To that made by the bells of a team of horses." The
laughing-bird (whose note can only be compared to the ha! ha! ha! of a
hearty laughing companion) was the first to salute the explorers in the
morning. The whistling duck, so called because of the whistling noise
made with its wings when flying, was shot here, and a grey parrot was
caught alive. Mr. Barrallier shot a rare cockatoo.* (* It was stuffed and
afterwards given to General Davies, R.A., by Governor King.) The wet
weather afterwards gave little chance of meeting with birds, and the
explorers made their way through the woods until they reached an
extensive level country. This plain extended out of their sight on the
one side and on the other was bounded by hills. Paths beaten down by
kangaroos crossed and recrossed it. The face of the country was almost
everywhere level and productive, free from swamp and secured from
inundation.
Grant thus describes the journey back to the ship: "We returned to the
river-side and ordered the boat to drop lower down a few miles through a
forest of stately timber trees. I had a few of them cut down and brought
on board...I brought Governor King specimens of light woods and a species
of sassafras discovered by my second mate...On our way down the river we
stopped at the place where we had passed the preceding night and found
our fire still burning. To this spot we gave the name of The Halfway
House, being halfway up the river."
The commander now revisited Churchill's Island: "I found my people had
cleared the spot I had laid out for a garden, and that there was nothing
wanting but to prepare the ground to receive such seeds as I should
choose to plant...It was no easy matter...for we had neither hoe nor
spade with us...however, we were in possession of a coal shovel which,
though it was thin and much worn, served the purpose.
"My men, who slept on the ground they had cleared...in a hut built for
the occasion, informed me that one of their comrades was awakened out of
his sleep by some animal that seemed to be gnawing his hair. He supposed
it to be the bandicoot rat. I sent on board for a dog which we had
brought with us from Sydney. This dog remained with the people on the
island, and, as they reported to me, was one night engaged with some
animal apparently of equal strength, for it brought him to the ground and
made him howl...The ground was now prepared and I sowed my several sorts
of seeds, wheat, Indian corn, and peas, some grains of rice and some
coffee berries; and I did not forget to plant potatoes. With the trunks
of the trees I felled I raised a block house of 24 feet by 12 which will
probably remain some years, the supporters being well fixed in the
earth."
Full of enthusiasm regarding his visit in general, Grant is more so about
Churchill's Island: "I scarcely know a place I should sooner call mine
than this little island." And he also tells how he planted the stones of
fruit trees round the hut which his men had built there. Of the traces of
iron seen, he adds: "We turned up a few stones and some interspersed with
veins of iron ore, indeed so rich in metal that they had a visible effect
on the needle of our compass; stones of a like kind are found about
Sydney." In the pages of his journal and also of his log he describes
very minutely the manner in which European seeds were first sown in the
soil of the British colony of Victoria. That they were successfully
planted we learn from a subsequent page in Murray's log when he, in
command of the Lady Nelson, visited the same spot.
To return to the narrative. "On the 12th* (* In the narrative, through a
printer's error, this date appears as 21st.) of April Mr. Bowen, while
seeking for water in the ship's launch, discovered near the mouth of the
freshwater river part of a canoe which had sunk near the mouth. He
brought it back to the ship together with two paddles and some fishing
line." The canoe differed greatly from those made by the natives of Port
Jackson, being framed out of timber, and instead of being tied together
at the ends "was left open, the space being afterwards filled with grass
worked up with strong clay."
At the termination of the voyage, it was handed over, along with the
other specimens collected, to Governor King.
The Lady Nelson now changed her berth and moored close by the opposite
shore, "in order to be near a small island lying in the opening of the
extensive arms described by Mr. Bass of which this port has two branching
out to the northward." Grant named this island Margaret Island in honour
of Mrs. Schanck who had given him several articles which proved useful on
board the Lady Nelson.
The tide ebbing very fast, the brig was soon in shoal water, but the
bottom being a soft mud and the weather calm there was no danger to be
apprehended, yet, says Grant: "As I am no friend to vessels being on the
ground by carrying out a hawser I soon hauled her off and brought yet her
nearer to Margaret's Island. We found this island to be in general flat,
but well covered with wood. Here we deposited some seeds but did not find
the soil equally rich with that of Churchill's Island." Having lost some
of their drinking water, the Commander writes:
