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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Thus the Kowraregas have acquired from their island neighbours the art of cultivating the ground, and their superior dexterity in constructing and navigating large canoes, together with some customs--such as that of preserving the skulls of their enemies as trophies: while they retain the use of the spear and throwing-stick, practise certain mysterious ceremonies connected with the initiation of boys to the rights of manhood--supposed to be peculiar to the Australian race--and hold the females in the same low and degraded position which they occupy throughout Australia. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Throughout Australia and Torres Strait, the existence of chieftainship, either hereditary or acquired, has in no instance of which I am aware been clearly proved: yet in each community there are certain individuals who exercise an influence over the others which Europeans are apt to mistake for real authority. These so-called chiefs, are generally elderly men, who from prowess in war, force of character, or acknowledged sagacity, are allowed to take the lead in everything relating to the tribe. ”

“ That gold exists in the western and northern portions of New Guinea has long been known, that it exists also on the south-eastern shores of that great island is equally true, as a specimen of pottery procured at Redscar Bay contained a few small laminar grains of this precious metal. The clay in which the gold is embedded was probably part of the great alluvial deposit on the banks of the rivers, the mouths of which we saw in that neighbourhood, doubtless originating in the high mountains behind, part of the Owen Stanley Range. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All this evening a solemn, silent, inexpressible gloom; no rockets, no gun, no fire, to-morrow will tell a tale.
Saturday, 30th December, 1848.
At daylight this morning the ship was got underweigh, and sailed nearer in towards the hill which Jackey had pointed out as being the hill where "camp sit down," and anchored in about two fathoms of water about half a mile off the land. Five canoes were now seen creeping off towards us from under the mangroves, with from five to ten natives in each (there was yet no flag or any token of white people on the hill) ”

“ Some coconut-trees grow at the west end of the island, where there is a native village which we approached close enough to have a good view of it with the spy-glass. It consisted of several long huts, thatched with grass, which apparently are not much used during the daytime, as we saw no one entering or coming out of them. Many of the people, both men and women, ran down to the beach, waving green branches to induce us to land ”

“ The appearance of the surrounding country may briefly be described: ridges and peaks of grey quartz rock of moderate elevation form boundaries to shallow valleys, or become the summits of slopes extending with gentle declivity towards the shore. The ground almost everywhere, even on the hills, is boggy, with numerous swamps, rivulets and pools. The peat in some places is as much as six feet in thickness; it forms the only fuel on the island, for not a single tree occurs to diversify the landscape, and few of the bushes exceed a foot in height. ”

“ Whilst new species are usually sought after by collectors with eagerness, the habits and range of the commoner or less conspicuous forms are passed over without observation.* Hence every note on the habitat and mode of life of marine creatures from the southern hemisphere becomes of no small value. Indeed, there is no information more desirable at this time for the illustration of geological phenomena, than such as may throw light on the distribution in range and depth of the creatures inhabiting the sea of the Tropics, and those living around the coasts of Australia and New Zealand. ”

“ We sailed yesterday from our anchorage in Redscar Bay, but did not clear the sunken ridge of coral in the offing--a submarine extension of the Barrier Reef, stretching between Low Island and the vicinity of South-west Cape--until this forenoon, when we got out of soundings. The Bramble is to remain behind for three or four weeks upon the coast, to fill up various blanks in the chart between this and Rossel Island, while we are to make the best of our way to the Duchateau Islands, to obtain a meridian distance, and thence proceed direct to Sydney. ”

“ The life of a married woman among the Kowrarega and Gudang blacks is a hard one. She has to procure nearly all the food for herself and husband, except during the turtling season, and on other occasions when the men are astir. If she fails to return with a sufficiency of food, she is probably severely beaten--indeed the most savage acts of cruelty are often inflicted upon the women for the most trivial offence. ”

“ Shellfish and fish are alone obtainable all the year round--collecting the former is exclusively a female occupation, but fishing is chiefly practised by the men. Fish are either killed with a plain pointed spear, often merely a stick sharpened at the end, or are taken in deep water with the hook and line. Their hooks are made of a strip of tortoise-shell so much curved as to form three-fourths of a circle, but from their shape and the absence of a barb they cannot be so effective as those of European make: indeed these last were at Cape York preferred by the natives themselves. ”

“ Yet, taking, for example, the boomerang* and throwing-stick,** we find nothing approaching to either of these instruments in any part of New Guinea yet visited by Europeans: in the absence of any evidence to the contrary from Timor, they may be considered as true Australian inventions; and assuming the Australians to be the descendants of a colony from Timor, the circumstance of the natives of Melville Island--a part of Australia distant only 200 miles from their presumed place of origin--being ignorant of the use of the throwing-stick, is in favour of part of this supposition. ”

“ The carcass is towed on shore and rolled up the beach, when preparations are made for a grand feast. The flesh is cut through to the ribs in thin strips, each with its share of skin and blubber, then the tail is removed and sliced with a sharp shell as we would a round of beef. The blubber is esteemed the most delicate part; but even the skin is eaten, although it requires much cooking in the oven.
(*Footnote. A slender, branchless, cylindrical, articulated seaweed, of a very pale green colour, was pointed out to me by a native as being the favourite food of the dugong.) ”

“ 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. ”

“ At one time much trade was done here, before the duties imposed on the occasion of New Zealand becoming a British colony drove away the whalers which used to resort in great numbers to the Bay of Islands to refit; at present, besides the Rattlesnake, the only vessel here is a brig from Hobart, bound to California, which put in to this place to get a new rudder. Livestock is plentiful and the prices are moderate.
There are many natives living in the settlement. They afford a striking contrast to the wretched specimens of Australian aborigines one occasionally sees in the streets of Sydney. ”

“ This day I took Mitchell with me to the beach, and procured another bag of shellfish. During the last few days we shot a very small wallaby and three or four Torres Strait pigeons. These afforded us some relief, as our horse-flesh was so very bitter, that nothing but unendurable hunger could have induced us to eat it. A number of small brown beetles were generated from it, which ate it, and we were also much annoyed by flies. We all suffered more or less from bad eyes.
December 9.
The natives visited us this morning, and brought with them a few pieces of turtles' entrails and a few nondas. ”

“ Polygamy is practised both on the mainland and throughout the islands of Torres Strait. Five is the greatest number of wives which I was credibly informed had been possessed by one man--but this was an extraordinary instance, one, two, or three, being the usual complement, leaving of course many men who are never provided with wives. The possession of several wives ensures to the husband a certain amount of influence in his tribe as the owner of so much valuable property, also from the nature and extent of his connections by marriage. ”

“ At Darnley Island, the Prince of Wales Islands, and Cape York, the word used at each place to signify a white man, also means a ghost.* The Cape York people even went so far as to recognise in several of our officers and others in the ship, the ghosts of departed friends to whom they might have borne some fancied resemblance, and, in consequence, under the new names of Tamu, Tarka, etc. ”

“ Two days ago we left Bramble Cay for Cape Possession in New Guinea, with a fine breeze from the North-West, and next morning at daylight saw the land about the Cape on the weather-beam. The wind, however, died away in the afternoon, but this morning a light north-westerly breeze sprang up, before which we bore up and were brought in the afternoon to an anchorage in 11 fathoms, mud, half a mile to leeward of the Pariwara Islands. ”

“ We passed through a belt of mangroves, where the ground was pretty firm, the tide coming up only occasionally; we then proceeded along a sandy ridge to the northward, when we found it succeeded by a saltwater lagoon, surrounded by salsolaceous plants and mangroves, which it was impossible to get through. We returned to our camp, and here Mr. Kennedy abandoned the thought of going to the beach, as he felt sure H.M.S. Bramble (which was to have met us at the beginning of August) would have gone; our journey having occupied so much longer time than we could have possibly anticipated. ”

“ There being a wide deep gully between the natives and our camp, we drew up along the edge of it, with our firearms all ready to give them a warm reception should they endeavour to approach to closer hostilities. We endeavoured to make them understand that our intentions were friendly, and that we wished them to be peaceable; but they seemed to construe our signals to make them comprehend this, into indications of fear on our part; this increased their courage, and strengthened their determination to drive us away if possible, although they would not come within reach of our guns. ”

“ When a turtle is perceived, it is approached from behind as noiselessly as possible--when within reach, a man in the bow carrying the end of a small rope jumps out, and, getting upon the animal's back, with a hand on each shoulder, generally contrives to turn it before it has got far and secure it with the rope. This operation requires considerable strength and courage, in addition to the remarkable dexterity in diving and swimming possessed by all the blacks of the north-east coast and Torres Strait. ”

“ About the end of 1848, an old Kowrarega man went by himself in a small canoe to the neighbourhood of Cape Cornwall, while the men of the tribe were absent turtling at the eastern end of Endeavour Strait. He was watched by a party of Gomokudin blacks or Yigeiles, who, guided by his fire, surprised and speared him. Immediately returning to the mainland, the perpetrators of this savage deed made a great fire by way of exultation. ”