Melons And Pumpkins Sprang Up Immediately, And Maize Was
"Upon Ground" On The Fourth Day After It Was Sown.
The native forests
were almost inexhaustible, producing most, if not all, the tropical
fruits and shrubs of the Eastern Islands, chief among them a sort of
cotton tree, a species of "lignum vitae," and the bastard nutmeg.
While Captain Bremer explored the country, the work at the settlement was
carried out without loss of time. On the 8th of October a pier, for the
purpose of landing provisions and guns, was begun, next a Commissariat
store; and by the 20th the pier, bastion, and sea face of the fort were
completed. Captain Bremer writes, "I had the satisfaction of hoisting His
Majesty's colours under a royal salute from the guns mounted on Fort
Dundas, which I named in honour of the noble Lord and the Head of the
Admiralty."
CHAPTER 14.
THE LOSS OF THE LADY NELSON.
On November 10th Captain Bremer, having carried out his duties in
accordance with the instructions that he had received from the Admiralty,
took leave of the settlement. He handed over its charge to Captain
Maurice Barlow. The Tamar then dropped into the stream, being saluted by
15 guns, which she returned. Two days afterwards she left Port Cockburn
for India in company with the Countess of Harcourt, bound for Mauritius
and England.
The Lady Nelson remained behind at Port Cockburn, partly to act as a
guardship and partly to bring to the settlement the needed stores and
supplies from the islands to the northwards. These islands, as well as
Coepang, afforded fresh meat in the form of buffalo beef, and it proved
an inestimable boon to many ships which traded in these waters. Fresh
provisions being scarce at the settlement* (* See Major Campbell's
report.) Captain Barlow sent the Lady Nelson for a cargo of buffaloes. In
February 1825, the little ship set forth on her mission, from which she
was doomed never to return. As she left Port Cockburn her Commander was
warned to avoid an island called Baba, one of the Serwatti Islands, which
was infested with pirates who were very daring and very cruel. It is
supposed that the warning was unheeded, for there the little vessel met
her end.
The schooner Stedcombe, Captain Burns (or Barnes), from England, arrived
at Melville Island when anxiety was being felt there regarding the Lady
Nelson's fate. After her stores were landed, as scurvy was increasing
among the colonists, Captain Barlow chartered the vessel on behalf of the
Government and despatched her to Timor for buffaloes: she was also
instructed to search for the missing Lady Nelson. Her captain remained at
the settlement, and the chief mate took charge of the schooner. The
Stedcombe never returned, and later it was learned that she too had been
captured by pirates, off Timor Laut, about sixty miles eastward of Baba,
where the Lady Nelson had been taken.
The Serwatti Islands form a chain which stretches from the east end of
Timor as far as Baba. When Lieutenant Kolff of the Dutch Navy visited
Baba in July 1825 the inhabitants were shy and deserted the village of
Tepa on his landing. He was convinced that a crime had been committed,
and learned that "some months previously an English brig manned by about
a dozen Europeans had anchored off Alata on the south-east coast and had
engaged in barter with the natives who were on board in great numbers,
and who taking the opportunity of 5 men being on shore...attacked and
killed the people on the brig as well as those in the boat when they
returned." Earl, who translated Kolff's journal, says that "the natives
received not the slightest reproof from Lieutenant Kolff for this
outrage."
Fourteen years afterwards, when Captain Gordon Bremer was acting as
commandant at Port Essington,* (* Melville Island was abandoned in 1829
for Port Essington.) Captain Thomas Watson arrived there in the schooner
Essington, bearing the news that Mr. Volshawn, master of a small trading
vessel flying the Dutch flag, had seen an English sailor on the island of
Timor Laut when he visited it in February of the previous year.* (*
Captain Watson's journal is preserved at the Admiralty.) The Englishman
was kept captive at a native village on the south-eastern side of the
island, and stated that he had belonged to the Stedcombe. Mr. Volshawn
also declared that he had seen there articles which had been taken from
the Stedcombe.
Captain Watson decided to try and rescue his countryman, and on March
31st, 1839, when off Timor Laut he stood in for the island. The plan he
proposed to adopt in order to carry out the rescue was to entice a chief
or Orang Kaire on board and hold him as a hostage until the English
sailor was produced. As his ship came in shore three canoes under Dutch
colours put out to meet him with twelve to thirteen men in each. In
answer to Captain Watson's inquiries whether there was a white man on the
island some of the natives replied, "Certo; Engrise; Louron," which was
translated as meaning that there was an Englishman at Louron.* (*
Lourang.) Other canoes came alongside the Essington, whose crew had been
put under arms, and an Orang Kaire was allowed to come on board. Captain
Watson writes: "Now was the time for carrying my plans into effect...and
I told the Orang Kaire if he would bring him (the captive) to me I would
give him a quantity of trade which was shown him." To this the chief
agreed. But as no great faith was placed in his assertion, Watson then
told him that he must send his canoes and fetch the Englishman, when he
would receive his reward, but if they did not bring his prisoner he would
be hung from the yard-arm, and that "we should fire our great guns on the
village." The ship was now surrounded by canoes and no one was allowed to
come on board excepting a very friendly chief.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 83 of 87
Words from 83618 to 84631
of 88304
