ROPER CONVALESCENT - WEAR AND TEAR OF
CLOTHES - SUCCEED IN DRESSING THE SEEDS OF STERCULIA - THE
MACARTHUR - FRIENDLY PARLEY WITH CIRCUMCISED NATIVES - STORE OF TEA
EXHAUSTED - MEDICAL PROPERTY OF THE GREVILLEA DISCOVERED.
Sept. 2.
- We travelled N.W. by W. and came, after passing some of the
usual tea-tree scrub, to an undulating country, with scattered shrubs of
the salt water tea-tree, which grew particularly on the sandy heads of
salt water creeks. Salicornia was another sure indication of salt water;
and, after about seven or eight miles, our course was intercepted by a
broad salt-water creek. Its bed, however, was sandy, and the water
shallow, which enabled us to cross it a little higher up, without
difficulty. We turned again to the N.W. by W., steering for one of the
numerous smokes of the natives' fires which were visible in every
direction. We soon came, however, to broad sands with deep impressions of
the tracks of emus, wallabies, and natives; and to sandy depressions
sloping towards narrow salt-water creeks densely fringed with Mangroves.
A large river was no doubt before us. To get out of this difficult
meshwork of salt-waters, I turned to the south-west, and continued in
this direction until the sands, Mangrove creeks, and Salicornias,
disappeared, and we were again fairly in the scrubs, which however we
found more open, and frequently interspersed with bloodwood and Pandanus.
I sent Charley and Brown in different directions to look for water, and a
small pool with brackish ferruginous nasty water was found, which made a
very miserable tea, and affected our bowels. In the Mangrove creeks we
found Telescopium, Pleurotoma; and heaps of oyster-shells, for the first
time on our journey. Arcas were frequent, but no Cythereas. The mussels
(Unios) of the slightly brackish water were small, but plentiful.
It was on this stage that we first met with a leafless species of
Bossiaea, from three to five feet high, with compressed stem, and
branches of the habit of Bossiaea scolopendrium, with yellow blossoms,
and smooth many-seeded pods little more than an inch long. This shrub was
one of the principal components of all the scrubs we passed from this
place to Limmen Bight, and was also found, though less frequently,
towards the centre of Arnheim's Land.
The day was exceedingly hot, though cloudy; the wind from the east: the
night cool, without wind.
When Brown and Charley rejoined us, the former appeared so much alarmed
and agitated, that I thought they had met some natives, and had received
some injury, although they said they had not. My imagination was working
on the possibility of an attack of the natives, and I consequently laid
myself down without taking my boots and trowsers off, to be ready at a
moment's notice, and rose several times in the course of the night to see
that the watches were strictly kept. In the morning watch, John Murphy
roused me by saying that he saw a native: I felt certain now that an
attack was about to be made upon us. I, therefore, immediately gave the
alarm, and every one had his gun ready, when it was discovered that our
own Brown was the man whom John had mistaken for a strange native. He had
left his couch without being observed, and, when he returned, it was too
dark to recognize him; he was, however, very near losing his life, or at
least being shot at, for his wild yells "tis me! tis me!" which he
uttered when he became aware of his dangerous position, were not
understood, but only increased our belief that they were the war-cry of
attacking natives.
The creek, on a water-hole of which we encamped in lat. 16 degrees 54
minutes 50 seconds, was doubtless one of the heads of the broad
salt-water creek we crossed, and which I called "Turner's Creek," after
Cowper Turner, Esq. of Sydney:
Sept. 3. - We travelled about nine miles west by north, through an open
tea-tree forest skirting the heads of those scrubby creeks which went
down to the salt water, the dark mangrove line of which we had seen
yesterday. But we crossed four good sized dry creeks, lined with drooping
tea-trees and white-gum trees. Their banks and flats were covered with
groves of Pandanus, whose stately crowns were adorned with red-fruited
cones: the seed-vessels contained in their stringy texture a rich mellow
pear-like substance, which however was hot, and made our lips and tongues
very sore. We encamped on some water-holes, with excellent water, in a
fifth creek, which lower down contained some fine reaches of brackish
water covered with wild geese (Anseranas melanoleuca, GOULD.) and black
ducks. As Charley was watching some geese, an emu walked up to him, which
he shot; he succeeded besides in getting two geese, which were in most
excellent condition, and weighed better than five pounds each.
A well beaten foot-path of the natives led up a broad salt-water creek,
to the northward of the creek on which we were encamped, and which joined
it lower down. Charley, when going after the horses, saw a camping place
of the natives with spears and the usual utensils: but the inhabitants
had either not yet returned from their hunting and fishing excursions, or
had left it, frightened by the frequent discharge of our guns.
Sept. 4. - We travelled about eleven miles west by north. The first three
miles and a half led us through scrub; we forded a salt-water creek about
thirty yards broad, and then, for the next four miles, proceeded through
a scrubby country, and came to a second salt-water creek as broad as the
first, but containing only pools of water. The scrub now opened, and the
last four miles lay through a fine box-flat, bounded by long hollows
surrounded with drooping tea-trees and the white water-gum, the bright
foliage of which formed a most agreeable contrast with the dull green of
the scrubs and the box-trees.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 99 of 139
Words from 99838 to 100857
of 141354
