John Lort Stokes

“ I was to follow in one of the whaleboats, and explore the upper parts in company with Captain Wickham; and after completing the survey near the ship, I was at last fairly off to explore the Victoria with the first glimmer of light the morning following, once more to revel in scenes where all was new. How amply is the explorer repaid by such sights for all his toils! To ascend a hill and say you are the first civilized man that has ever trod on this spot; to gaze around from its summit and behold a prospect over which no European eye has ever before wandered ”

“ The tide too now served, and after a pull of some hours, carefully examining every creek and bight, we spied at length two canoes hauled up among a patch of mangroves. Landing, we soon found some houses, and a person to show us the road to Pritie; for we had still a walk of three miles across a well watered flat piece of country. We were highly pleased with this, to us, novel sight; and our enjoyment was heightened by beholding the tricks and grimaces of some impudent monkeys perched on the tops of the lofty trees, out of shot range, and too nimble to be hit with a ball. ”

“ In no land does the presence of water more rapidly enrich the landscape, changing it from a thirsty-looking plain to a rich green spot, than in Australia, and it is in journeying through such a country, when one suddenly meets with a luxuriant valley, that the eye naturally dwells with delight on the changing scene, and the impression, not easily forgotten, clings to us even when far away. ”

“ I was agreeably surprised to find in the heart of the hills a most comfortable inn, where our party sat down to a luncheon of lamb chops and green peas, with a beautiful cool bottle of sherry. Such is the march of civilization! To the north of our road was a lead mine, which will ultimately be a source of great riches to the colony; for which, indeed, nature has done much in the way of mineral productions. ”

“ Roe immediately went in search, and not many miles in the rear, found the poor fellow quite dead in a bush, with his blanket half rolled round him. It appeared that he had tried to scramble up a sandhill and had fallen back into the bush and died--a sad and melancholy fate for one so young. He had laboured under great disadvantages in walking, having cut his feet in very gallantly swimming out to save one of the boats during a hurricane in Sharks Bay. He was reduced to a perfect skeleton; having, in fact, been starved to death. ”

“ The intense pleasure afforded by traversing water that had never before been divided by any keel, in some measure compensated us for the annoyance from the mosquitoes and sandflies, that took the opportunity of assailing us while in the defenceless state of quiet necessary in making observations. Pushing out into the middle of the stream, and each wielding a beater, our tiny enemies were soon shaken off, and borne back to the shore by a refreshing North-West breeze. ”

“ There is an inevitable tendency in man to create; and there is nothing which he contemplates with so much complacency as the work of his own hands. To civilize the world, to subdue the wilderness, is the proudest achievement to which he can look forward; and to share in this great work by opening new fields of enterprise, and leading, as it were, the van of civilisation, fills the heart with inexpressible delight. ”

“ Our preparations were rapidly made, a few days provisions were stowed away in the boat, and as the western sky glowed red in the expiring light of day, the gig was running before a north-west breeze, for the chasm in the distant high land, bearing South 20 degrees East, twelve miles from the ship. As we advanced, the separations in the range became more marked and distinct, as long as the light served us, but presently darkness wrapped all in impenetrable mystery. ”

“ Such an event was looked upon as absolutely impossible in the full tide of prosperity that covered the island. Everything wore a smiling aspect. The fields were heavy with harvests, the roads crowded with traffic; gay equipages filled the streets; the settler's cottage or villa was well supplied with comfort, and even with luxuries; crime, in a population of which the majority were convicts or their descendants, was less in proportion than in England; in short, for the first time, in 1840 the exports exceeded the imports; trade was brisk, agriculture increasing, new settlers were arriving ”

“ Southerly and westerly winds brought us in sight of Madagascar on the 16th, and on the same evening, aided by a southerly current of 2 knots an hour, we were just able to weather its South-East extreme. The features of this great island that were presented to our view approached the Alpine, and from a passing glimpse of the small hills near the shore, it appeared to be a fertile country. This portion of the globe is one of great interest to the world at large, especially when we know that, if considered as a naval or military station, it is scarcely equalled by any in the Indian Ocean ”

“ It may, perhaps, be worthy of remark, that should a vessel be brought by any chance to this dreary part of the world in May, June, or July, anchorages exposed to easterly winds should be left at or before daylight--that being the time they set in; by noon all is again quiet. Bezout Island is of the same formation as Depuch; and so are many of the broken ridges, with bare stony summits, of a dark brown hue, on the main near Cape Lambert, trending South-South-West. A more dreary sterile country can scarcely be seen; yet it still maintains inhabitants. ”

“ Forsyth and myself started to explore the opening. We soon discovered that it was nothing more than a shallow creek at low-water. The tide here rising twenty feet, gave it the important appearance it had yesterday evening. A tall clump of naked trees was conspicuous at the east entrance point, towering above the insipid mangrove shore. We gave it the name of Hope Inlet, to commemorate the feelings it excited on its first discovery. From the south point of Clarence Strait it is distant eleven miles, and the bay in which it lies, from the shallow-water at the head of it, was called Shoal Bay. ”

“ Without wishing to press too hard on any body of my countrymen, I must say I regret that that page of history which records our colonization of Australia must reach the eyes of posterity.
The woman, whose capture I have more than once alluded to, was, doubtless, the wife of one of the young men taken by the sealers, and mother of the boy who accompanied him. The prospect of meeting her probably lightened the hours of his captivity. But what a tale of suffering she had to relate! What had she not undergone as the penalty of an attempt to procure food for her family. ”

“ About two miles south of the boats we discovered another freshwater lake, literally alive with waterfowl, whose varied colours contrasted charmingly with the bright verdure of the banks that seemed to repose on the silent waters, and were reflected on its glassy surface, now and then disturbed by the birds as they winged their way from one part to the other. Spoonbills and ibises, some white and some glossy rifle-green, and two kinds of a small grey duck, seen once only before on the Victoria, are among those worth enumerating. ”

“ 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; or perhaps, I should say, more eagerly, for there is nothing on which the mind can repose, nothing to tempt it to linger, nothing to divert the current of its thoughts. 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. ”

“ I regretted there was not time to visit Moresby's Flat-topped Range, as we might have got a glimpse of the good land reported by Captain Grey in the neighbourhood. The sides of the high lands look fertile over the sandhills of the bay; but through a spy-glass I found that they had a brown arid appearance and were destitute of timber.
I was forcibly struck with the resemblance between Moresby's Range, Sea Range on the Victoria, Cape Flattery on the north-east coast, and I may add, from Flinders' description, the cliffs forming the coast range at the head of the Australian Bight. ”

“ They are never harassed with the idea of being without any; which not only distresses but adds to the horror of thirst with the European explorer, who has not experienced the constant watchfulness of Providence, and does not know that he may collect from the leaves, with a sponge, on some mornings, as much as a pint of water. This has, however, been done, even on the south coast, where the dews are not so copious as on the north-west. The natives themselves are never at a loss for that indeed precious article, water. ”

“ In this wild and confined anchorage we were detained by constant westerly gales for a fortnight, during the whole of which there was only one really clear day, when I got angles to all the distant points from a hill near the south-east extreme of the group, nine hundred and ten feet high and quite precipitous on its seaward face. We named it Lighthouse Hill, its admirably conspicuous situation suggesting the purpose to which it might be devoted; the materials for building, moreover, are all at hand. ”

“ DIFFICULTY OF UNDERSTANDING THE NATIVES.
The great difference between the words at Shoal Bay and Port Darwin, must now be apparent to the reader; a more extended acquaintance with the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, has shown that many words put down by us as meaning a certain thing, signify in reality, "What do you mean?" "I do not understand"--which shows at once the great difficulty of arriving at the truth. This must often be the case; for what is more natural, than that when a savage is asked the meaning of a thing, and knows not, but that he should express his ignorance? ”

“ The hum of insects, and sudden disturbance of rich-coloured parrots, screaming and fluttering through the branches, and the strong, short, rapid flight of the dove, with its melancholy cooing, transported us in imagination a long way inland, whereas we were not three hundred yards from the beach. We now wended our way towards a small eminence, through long grass, in most places interwoven with creepers, compelling us to tear our way through them in the ascent. ”

“ How small soever may be the circle of its present influence, the experience of the past teaches us confidently to expect that wherever a knot of Englishmen locate themselves, there are deposited the germs of future greatness. For Port Essington, a sphere of action, of great extent and importance, appears marked out by the hand of nature; though, to a careless observer, unskilled in discerning the undeveloped capabilities of geographical positions, it may appear in the light simply of an isolated military post. ”

“ The centre of the continent must be reached by the shortest possible journey; it being advisable to avoid the despondency that seizes on a party during a protracted expedition, and to keep up throughout a certain degree of excitement. As, therefore, the greatest indentation on the shores of the continent is the Gulf of Carpentaria, the head of the Albert River, which discharges its waters into the bottom of it, is unquestionably the best point of departure that could be selected, being one-half the distance of Fort Bourke from the centre, and two-thirds nearer than Moreton Bay. ”

“ Home, after all, is home all the world over, and the dull arid shores of Australia were more beautiful in the eyes of this savage than the romantic scenery of Timor, which excited in him wonder not delight. ”

“ But it was not until it became apparent to my own eyes, that I could believe anyone could be so reckless as to induce a large number of individuals, including women and children, by false, or at least exaggerated representations, to sever the ties of kindred and of friendship, and become voluntary exiles to a far country, in search of a new and more prosperous home; whilst in lieu of the promised streams and fertile plains, nothing in reality awaited them but sterility--the certain loss of property, and the imminent risk of their lives. ”

“ Fitzmaurice's examination of the coast to the westward extended to Dial Point, distant twenty-nine miles from the Tamar. In this space there are no less than five rivers, all with very short courses, and not navigable except by boats and small craft; and by these only, on account of the surf on their bars, in fine weather. The first empties itself into an estuary, called Port Sorel; but it is difficult to detect the mouths of the others in the low sandy shore, which is deceptive, as the hills rising immediately in the rear give the coast a bold striking appearance from the offing. ”