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:
