Back Bay

“ None of the officers or apprentices were allowed on shore at Vallaya. We were all kept too busy attending ship under the elevator shoots. I was disappointed at this, but it could not be helped, and on the third day the “Tonquin” was towed down the beautiful river again, and came to anchor in San Francisco Bay. ”

“ Well, as we drew up towards the head of the bay we suddenly grounded on a reef, and while we were rushing about backing and filling the sails, the natives swam off in hundreds and boarded the vessel on all sides. We let go the ropes and seized whatever we could lay our hands on to defend ourselves, but in a minute three of our men were beaten to death with clubs. The captain was aft by the wheel, and as soon as I saw the natives climbing over the rail I drew my knife and sprang aft near him, and together we fought like demons. ”

“ Of all places on the earth, Callao, in 1871, was the most immoral and degraded. It reeked with vice and infamy. As I said before there were about a hundred sailing ships in the bay, with over two thousand seamen on board—all long voyagers, and about two-thirds of these men were on shore every night. The police force was simply a farce, they winked at crime and immorality in the most open fashion. Every third house in the place was a drinking den, and the majority of the men about the town were runners, crimps, and vile cast offs from other lands. ”

“ Then another thing, the voyage being nearly over, everybody is in the best of spirits, the strictness of discipline is relaxed, for everything is done with a cheery goodwill, the little differences and quarrels that crop up during a voyage are forgotten, everybody seems friendly, even Mr. Ross, the second mate, who had been like a bear with a sore head since we left Liverpool, unbent and smiled at the little jokes that passed round amongst the men.107 From each and all the strain was lifted as we dropped anchor in the Bay of Callao, after a passage of one hundred and thirty-five days. ”

“ We anchored on the north shore, off a sandy bay, which I think as good a birth as any in the bay; Cape Banks bore east-south-east, and Point Solander south-south-east, the ground clear and good. The wind, either from the north-east or south-east quarters, set in a prodigious sea. Higher up the bay there is a spot of four fathoms, where a few ships might be laid in tolerable security, but they must be lightened, to enable them to pass over a flat of twelve feet, and that depth but of narrow limits. ”

“ It is beautifully situated on the north-west shore of the Mount's Bay, on a declivity jetting into the sea. The lands in its vicinity having a substratum of hornblende rock and slate, are not exceeded in fertility by any soil in the kingdom; a belt of land around the town, which consists of about a thousand acres, producing an annual rent of £10,000! The town is well defended by surrounding hills from the fury of Atlantic storms. It is large and populous, containing more than six thousand inhabitants. ”

“ The northern face of the Sá Leone peninsula is fretted with little creeks and inlets, bights and lagoons, which were charming in a state of nature. Pirate's Bay, the second after the lighthouse, is a fairy scene under a fine sky; with its truly African tricolor, its blue waters reflecting air, its dwarf cliffs of laterite bespread with vivid leek-green, and its arc of golden yellow sand, upon which the feathery tops of the cocoa-palms look like pins planted in the ground. To the travelled man the view suggests many a nook in the Pacific islands. ”

“ In and out of this harbour small sailing-vessels make their way; and certain scattered cottages, the Bridport Arms Inn, and some few recent houses, all standing in the sands and minute gravel of the Chesil Beach, which ends here, make believe that West Bay is a seaside resort. On either side of it the cliffs rise to great heights, and are partly of a friable, earthy nature, yellow in hue. ”

“ Sailing thence to the southward towards the large island, we discovered a very large bay, well peopled, and very fertile in yams and fruits, hogs and fowls. They are all black people and naked. They fight with bows, darts and clubs. They did not choose to have peace with us, though we frequently spoke to them and made presents; and they never, with their goodwill, let us set foot on shore.
This bay is very refreshing, and in it fall many and large rivers. It is in 152⁄3° S. latitude, and in circuit it is twenty-five leagues. ”

