Peron Himself Experienced The Cross-Grained Temper Of The Commander
During The Visit Of The Ships To Sharks Bay.
This was the scene of
Dampier's descent upon the Western Australian coast in 1699, in the
rickety little Roebuck.
It was here that his men dined off sharks' flesh,
and "took care that no waste should be made of it, but thought it, as
things stood, good entertainment."* The bay received from Dampier, on
account of the feast, the name it has ever since borne. (* Dampier's men
were unprejudiced in matters of gastronomy, but their taste in fish was
not to their discredit. Shark's flesh, especially when young, is, there
is reason to believe, excellent eating. During some weeks in a recent
summer, when what we may term "orthodox" fish was scarce, a fashionable
Australian sea-side hotel was regularly supplied with young
shark - "gummy" - by a fisherman, for whose veracity the author can vouch.
Neither proprietor, chef, nor guests knew what it was, and all were well
fed and happy.)
Some of the French sailors who had been ashore returned in a wild state
of alarm on account of giants whom they professed to have seen - men of
extraordinary strength and stature, they reported, with long black
beards, armed with enormous spears and shields, who ran at a furious
pace, brandishing their weapons and giving utterance to fearful yells.
"However extravagant these assertions might appear," said the incredulous
naturalist, "it was necessary to collect precise information on the
subject." The scientific Ulysses regarded the reputed Cyclops with a
calculating scepticism.
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