Port Moresby

“ From Wedau, the Merrie England went on to Samarai, and thence to Port Moresby.
Upon our arrival at Port Moresby, I accompanied the Governor to Government House, there to await an appointment; in the meantime I assisted Barton in engaging native servants, and also in other things which were strange to a new-comer. There was at that time a European market gardener, named Weaver, living alone some miles out of Port Moresby (he was, by the way, afterwards murdered) . He was remarkable for two things: the moroseness of his temper, and the size of his feet. ”

“ Hanuabada and Elevera are the names of the two native settlements near Port Moresby. At certain tides Elevera is an island, at other tides it is a peninsula, but at all tides and all times it teems with interest. Quaint huts built on long poles line the shore and look like nothing one has ever seen before. When the tide is high the water washes right under them, swishing merrily against the stout poles, and if you want to inspect one at these times a canoe is necessary, but even then it is a hazardous job unless you are used to it. ”

“ Returning to Port Moresby, and having some time to spare, I and my son went down the coast 75 miles to the south-east, partly on foot, partly by boat, by way of Tupeselae, Kappa-kappa, Kalo, and Kerapuna, as far as Hood’s Bay, a journey rather of observation than of exploration, for the region is within the sphere of missionary enterprise, and cannot be regarded as altogether unknown, although the geographer has not 26yet by any means had his last word upon it. ”

“ We made the passage to Port Moresby in five days. As soon as we anchored in the bay three native crafts came off for our cargo, the agent who was in the first boat seemed half a savage himself, and had a most repulsive face. Captain Brown gave orders that no one was to leave the ship on any pretext whatever, except the German passengers, and they did not seem to like the job either, but that was what they had come out for. No natives were allowed to come on board. ”

“ Forbes and I remain at South Cape, and he with the "Blackall" proceed at once to Australia. He decidedly objected to go back until he had been to the Boundary or Mitre Rock. On the 22nd we steamed close in shore through Bentley Bay, Bartle Bay, Goodenough Bay to Rawden Bay, where we had anchored. The coast all along these bays looks poor indeed, much worse even than that about Port Moresby. In many places the mountains run steep to the sea, and in no place we saw could settlement be made. ”

“ These pieces are, of course, spent by the natives in the German stores. Not without reason did the Prince of Wales advise Great Britain to wake up.
With all these extraordinary opportunities, it is a curious fact that, as regards shipping, the island is in a worse position for trade than it was twenty years ago. Even as recently as 1902, the Moresby was calling every five weeks at Port Moresby, but now her route has been changed, and she sails from Sydney to Singapore, calling at Port Moresby only once every two and a half months. ”

“ The General stayed at his quarters at Port Moresby till the return of the "Governor Blackall" on the 15th, when he resumed command, and on the 19th proceeded to Milne Bay, passing on the 20th into hitherto unsurveyed waters at the head of the bay to a place called Maivara. From here to Bentley Bay, the most southerly portion of the N.E. coast, calling on the way at Killerton Islands, and as reports were rife of the Bentley Bay natives and their antagonism to white men, and feeling sure it was a mistake, we arranged a party to test it. ”

“ Our object was to open up communications with the natives and make the bay safe for bêche-de-mer fishermen. However, although we found some small lean-over huts, showing that the people are beginning to return, we saw no human beings, and had to content ourselves with sending peaceful messages through the Aroma people, to the effect that we should call again and hoped to see them. In the evening the "Blackall" left for Port Moresby, and I accompanied the General on board the "Diamond." ”

“ Outside the Barrier Reef there is always a swell, in which the small boats rolled heavily, and the passengers grumbled proportionately. On the return journey the prevailing strong winds heap up heavy seas, and are apt to drive a ship past the narrow opening in the Reef. Small boats of about 800 tons now run directly from Thursday Island to Port Moresby. But though we had all the inclination, we had no time to make this most interesting journey.
Our fellow-passenger had an interest in the Pearl-fishing Industry carried on in the neighbourhood of Thursday Island, by the “Island boys.” ”

“ Throughout the parts of New Guinea with which I am acquainted, the inhabitants are ingenious and industrious agriculturists, and carefully fence in their plantations. Their houses are large and well built. They make very fine fishing-nets. The canoes of Port Moresby are of enormous size, and the trees out of which they are dug are procured by barter from tribes living a long way off. The Port Moresby pottery is made in large quantities for export ”

“ The married women p. 40spoil their looks by keeping their heads shaved. They seem fond of their children: men and women nurse them. They were busy preparing their large canoes to visit Port Moresby, on the return of the Port Moresby canoes from the west with sago.
About three in the afternoon, an old woman made her appearance at the door of the mission house, bawling out, “Well, what liars these Hula people are; some of them were inland this morning, and the chief asked them if Misi Lao had come, and they said no.” ”

“ In April, 1819, Captain Moresby was appointed to the Menai 24, fitting for the Cape station, where, although a period of profound peace, he appears to have been very usefully employed. We are told, that he superintended the landing of the settlers at Algoa bay, in Southern Africa – incurred, with the utmost cheerfulness, the risks connected with that service; distributed the articles purchased for the emigrants; assisted them in erecting their tents; and, by his humane attentions to the women and children, diffused good humour and cheerfulness among all. ”

“ We read of buccaneers and filibusters; of Morgan, the last of the tribe, knighted and made Vice-Governor of Jamaica; of the doings of the redoubtable Kidd; of the bloodiness of Blackbeard; of the countless list of names, some high-sounding, which at last were painted in crimson splashes on the gallows slip at Port Royal headland. Port Royal itself deserves a niche in the temple of fame. The richest and the most vicious town the world ever knew; so it was before the clean ocean washed away its vice and corruption, and buried it deep in the pure water of the blue Caribbean. ”

