February 24.
The morning broke, dark, gloomy, and threatening; but, as the day advanced, it gradually assumed its usual bright and brilliant character; and at seven A.M. we started, Mr. Helpman having the whaleboat, while Mr. Tarrant accompanied me in the yawl. We crossed Disaster Bay in four and five fathoms, steering in the direction of Valentine Island, and inside a long sandy spit, partly dry at low-water, and extending two-thirds of the way across.
FRESHWATER LAKE.
While waiting for the tide to rise, in order to cross this natural breakwater, we landed, and struggled for a good mile through a mixture of deep mud and sand, drifted, at the coastline, into hills of from twenty-five to thirty feet high, and bound together by a long coarse grass; immediately beyond which we came upon a small lake of fresh water, where all the luxuriant growth of tropical vegetation was starting into life, and presenting an almost miraculous contrast to the barren sterility, that stamped an aspect of changeless desolation upon the rest of this inhospitable shore. Indeed, so far as our experience extended, upon the coasts, and within the interior of this in many respects extraordinary continent, the want of water appears to be the chief drawback to the fertility otherwise to be anticipated from its geographical position: at the same time, it is quite impossible to blind oneself to the fact, that further researches on the one hand, and the application of the great discoveries in hydraulics, of which recent years have been so fruitful, on the other, may, and probably will, spread the vernal bloom of cultivation over wastes, now condemned to prolonged and arbitrary periods of drought.
This spot, which long arrested my attention, and upon which I gazed with the selfish feeling of delight inspired by the thought that thereon never before had rested the curious eye of any restless and indefatigable wanderer from the west, is distant about 500 yards North-North-West, from a solitary patch of low red cliffs, the first of this formation that present themselves south of Foul Point.
VALENTINE ISLAND.
Extensive flats fronting the coast to the southward, almost connect it at low-water with Valentine Island, which we reached at two P.M., just on the top of high-water, and shortly afterwards grounded the boats in a small bay to the westward. The greatest extent of Valentine Island is three-quarters of a mile in an East by South direction: either extremity is formed by high cliffs, a low valley intervening.
NATIVE FIRE AND FOOD.
On landing we found a fire still burning, near the beach, and beside it a bundle of the bark of the papyrus tree, in which were carefully packed a quantity of ground nuts, they were each about three-quarters of an inch long, and in shape not unlike a kidney potato;* it seemed clear, judging from the native value of the commodities thus rashly abandoned, that our arrival had rather taken by surprise these untutored children of the wilderness: we saw nothing of them till we had reembarked, when (four or five only in number) they returned to the beach; and we could perceive that our foot tracks, upon which they appeared to hold an animated debate, had, to say the least, mightily puzzled them. I ascended the highest point of the island in the afternoon, and from thence looked over several miles of densely wooded country, but offering no appearance of land to the eastward of South-South-East. We gazed with indescribable delight upon the wide expanse of open water which lay before us in that direction, and already anticipated the discovery of some vast inlet, terminating in the mouth of a magnificent river, upon the exploration of which our imagination was already busily engaged; nor for the moment did the thought, or rather the recollection of the fact, that Captain King had seen land (by refraction) in that quarter, serve to damp our ardour. When it made its way, and perseveringly insisted upon engaging a certain share of my attention, its presence only added an additional motive to my previous determination to set the question at rest by personal examination, and in the interim, to look immediately before sunrise (when the atmosphere within the tropics is always clear) for the very sight I should have been most disappointed to have beheld. During the afternoon I shot over the island, and enjoyed some very fair sport; especially with the pheasant-cuckoo,** and quail, large and small, which were numerous: several birds not unlike the so-called crow of the Swan River colonists were seen. We found no fresh water, but in addition to the abundance of game, the presence of the natives, proves the island to be not wholly destitute of this first requisite of life. The thermometer at 3 P.M., was 100 degrees in the shade, while the unnatural calm that reigned around gave the experienced seaman plain warning of some disturbance at hand.
(*Footnote. This esculent appeared to resemble the warran, or yam, used for food by the native inhabitants north of Swan River.)