JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.
CHAPTER I.
LEAVE PORT ESSINGTON—CLARENCE STRAIT—HOPE INLET—SHOAL BAY—LAND FOR OBSERVATIONS—EXPLORE A NEW OPENING—TALC HEAD—PORT DARWIN—CONTINUE EXPLORATION—MOSQUITOES AND SANDFLIES—NATURE OF THE COUNTRY—ITS PARCHED APPEARANCE—LARGE ANT'S NEST—RETURN TO SHOAL BAY—VISIT FROM THE NATIVES—REMARKS—THEIR TEETH PERFECT—RITE OF CIRCUMCISION—OBSERVATIONS ON THE MIGRATIONS OF THE NATIVES—THEORY OF AN INLAND SEA—CENTRAL DESERT—SALT WATER DRUNK BY NATIVES—MODES OF PROCURING WATER—SURVEY THE HARBOUR—NATIVES ON A RAFT—ANECDOTE—BYNOE HARBOUR—WELL—BRILLIANT METEORS—NATIVES ON POINT EMERY—THEIR SURPRISE AT THE WELL—IMPORTANCE OF WATER—ANECDOTE—LANGUAGES OF AUSTRALIA—SPECIMENS—REMARKS—LEAVE PORT DARWIN—TIDES—SQUALL—VISIT PORT PATTERSON—LEAVE—EXAMINE OPENING TO THE SOUTH-WEST—TABLE HILL—M'ADAM RANGE—ADVENTURE WITH AN ALLIGATOR—EXPLORING PARTY—DISCOVERY OF THE VICTORIA—ASCEND THE RIVER—APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY—FITZMAURICE RIVER—INDIAN HILL—THE BEAGLE TAKEN UP THE RIVER
Early on the morning of the 4th of September, 1839, the Beagle was once more slipping out of Port Essington before a light land wind. We had taken a hearty farewell of our friends at Victoria, in whose prosperity we felt all the interest that is due to those who pioneer the way for others in the formation of a new settlement. No doubt the hope that our discoveries might open a new field for British enterprise, and contribute to extend still more widely the blessings of civilization, increased the sympathy we felt for the young colony at Victoria. There is always a feeling of pride and pleasure engendered by the thought that we are in any way instrumental to the extension of man's influence over the world which has been given him to subdue. In the present instance, the success of our last cruise and the state of preparation in which we were now in for a longer one, caused us to take our departure from Port Essington in far higher spirits than on the former occasion.
We again shaped our course for Clarence Strait, the western entrance of which was still unexamined. The wind, however, being light, we passed the night in Popham Bay; and on leaving next morning, had only six fathoms in some tide ripplings nearly two miles off its south point, Cape Don. We passed along the south side of Melville Island, where a large fire was still burning. Early in the evening we anchored in seven fathoms, to wait for a boat that had been sent to examine a shoal bay on the N.W. side of Cape Keith. Green Ant Cliffs bore S.W. two miles.
September 7.—Weighing at daylight we hauled up south, into the middle of the channel, crossing a ridge of 5½ fathoms; Ant Cliffs bearing W.S.W. five miles, and three or four from the shore. This ridge appears to be thrown up at the extremity of the flats fronting the shore. On deepening the water to 10 and 12 fathoms, the course was changed to W. ½ S., passing midway between N. Vernon Isle and Cape Gambier, where the width of the channel is seven miles, though the whole of it is not available for the purposes of navigation, a long detached reef lying three miles from the Cape, and a small one two miles from the N. Vernon Isle.* The tide hurried the Beagle past between these reefs with some rapidity, the soundings at the time being 19 fathoms.
Having cleared Clarence Strait, and found it to be perfectly navigable with common precaution (which in a slight degree enhanced the value of the discovery of the Adelaide) our course was directed for a bay to the southward, which Captain King had not examined. A very refreshing cool north-westerly seabreeze† had just succeeded a short calm. Passing four miles from the western extremity of the Vernon Isles, we had irregular soundings of ten and seven fathoms. The ripplings and discoloured water are a warning that they should be approached with caution on this side.
* These isles, three in number, lying quite in the centre of the western entrance of the Strait, are fringed with extensive coral reefs. There are, however, deep passages between them. † The seabreeze prevailing from the westward through Clarence Strait, the passage to Port Essington from the westward, during the easterly monsoon, might be more easily made by passing through it, instead of working along the north side of Melville Island.
The mouth of a considerable inlet came in sight at the head of a bay as we advanced towards it, steering S. by E. This opening began to appear of consequence as we drew near, although the singularly gradual decrease in the soundings, on a sandy bottom materially diminished the probability of its being the mouth of a river. Still, when we anchored as near as we could approach, there remained a hope of its being so.