“ The old captain who was to navigate the Snark back to Sydney seemed a queer old chap. As he read much and talked little, we got along all right. Soon I felt so good that I had to go round tantalising the seasick people. I knew most of the traders. I opened a fresh box of chocolates, and with exaggerated generosity passed them around. One fellow was so ungrateful as to throw a stick at me.
The Moresby was a regular old tub—not so large as the Makambo, that we had come down in. Built in 1879, she was condemned in 1905, as the underwriters declared the boilers were not safe ”

“ From Portsmouth Dockyard, too, went afloat the first paddle boat, the Hermes, and out of it from Henry VIII’s reign onwards have gone galleons, line-of-battle ships, ironclads innumerable, flying “the meteor flag of England,” to earn immortality and the crown of glory which attaches to brave deeds done and daring acts accomplished.
Amid the modern bustle and life of Portsmouth town there yet, happily, remain for those who care for such things some memorials of the glorious past. The old Sally Port is one of these places. ”

“ For many years there was a military post on the west shore of the bay, two and a half miles distant. The customs office, trade with the people at the fort and the scattered population along the shore of the Strait of Fuca, as well as of the more thickly inhabited Whidbey and Camano Islands, with some local lumbering and ship-building enterprises, kept the Port Townsend people fairly prosperous during the period from 1852 to 1888, and not only that, in an oyster-like content, but with a wide-awake, intelligent, courteous, and modish spirit. ”

“ The population of Gosport, which lies to the westward of Portsmouth, on the opposite side of the harbour, is, with that of the adjacent hamlet of Stoke, about 12,000. The docks and naval storehouses are within the precinct of Portsea; the hospital and the victualling establishment are at Gosport; and the offices of the Port Admiral and the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor are at Portsmouth, within the lines of which are also the barracks for the accommodation of the garrison. ”

“ Leaving Western Port, we enter the now world-famous Port Phillip, an inland sea, which receives the ships whose cargoes or passengers are destined for the towns of Melbourne and Geelong.
The entrance to Port Phillip Bay is little more than one mile and a half across. On the one hand Point Nepean, a low sandy promontory, like a rabbit-warren without rabbits, at the base of the cape: beyond rises for a thousand feet Arthur's Seat, a woody range of hills, precipitous towards the sea, with barely room for a road between its foot and the flood-tide. ”

“ Next morning we left, but, owing to light winds, we did not anchor in Hoop-Iron Bay, off Moresby Island, till the morning of the 22nd. The anchorage here is in an open roadstead. It is a very fine island—the vegetation from the water’s edge right up to the mountain tops. Plantations are to be seen all round. The people live in small detached companies, and are not so pleasant and friendly-looking a people as are the Teste islanders. This is the great Basilaki, and the natives are apparently the deadly foes of all the islanders round. ”

“ Moresby's experiences help to show the difficulties that the Spaniards had to deal with, and also that Torres must have been compelled to leave his two ships at anchor somewhere to the south of the Baya de San Milian; San Francisco Bay, for instance; and use the only rowing boat he had for his excursions.
In this he explored the bay formed by the horse-shoe-shape of Basilisk Island, named it the Baya de San Milian (modern Jenkins Bay) , and penetrated to the largest bay to be found among all the islands he had discovered in this region--that is Milne Bay. ”

“ Moreton Bay, with its navigable river; and, concluding that Van Diemen's Land was part of the Island of Australia, and the dividing straits a deep bay, lost the opportunity of investigating the great bay of Port Phillip, on the shores of which the most flourishing colony in the British dominions is now rising. In God's good providence the discovery was reserved for a fitting time. ”

“ The vessels generally lie at Hobson’s Bay, distant by land four or five miles, by water ten or twelve. There is a bar at the entrance of the river which prevents large ships from coming up close to Melbourne. The town appears to be rapidly increasing; the commerce of Port Phillip is yearly extending; its central position, the goodness of much of the surrounding soil, and the fact of its being less encumbered than is usually the case with wood, all these circumstances unite in rendering this outpost, as we may term it, of New South Wales, an important and interesting spot. ”

“ Although Portsmouth Harbour is so interesting and full of life, when the time comes to up anchor and make one’s way out into the Solent past the immortal Victory and the host of other craft which seem to be ever hanging in congested groups just outside or just inside the Point and Point Battery, one is generally ready. Portsmouth may be an exciting and interesting, but it cannot be called a restful, haven. ”

“ Above the beach with the lazily lapping waves, modern Port Royal straggles upon the low, sandy point, a sleepy, sun-drenched spot of no importance save as a barracks and quarantine station. It is hard to realize, as one strolls through the roughly paved lanes or across the broiling-hot parade-ground, that this was once the chief port in the West Indies, the richest city in the New World, and one whose name was synonymous with every deviltry and vice known to man. ”

“ Portsmouth is on the south-western part of the island, separated from Portsea by a small stream to the northward, both being united in a formidable fortress whose works would require thirteen thousand men to man, though the ordinary garrison is about twenty-five hundred. The royal dockyard, covering one hundred and twenty acres, is at Portsea, and at Gosport, [Pg 511] opposite, are the storehouses, the channel between them, which extends for several miles between Portsea Island and the mainland, gradually widening until it attains three miles' breadth at its northern extremity. ”

“ 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. ”