He Pointed To The W.N.W. As The
Direction In Which The Settlement Lay.
We travelled about five miles over
stony ironstone ridges, with extensive groves of Livistona palm covering
their slopes.
Here Baki Baki desired to dismount; and, telling us that it
was a very good road to Balanda, took his leave and returned. Soon after
we came to a large creek full of water, running to the eastward, which we
followed up for a long distance, before we were able to cross. Our
pack-horse became bogged, and as it was so weak that it would not even
make an effort to extricate itself, and as I supposed that we were near
the settlement, we took off its pack-saddle and load, and left it behind.
We crossed two or three more watercourses; and continued the course
pointed out by the native, until it became very late, and I found myself
compelled to look for water; particularly as our bullock showed evident
symptoms of becoming knocked up. I therefore followed the fall of the
country to the north-east; and, in a short time, came to the sea-side. We
compared our little map of the harbour of Port Essington with the
configuration of the bay before us, but nothing would agree exactly,
although it bore a general resemblance to Raffles Bay.
A narrow belt of brush covered the approaches to the water; but the
scarlet Eugenia grew on the sandy flats towards the hilly forest; where
we also found a new tree, a species of Anacardium, which the natives
called "Lugula;" it bore a red succulent fruit, formed by the enlargement
of the stalk, with a greyish one-seeded nut outside, like Exocarpus. The
fruit was extremely refreshing; the envelope, however, contained such an
acrid juice that it ate into and discoloured my skin, and raised blisters
wherever it touched it: these blisters were not only followed by a simple
excoriation, but by a deep and painful ulceration. In the forest, we met
with some few small Seaforthia palms, the young shoots of which we
obtained with great difficulty, not then knowing how easily the natives
strip them of the surrounding leaves and leafstalks. I followed a a well
beaten foot-path of the natives to the northward, crossed a creek, in the
mangrove swamp of which another horse was bogged, which we extricated
after great exertion; and, after two or three miles, came to a large
fresh-water swamp (Marair) on which we encamped. The sun had long set,
and our cattle, as well as ourselves, were miserably tired. We were here
visited by a tribe of natives, who were well acquainted with the
settlement; they were all friendly, and willing to assist us; and many of
them spoke very tolerable English. One of them, apparently the chief of
the tribe, though a hunchback, named "Bill White," promised to guide us
to the settlement. He gave us to understand that we had come too far to
the northward, and that we had to go to the south-west, in order to head
Port Essington, and to follow its west coast, in order to arrive at
Victoria. We were, in fact, at Raffles Bay. The natives knew every body
in Victoria, and did not cease to give us all the news; to which we most
willingly listened. They fetched water for us from a great distance, and
gave us some Murnatt, which was extremely welcome. Perceiving the state
of exhaustion and depression in which we were, they tried to cheer us
with their corrobori songs, which they accompanied on the Eboro, a long
tube of bamboo, by means of which they variously modulated their voices.
I may mention that we experienced a heavy thunder-storm during the
afternoon.
Dec. 17. - We started, with a willing guide, for the goal of our journey,
and travelled to the south-west over a hilly country, covered with groves
of the Livistona palm, which, as we proceeded became mixed with
Seaforthia (the real cabbage-palm). A fine large creek, containing a
chain of large water-holes went to the north-east, and disembogued
probably into Bremer's Bay. We followed it for three or four miles
towards its head; and, when crossing it, we had a very heavy
thunder-storm; at the earliest hour we had ever witnessed one. The
Seaforthia palm because very abundant, and at last the forest was formed
entirely of it, with trees of every size. Our guide showed us how we
could easily obtain the young shoots, by splitting the leaves and
leafstalks; and we enjoyed a fine meal of the cabbage. Our bullock
refused to go any farther, and, as I then knew that the settlement was
not very distant, I unloaded him, and covered his packsaddle and load
with tarpaulings, and left him to recruit for a few days; when I intended
to send for him. As we approached the harbour, the cabbage palm became
rarer, and entirely disappeared at the head of it. We crossed several
creeks running into the harbour, until we arrived at the Matunna, a dry
creek, at which the foot-path from Pitchenelumbo (Van Diomen's Gulf)
touched the harbour, and on which we should have come last night. We
followed it now, crossed the Warvi, the Wainunmema, and the Vollir - all
which enlarged into shallow lagoons or swamps, before they were lost
between the mangrove thickets. At the banks of the Vollir, some constant
springs exist, which induced Sir Gordon Bremer to choose that place for a
settlement, and on which Victoria at present stands. All these creeks
were separated from each other by a hilly forest land; but small fertile
flats of sandy alluvium, clothed with young grass, and bordered by
Banksias, extended along their banks. The forest was principally composed
of stringy-bark, the leguminous Ironbark, Melaleuca-gum, with underwood
of Acacias, Coniogeton, Pachynemas, Pultenaeas? and Careya? A tree very
much resembling the real Ironbark (Eucalyptus resinifera) was observed at
the Warvi; but I expect it will be found entirely different.
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