Pioneers in Australasia

by Harry Johnston

[CHAPTER VII]

New South Wales

On 31 March, 1770, the Endeavour sailed from Cape Farewell on the north coast of the South Island of New Zealand, and on 19 April sighted the coast of what Cook still knew as "New Holland", which was, of course, the south-eastern extremity of Australia near Cape Howe. Cook then sailed along the coast to the northward, seeing smoke in several places, by which he knew the country to be inhabited. A camel-like mountain was called Mount Dromedary, a peaked hill, which resembled a square dovehouse with a dome at the top, was called Pigeonhouse, names which seem to have disappeared from the map of Australia. An attempt to land near the place now called Sutherland[82] was defeated by the heavy surf which lashed the white cliffs, while the natives on the beach, whose presence had attracted them, ran away. They were therefore obliged to guess at the landscape from a distance, and even then they observed that although there were numerous trees there was no underwood.

At last a bay—the celebrated Botany Bay, as it was subsequently named—opened before the Endeavour. The astonished natives appeared again on the beach, gazing at the ship as she slowly made her way into sheltered waters. They were absolutely naked, but their faces were dusted over with a white powder, and their bodies were painted in stripes of the same colour, which, passing obliquely over their breasts and backs, appeared like the belts worn crosswise in those days by British soldiers. Similar streaks were drawn round their legs and thighs like broad garters. They were armed with long wooden pikes, and "a wooden weapon shaped somewhat like a scimitar". This was the celebrated boomerang, the curved or crooked flat piece of wood which was one of Man's earliest weapons. Hurled by a practised hand it will whirl through the air, and unless it strikes the object aimed at with its sharp, flat edge, it returns almost to the spot from which it has been thrown. The boomerang has been in use at one time or another from West Africa to east Australia, and was once used in ancient Egypt. Reproduced in metal it is the origin of the throwing-knife of North Central Africa.

On Saturday, 28 April, 1770, the Endeavour anchored in Botany Bay, abreast of a small village consisting of six or eight houses. As the sailors were preparing to hoist out the boat they saw an old man, followed by three children, come out of the forest carrying firewood, and each of the children had also its little burden. Other children came out to meet them, and all alike gazed at the ship without either fear or surprise. The women set to work to kindle a fire, and four canoes came in from fishing. The men landed, and, having hauled up their boats, began to dress their dinner, to all appearance wholly unconcerned about this wonderful arrival, though the Endeavour was anchored within half a mile of them. As soon, however, as Cook and his party landed, two men of the native Australians came down to dispute their landing, whilst the others ran away. Each of these men was armed with a wooden lance about 10 feet long, and a short stick. They called out to the white men in a very loud tone in a hard, dissonant language, which neither the Englishmen nor Tupia, their Polynesian interpreter, understood in the least. They brandished their weapons and seemed resolved to defend their coast to the uttermost, though they were but two and the white men forty in number. Unwilling to provoke hostilities, Cook ordered the boat to lie upon her oars, and commenced to parley by signs, and to bespeak the goodwill of these stark-naked savages, throwing them at the same time nails, beads, and other trifles, which they took up and seemed to be well pleased with.

These overtures were of no use, however. As soon as the boat neared the shore the men again opposed the landing. A musket, consequently, was fired in the air, and upon hearing the report the younger of the two men dropped a bundle of lances, then in an instant snatched them up again and threw a stone, upon which a musket was fired with small shot, which struck the elder man in the legs. He immediately ran to one of the houses, which was distant about 100 yards, but only to return with a shield for his defence. As soon as he came up he threw a wooden lance, and his comrade another. Fortunately none of the white men was struck. A third musket with small shot was then fired at them, another lance was thrown, and at last the Australians ran away sufficiently far into the woods to make it prudent for the white men to venture into the village. Amongst these huts they found the children, who had hidden themselves behind a shield and some bark. They were left in their retreat, but beads, ribbons, and pieces of cloth and other presents were thrown into the huts to secure the goodwill of the inhabitants. Some of the lances lying about were taken away. They were from 6 to 15 feet long, and all of them had four prongs, each of which was armed with fish bone, and very sharp. They were in reality a kind of fish harpoon. The canoes are described as having been the worst that Cook had ever seen, between 12 and 14 feet long, and simply made (as already described in Chapter II) out of the bark of a tree removed in a single piece, tied at each end, and the middle kept open by sticks used as thwarts from gunwale to gunwale.

