the white ensign at our main warned us that the natives were in sight from the ship,* and, on turning our eyes to the shore, we beheld it thronged with savages: the rapidity of whose movements, as they shouted in apparent defiance, brandishing their spears, and whirling their arms round and round with windmill-like velocity, as though to threaten our advance, rendered it impossible to estimate their number with any confidence, but they were evidently in considerable force. However, we pulled to the shore, a measure against which the valiant Miago stoutly protested, and landed in a position not directly commanded by the natives. They made no attempt to prevent us, but anxious to avoid hostilities--in every event almost equally deplorable--we deferred any distant search for water; and having fixed on a spot for our temporary observatory, returned to the ship.
(*Footnote. This signal was always made when natives were seen from the ship, if any parties were away.)
January 27.
A strong party was sent on shore, early this morning, with the necessary tools for digging a well, should the search for water upon the surface prove abortive. It was at once found that this operation ought forthwith to be commenced, and accordingly a promising spot was selected in a valley not half a mile from the sea. The natives mustered again in force upon the heights, and seemed to watch our proceedings with the greatest interest: we saw nothing of them the following day, but on the third they seemed so much emboldened by our inoffensive proceedings, that they approached so near as to keep the party pretty much upon the alert.
FIRE A CONGREVE ROCKET.
It was, therefore, determined, lest familiarity should breed contempt, to give them a hint of our superiority without inflicting any injury upon their persons or property; and, accordingly, shortly after dark we fired a Congreve rocket from the ship, and in a direction immediately over their presumed position: this had the desired effect, and our well-digging operations, though ultimately unsuccessful, proceeded without further annoyance.
CONDUCT OF THE NATIVES.
Two or three days afterwards a small party came down upon the beach while we were hauling the seine; and tempted by the offer of some fish--for an Australian savage is easily won by him who comes with things that do show so fair as delicacies in the gastronomic department--they approached us, and were very friendly in their manner, though they cunningly contrived always to keep the upper or inland side of the beach. We made them some presents of beads, etc. from the stores supplied by the Admiralty for that purpose, but they received them with an indifference almost amounting to apathy. They very closely examined the heroic Miago, who submitted to be handled by these much-dreaded Northern men with a very rueful countenance, and afterwards construed the way in which one of them had gently stroked his beard, into an attempt to take him by the throat and strangle him! an injury and indignity which, when safe on board, he resented by repeated threats, uttered in a sort of wild chant, of spearing their thighs, backs, loins, and, indeed, each individual portion of the frame.
PLAGUE OF FLIES.
Their habit of keeping the eyes almost closed, and the head thrown back, in order to avoid the plague of flies, under which this country seems to suffer, adds to the unpleasant expression of their countenance, and quite justifies the correctness of Dampier's account: "Their eyelids are always half-closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes, they being so troublesome here, that no fanning will keep them from coming to one's face; and without the assistance of both hands to keep them off, they will creep into one's nostrils, and mouth too, if the lips are not shut very close; so that from their infancy, being thus annoyed with these insects, they do never open their eyes as do other people, and therefore they cannot see far unless they hold up their heads, as if they were looking at somewhat over them." We found constant occasion, when on shore, to complain of this fly nuisance; and when combined with their allies, the mosquitoes, no human endurance could, with any patience, submit to the trial. The flies are at you all day, crawling into your eyes, up your nostrils, and down your throat, with the most irresistible perseverance; and no sooner do they, from sheer exhaustion, or the loss of daylight, give up the attack, than they are relieved by the musquitos, who completely exhaust the patience which their predecessors have so severely tried. It may seem absurd to my readers to dwell upon such a subject; but those, who, like myself, have been half-blinded, and to boot, almost stung to death, will not wonder, that even at this distance of time and place, I recur with disgust to the recollection.
The natives, in all parts of the continent alike, seem to possess very primitive notions upon the subject of habitation; their most comfortable wigwams hardly deserve the name: not even in the neighbourhood of English settlements are they beginning in any degree to imitate our European notions of comfort. Among these northern people, the only approach to anything like protection from the skiey influences that I could discover, was a slight rudely thatched covering, placed on four upright poles, between three and four feet high.
NATIVE HABITATION.
Another, of a much superior description, which I visited on the western shore of King's Sound, will be found delineated in that part of my journal to which the narrative belongs.
WIND AND WEATHER.
February 10.
We remained at this anchorage until the 10th of February, in consequence of a continuance of bad weather; indeed, the rain during the three first days of that month was at times of the most monsoon-like character, while the wind, constantly blowing very fresh, kept veering from North-West to South-West. Every now and then, by way of agreeable variety, a heavy squall would take us from South-South-West, though more commonly from West-South-West. The only certainty that we could calculate upon, was, that at North-North-West the wind would remain when it got there, stationary for a few hours. The thunder and lightning, the former loud and with a long reverberating peal, and the latter of the most intensely vivid kind, were constantly roaring and flashing over our heads; and, with the stormy echoes which the rolling deep around woke on these unknown and inhospitable shores, completed a scene that I shall never cease to remember, as I never then beheld it without mingled emotions of apprehension and delight. The rain, however, certainly befriended us in more ways than one: it cooled the atmosphere, which would else have been insufferably hot, diminished for a time the number and virulence of our winged tormentors, and recruited our stock of fresh water; for, though ultimately we were not obliged to have recourse to it as a beverage, it did exceedingly well for washing purposes. We had also, during this time, one most successful haul with the seine, which amply supplied us with fresh fish for that and the two following days; the greater part were a kind of large mullet, the largest weighed six pounds five ounces, and measured twenty-five inches in length.
TIDAL PHENOMENON.
On the same day we remarked, owing to the North-West wind, a singular phenomenon in the tides here. From half-ebb to high-water the stream wholly ceased, and the water being heaped up in the bay by the force of the wind, fell only sixteen, instead of twenty-four feet.
Several sporting excursions were made during this period, but with comparatively little success. It is not a country naturally very abundant in game of any kind, except kangaroos, which are numerous, but so harassed by the natives as to be of course extremely shy of the approach of man.
SINGULAR KANGAROO.
However, Mr. Bynoe succeeded in shooting one which possessed the singular appendage of a nail, like that on a man's little finger, attached to the tail.
SINGULAR TAIL OF KANGAROO.
I regret that we had no subsequent opportunity to decide whether this was one of a new species of the Macropodidae family, or a mere lusus naturae. The dimensions and height of this singular animal were as follows:*
Length of body from tip of nose: 22 inches. Length of tail from stump to tip: 24½ inches. Weight: 13 pounds.
(*Footnote. This animal has been classed by Mr. Gould as Macropus unguifer, and is now deposited in the British Museum. One precisely similar was afterwards killed on the east coast of the gulf of Carpentaria.)