- From the southern point of entrance into this lake the
following bearings were taken.
The highest part of the South Brother,
north 6. E.; ditto North Brother, north 18. E.; Cape Hawke, south 3. E.
We set forward at our usual hour. At a mile along the beach we found the
wreck of a small vessel, which was recognised to be the Jane, of Sydney,
belonging to Mills, before mentioned as the owner of the boat in our
possession. It being low water when we arrived at the lagoon seen
yesterday, we crossed it at the mouth, without unlading the horses. We
proceeded along the beach for six or seven miles farther, when we turned
off to the westward to cut off a point of land, and entered an excellent
rising forest country, with rich thick brushes, bordering the coast line.
We travelled in the whole about nine miles and a half, and halted about
three quarters of a mile from the beach, from a point of which (one mile
south-south-east of us), we saw Cape Hawke bearing east 73. S., distant
six or eight miles; and at the extremity of a long curving sandy beach,
about six miles west of the same point, there was an opening which, from
the appearance of the country, we thought might probably form a lake.
October 26. - Two miles and a half farther travelling brought us again on
the beach, along which we went for near seven miles more, when the
opening or lake seen from the point yesterday obliged us to make use of
our boat. On the opposite side to us we saw the wreck of the brig
Governor Hunter, now nearly covered with sand, at high water the
tide washing over her. We had got the horses and great part of the
luggage safely over, and I was on the point of setting out to look
for a place to turn the horses on (the immediate margin of the bay
being a swampy brush); when an alarm was given, that the natives
had speared one of the people. Previous to crossing, we had seen them in
great numbers on the side opposite to us, probably to the amount of
seventy of all ages; but on seeing us launch our boat, they got into
canoes and went two or three miles farther up the lake, still keeping on
the south side. On the north side we did not see any natives, and
although on both sides of the lake we were prepared for them, had they
shown themselves in numbers on the beach, yet all were not on their guard
against individual treachery. One of the men, William Blake, had entered
the brushes about a hundred yards from the rest of the people on the
north side, with the design of cutting a cabbage palm: he had cut one
about half through, when he received a spear through his back, the point
of it sticking against his breast bone. On turning his head round to see
from whence he was attacked, he received another, which passed several
inches through the lower part of his body: he let fall the axe with which
he was cutting, and which was instantly seized by a native, the only one
he saw; and it was probably the temptation of the axe that was the
principal incitement to the attack. Blake was immediately put into
the boat and sent over to the south side, where the doctor was,
who fortunately succeeded in extracting both the spears; but from
the nature of the wounds, his chance of recovery was considered
very doubtful. It was so late before every thing was got over,
that we were obliged to remain on the spot close to the wreck of
the Governor Hunter. The natives before dark had assembled in great
numbers, and we could count twelve or fourteen fires from their
camps. United as we were, we had little to fear from their attacks,
particularly in the night; and we remained so short a time at any place,
that we did not give them time to make any concerted attack. The country
west and south-west of this lagoon is rising forest land of pleasant
appearance; but the shores are flat, with thick brushes and steep fresh
water swamps. The lagoon itself is at low water nothing but a sand shoal,
with narrow and shallow channels. The surf beats quite across the
entrance, and though at high water a small vessel might beat over the
bar, it would be a mere chance if she escaped being lost upon the
sand-rollers inside, the surf breaking with a flood tide and easterly
wind full half a mile within the outer bar. The tides run near four miles
per hour, and the rise is from five to eight feet. From the south side of
the entrance into the lake the highest part of the North Brother bore
north 15. E.; ditto of the South Brother, north 8. 10. E. The point of
land of the bay northerly, distant seven or eight miles north 8. 30. E.;
and a high bluff point or projection southerly, north 163. 30. E.
October 27. - We did not make much progress this day, being greatly
embarrassed by the thick brushes which border on the coast in the
vicinity of Cape Hawke, and fresh water swamps near the edge of the lake.
There was, however, a good deal of forest land, and the brushes grew in
good soil. We halted in the afternoon, having gone only four miles (Cape
Hawke bearing east distant two miles and a half), on a piece of forest
land surrounded by brush, through which, however, in the course of the
evening we cut a road to the beach, to the southward of Cape Hawke. From
a hill on that line we saw that the lake was much more extensive than it
was first supposed to be, reaching in a southerly direction to the base
of the forest hills, which run a north-west line from the next point of
south of Cape Hawke, and within a quarter of a mile of the beach.
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