“ Still it increased the danger of approaching the shore, and the bay afforded no shelter to the wind then blowing. We flew rapidly on; the dim outline of the coast became more and more distinct. At length we could distinguish some lofty headlands directly ahead.
Charley White knew that two such headlands mark the entrance to Port Jackson, but he reminded me that there is a third, which forms the side of False Bay, and that more than one ship had run in there, and that instead of finding a sheltering harbour they had been thrown against the rugged cliffs which form its sides. ”

“ Just before sunrise next morning, while we were loading our first boat, one after another the rest all slipped past us, out upon their homeward way, for the wind had come fair. Hicks Bay is perhaps the most picturesque spot on all that picturesque coast; and a lovely sight it was that morning. A tawny, grass-grown promontory ran out upon the sea to our right, the opposite barrier was a tumble of black rocks and Bush, and the head of the bay was formed by lofty mountains, covered almost to the water’s edge with thick virgin forest. ”

“ Passing from the ultramarine deeps of the Rubicon Point, we round a sharply jutting promontory and glide into the jade-green waters of Emerald Bay, a long, oval-shaped inlet at the southern end of the lake. Surely, it is rightly named, for here green predominates, from the steep sides of the encircling hills to the very center of the shallow bay. At the upper end of the bay, rising almost sheer from the green water, is a rocky, scantily-wooded island where for many years an eccentric Englishman made his home. ”

“ What is required, they say, is communication and the presence of a community.
Big Bay, which we first entered, misled by the haze along the shore, although it appears on the chart as a mere indentation of the coast-line, compared with the magnificent harbours to the southward, is a fine crescent bay of considerable depth, and with a long-extending shelter on its north side, consisting of a line of table land, terminating in a low spit and a reef of rocks. It is possible for a mistake to be made as to the identity of the two bays, going by the chart of the mere coast-line ”

“ It is in this vicinity that there are some of the choicest spots for settlement, although there are superior situations on the left hand bank of the river, when sailing down, and half-way to the sea. A small township at this end of the lake is not an improbable realisation of the future, in connection with the settlement of Martin’s Bay. There is deep water close to the fine beach—occasionally close to the bush; there is a level or gently rising ground behind; and it commands the finest view of the lake. ”

“ From Saint Just's Church-town, the road conducts us over a wild part of the peninsula, although highly salubrious, and invigorating from the fine sea breezes which blow from every side; after a ride over such bleak and barren hills, the eye experiences a singular repose on our approach to the cultivated shores of the Mount's Bay. ”

“ The fishermen of this lonely coast, landing on dark nights, with nothing else to guide them as to their whereabouts, can always readily settle the point by handling this shingle, and by use can tell within a mile of the particular spot.
The story of West Bay’s struggle against this insidious enemy is an old one. In 1722 the Bridport authorities procured an Act of Parliament empowering them to restore and rebuild the haven and port, the piers and landing-places, in order to bring the town to that ancient and flourishing state whence it had declined. ”

“ About half way through the Straits, on the side of the Cobourg Peninsula, there is a capacious bay, having a sufficient depth of water for a first-rate man-of-war, within a few fathoms of the shore. This bay, which was considered by Captain Laws as a very eligible spot for a settlement, he named, in compliment to the Commandant, Barker's Bay. On surveying the bay, we could not help expressing regret, that the settlement had been so hastily formed. ”

“ While the 'Supply' was absent, Governor Phillip made an excursion to Broken Bay, a few leagues to the northward of Port Jackson, in order to explore it. As a harbour it almost equals the latter, but the adjacent country was found so rocky and bare, as to preclude all possibility of turning it to account. Some rivulets of fresh water fall into the head of the Bay, forming a very picturesque scene. The Indians who live on its banks are numerous, and behaved attentively in a variety of instances while our people remained among them. ”