Crossing over to the north side of the bay, fresh water was found trickling down from the top of the rocks. None of the presents left in the huts were taken, nor were the natives inclined to enter into friendly relations. The face of the country round about Botany Bay was finely diversified by woods and grassy lawns. The trees were tall and straight, and standing at such a distance from each other that the whole country (wrote Cook) might be cultivated without cutting down one of them. Between the trees the ground was covered with grass, of which there was great abundance, growing in tufts about as big as could be well grasped in the hand. They had a transient view of an animal about as big as a rabbit, and came upon traces of what was really a kangaru, together with the footsteps of a beast like a wolf (a dingo or native dog), and the tracks of a polecat or weasel (the small white-spotted native "cats" or dasyures). The branches over their heads abounded with birds of exquisite beauty, particularly parrakeets and cockatoos, which flew in flocks of several scores together. Many of the trees had been barked, and one or two had been felled by some blunt instrument. Those that were standing, especially such as yielded gum, had had steps cut into their trunks, about 3 feet distant from each other, so that the natives could climb them. Some of the trees bore fruit that in colour and shape resembled a cherry; the juice had an agreeable tartness, but little flavour. About the head of the bay they traversed natural lawns which seemed to Cook the finest meadows in the world.

On the beach there was an abundance of mussels and oysters, some of which latter had been already roasted by the natives, and were eaten by Cook and his party. Banks shot a number of quails resembling those of England. One of the midshipmen accompanying a party sent to get into touch with the natives (who did nothing but run away whenever they were approached) strayed from his companions and suddenly found himself in the presence of a very old man and woman and some little children. They showed no signs of fear, and did not attempt to run away. The midshipman gave them a parrot which he had just killed, but they refused to accept it. All these people seemed a dark chocolate brown in colour. Both men and women were grey-headed. The hair of the men was long and ragged, while the women's hair was cropped short.

On the north shore of the bay there were no trees, and the ground resembled an English moor, its surface being covered with a thin scrub of plants about as high as the knees.

On Sunday, 6 May, 1770, the Endeavour sailed out of Botany Bay (as the place had been named, on account the abundance of wild flowers), and as she passed northwards Cook noticed a harbour which seemed to promise great things, and named it Port Jackson. This was the celebrated harbour of Sydney, one of the most remarkable inlets of the sea for beauty, extent, and the variety and number of deep and sheltered anchorages, to be found anywhere in the world. As the Endeavour sailed northwards the land gradually increased in height, so that it became actually mountainous, with a pleasing variety of hills and plains all clothed with woods. Cook sighted the large islands off the pleasant town of Brisbane (the capital of Queensland), and named one of them Cape Moreton. The coast of Queensland (as long afterwards it came to be called) was less hilly than that of New South Wales. Rounding the great promontory of Sandy Cape, the Endeavour anchored in what was then and there called Bustard Bay, from the killing and eating of a fine large bustard as big as a turkey.[83] "We all agreed that this was the best bird we had eaten since we left England." The landing parties found innumerable oysters—some of them pearl-producing, others hammer-shaped—on the mud banks under the mangroves. Upon these mangroves also were swarms of small green caterpillars, the bodies of which were thick-set with hairs. "They were ranged upon the leaves side by side, like a file of soldiers, to the number of twenty or thirty: when we touched them we found that the hair of their bodies had the quality of a nettle, and gave us an acute though less durable pain." Among the shoals and sandbanks were many water birds, especially the large black-and-white pelicans, but the country inland was not so attractive as the region round Botany Bay, being dry and sandy, though the sides of the hills were covered sparsely with trees, most of them eucalypti, yielding a yellow gum. The natives seen in the distance from time to time were few in numbers, and seemed to lead an even more barbarous life than those of New South Wales, to be without houses as well as clothes, and to sleep in the open air. But they made use of fire, and even constructed rough drinking vessels out of bark, and made bark beds, and shelters against which they slept.