But It Was With Difficulty They Could Keep Off The Attacks
Of The Indians.
These people continued to harras them so much that they
quitted the mainland and retreated to a small island in the harbour,
where they completed their design.
Between the latitude of 26 degrees and
27 degrees, they were driven by a current 30 leagues from the shore,
among some islands, where they found plenty of large turtles. Soon after
they closed again with the continent, when the boat got entangled in the surf
and was driven on shore, and they had all well nigh perished. They passed
rough the straits of Endeavour and, beyond the gulf of Carpentaria, found a
large freshwater river, which they entered, and filled from it their
empty casks.
Until they reached the gulf of Carpentaria, they saw no natives or canoes
differing from those about Port Jackson. But now they were chased by
large canoes, jitted with sails and fighting stages, and capable of holding
thirty men each. They escaped by dint of rowing to windward. On the
5th of June 1791 they reached Timor, and pretended that they had belonged
to a ship which, on her passage from Port Jackson to India, had foundered;
and that they only had escaped. The Dutch received them with kindness
and treated them with hospitality. But their behaviour giving rise
to suspicion, they were watched; and one of them at last, in a moment
of intoxication, betrayed the secret. They were immediately secured
and committed to prison.
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