“ The Bay is about ninety miles long, but differs much in its breadth; being in some places only fifteen miles, in others from twenty to thirty. It lies nearly from north-east to south-west. At the entrance of it from the Lake are a string of islands, extending from north to south, called the Grand Traverse. These are about thirty miles in length, and serve to facilitate the passage of canoes, as they shelter them from the winds, which sometimes come with violence across the Lake. On the side that lies to the south-east is the nearest and best navigation. ”

“ Lastly, we take a look at the fishing-tackle, with which the light-house keeper goes out to troll for salmon. Glorious sport! The great, delicious fellows, to be caught by a fly! But we, humans, need not sermonize about being taken by small bait!
Baker's Bay is not without its little history; albeit, it is nothing romantic. In 1850, a company conceived the plan of building up a city, under shelter of the cape, and expended a hundred thousand dollars, more or less, before they became aware of the fruitlessness of their undertaking. ”

“ Anyone who went upon the Bay at all was likely to land at the Beach. Once there, it was a natural impulse to go across and walk along the ocean side; for, at that time, early in 16 the thirties, it was widely believed that the sea had wealth, and often threw it up upon the shore. Never, however, was it in the least surmised by the Captain’s neighbors that these solitary excursions had woven themselves in as a part of the texture of his life. ”

“ If we pursue the coast, and, turning round the western extremity of our island, trace its outline as it proceeds northerly, and then easterly to the Bay of St. Ives, a very different country presents itself; instead of the undulating curves, and luxuriant herbage of the southern shores, the land is generally high,—the vallies short, narrow, and quick of descent, and the whole landscape affords a scene of incomparable cheerlessness ”

“ The other place is a good situation for a town, having a considerable flat space at the mouth of a river navigable for small vessels for a short distance; and being on the land side of the bay, is a more fit emporium for the produce of the country, as well as more convenient for merchandise. I do not by any means consider the bay the place where a settlement should be formed, as the whole of the northern part of the island is a mere neck of land, in comparison with that to the southward of the Thames; and nearly the whole of it, if not owned, is at least claimed by Europeans ”

“ There are villages of Kasa-an Indians in the smaller inlets and coves opening from the bay, and carved totem poles stand guard over the large square houses of these native settlements. The bay itself is as lovely a stretch of water as can be imagined, sheltered, sunny, and calm, with noble mountains outlining its curves, and wooded islands drifted in picturesque groups at the end. ”

“ Trĕnggânu river falls into the sea, a sandy headland juts out, forming a little bay, to which three conical rocky hills make a background, relieving the general flatness of the coast. In this bay, and picturesquely grouped about the foot of these hills, the thatched houses of the capital, and the cool green fruit groves cluster closely. Innumerable fishing crafts lie at anchor, or are beached along the shore; gaily-dressed natives pass hither and thither, engrossed in their work or play ”

“ Wood abounds every where, except at Green Head, which is mostly covered with grass. Of the four islands in the bay, Smooth and Gull Islands were found superior in fertility to the main land: the first contains about forty acres of tolerable pasturage.
In North Bay, the upper part seemed to be circumscribed by a sandy beach, and to offer nothing of particular interest; we therefore steered downward, on Dec. 20, for the Derwent River; but rainy squalls coming on from the south, ran for a small beach on the western shore, and anchored off it in 21⁄2 fathoms. ”

“ Ha Ha Bay, where the exploring Frenchmen found such relief for their oppressed feelings, is a long strait thrust through the mountains southwest from the Saguenay for several miles, broadening at the head into an oval bay, practically a basin among the crags, with two or three French villages around it, named after various saints. The modest one-story huts of the habitans fringe the lower slopes near the water's edge along the valleys of several small streams, each cluster having its church with the tall spire. ”

“ Some several days beforehand, Indian canoes were seen floating and gliding along on the placid bosom of Fox River, part of them coming down the current from the south and west, and part coming up from the 217 shores of the Bay, towards the place of rendezvous, near Fort Howard, on the north bank and some four or five miles from the mouth of the river, in the heart of what is called the settlement of Green Bay:—all filled with men, women, and children, and with tackle, not for war, but to build lodges. ”