's foot ”

“ The greatest depth we had in crossing the Gulf was 15 fathoms, the nature of the bottom being a fine dark sandy mud.
Bountiful Islands form the eastern part of a group called Wellesley Islands, and were so named by Flinders from the great supply of turtle he found there. As, however, it was two months before the season of their visiting the shores, we only caught twelve, for the most part females. Near the islands was noticed the same shrubby thick compact kind of seaweed, that had previously been seen on the parts of the North-west coast frequented by the turtle. ”

“ It is possible they may have been stupefied by the appearance of that wonderful creation of man's ingenuity—a ship; in their eyes it must have seemed a being endowed with life walking the waters, for purposes to them incomprehensible, on a mission to the discovery of which they could not even apply the limited faculties they possessed. ”

“ Onward we move, with expectation at its highest, led by the irresistible charm of novelty, almost panting with excitement, even when every step seems to add certainty to the conviction that all that is beyond resembles all that has been seen. ”

“ As soon as the blackened heads of the fallen trees, evidences of how fierce a torrent had borne them hither, could be discerned, we proceeded. The reaches became again tortuous, but we still made some progress. The mangroves were no longer to be seen fringing the banks with their garden shrubbery appearance. In a broad easterly reach, some natives were burning the country close to the west bank, but they did not show themselves. At the end of it the river expanded into a beautiful sheet of water a quarter of a mile in width, though only three feet deep. ”

“ And it may be added, that to the production of the emotions I allude to, beauty of landscape is scarcely necessary. We strain forward incited by curiosity, as eagerly over an untrodden heath, or untraversed desert, as through valleys of surpassing loveliness, and amid mountains of unexplored grandeur ”

“ Strong south and south-east winds, which reduced the temperature, on one occasion, to 56° about 4 a.m., generally prevailed, excepting for a few hours in the afternoon; quite reminding us of the winds we experienced at Depuch Island on the North-west coast, and preventing us from reaching our destination till the morning of the 24th, when we anchored two miles and a quarter from a particularly bare sand hillock, bearing S. 53° W. This was named The Sandhill, par excellence; there being no other on the shore of the Gulf. ”

“ Investigator Road is sheltered to the northward by shoal water stretching across between Sweers and Bentinck islands. The latter is slightly elevated, and thickly wooded; it is large in comparison with its neighbours, being about ten miles in extent either way. Its south side is much indented, and the projections as well as the extreme of Fowler Island, are lined with mangroves; they are fronted with coral ledges. Near the south-east point, I noticed large patches of the ferruginous sort of gravel, before alluded to in King's Sound. ”

“ Though we saw not the form of a living being, I am persuaded that the eyes of the natives were upon us, and that our every movement was watched. The method they adopted to lure us away from the neighbourhood of the dead was simple and ingenious, and might have proved successful had not the interposing ledge of rocks prevented our further progress. To effect their purpose they must have burnt up a very large space, as the smoke that arose obscured all that quarter of the heavens. ”

“ Alligators were very numerous for the first fifteen miles as we ascended; and we saw a party of natives, but did not communicate with them. Their astonishment at the appearance of such strange beings as ourselves must have been very great. It could never before have fallen to their lot to behold any of the white race; and until our presence undeceived them, they must have been living in happy ignorance that they were not the only specimens of humanity upon the face of the earth. ”

“ The highest part of the country we saw was on the south side of one of the reaches, six miles from the mouth; but even there the utmost elevation was only ten feet. This rise was marked by a growth of tolerable-sized eucalypti. Elsewhere the banks were scarcely three feet above high-water level, and generally fringed with mangroves, behind which in many places were extensive clear flats, reaching occasionally the sides of the inlet towards the upper parts, and forming at that time the resort of large flights of the bronze-winged pigeon. ”

“ Gore, in the stern-sheets of the yawl, and the coxswain was a little on the left, and over him, steering. Our preservation can only be attributed to Him whose eye is on all his creatures and who disposes of our lives as it seemeth good in his sight. Without intending to be presumptuous, we may be permitted to believe that we were spared partly on account of the service in which we were engaged—so beneficial to humanity, so calculated to promote the spread of civilization, which must ever be the harbinger of Christianity. ”

“ After leaving Disaster Inlet, the coast was examined to the eastward, and at the distance of fifteen miles, in an E. 5° S. direction, we came to a projection that we called Middle Point. The shore between fell back, forming a bight three miles deep, in lat. 17° 44' S., the most southern shore of the Gulf. A growth of mangroves prevented our landing at high-water, and at low, soft mud flat fronted the shore for the distance of a mile and more. Five miles from Disaster Inlet there was a small creek; with others, three, four, and six miles westward of Middle Point. ”

“ This was a very important discovery, as Investigator Road is the only anchorage for vessels of all sizes at the head of the Gulf in either monsoon, and possesses an equal supply of wood, fish, and birds, with turtle close at hand on Bountiful Islands. Moreover, should an expedition be formed for the purpose of exploring the interior from the head of the Gulf, it is, as Flinders remarks, "particularly well adapted for a ship during the absence of the travellers." ”

“ He also perceived human beings at a distance; but when he endeavoured to communicate with them, they retired, as he mentions, to some of the caverns that exist on the island, and were seen no more.
Sweers Island appeared to be very woody, and bounded by low dark cliffs on the north-east side. We found a long extent of foul ground, with a dry reef near its outer end, extending off two miles in a S. 33° E. direction from the S.E. extreme. Our anchorage was in 51⁄2 fathoms, nearly abreast of a remarkable and solitary sandy point on the above-mentioned island. ”

“ Our anchorage was in 7 fathoms, three quarters of a mile S.E. from the highest hill, which I called Mount Flinders; it stands close to the beach, near the east end of the island, and is in lat. 16° 40' 0" S., long. 7° 45' 25" E. of Port Essington.
Bountiful Islands, two in number, are distant a mile and a half in a N.E. direction from each other. The northern and largest is two miles and a half long, and three-quarters of a mile wide; whilst the other is rather more than half a mile each way, and has at the northern end a mound with a remarkable casuarina tree on its summit. ”

“ A hillock elevated about thirty feet, which was great for this part of the continent, rendered it conspicuous. Like Point Bayley, it is fronted with a rocky ledge, and has a sandy beach on the south side. ”

“ Fortunately or unfortunately for them—according as we determine on the value of civilization to the aboriginal races of the S.-they did not possess the fatal, or salutary, curiosity that prompts most men to attempt fathoming the depth of whatever is mysterious. ”

“ Fitzmaurice had returned and gave the following account of his examination.
Commencing at Mr. Forsyth's furthest, he found the southerly trend of the coast change in the course of nine miles to the eastward, forming a large shoal bay, which at low-water had a mud flat extending off nearly two miles. The east point of this bay, named Point Tarrant,* I had seen from the south-east end of Sweers Island, bearing S. 17° W. eighteen miles. It is rendered remarkable by a slight rise in the land behind it, forming low mounds or hillocks. Two miles to the westward Mr. ”