The various traders we met with, during this, as well as on our former visit to the islands, all agreed in warning us against the inhabitants of Timor Laut and Baba, as people not at all to be trusted. It is much to be hoped that if Port Essington should ever become a place of much trade, that these people will be more civilized, as from the easy communication, in either monsoon, Timor Laut will be much frequented by the settlers at Port Essington, in order to procure the tropical productions abounding there, which they would not find on the Australian coasts. The Arrou islands, for the same reason, will hold out great inducements to traders, as the timber found there is infinitely superior, for most purposes, to any found on the Cobourg peninsula.
RETURN TO PORT ESSINGTON.
As our provisions were running short, and the time had arrived when we were expected to return to the settlement, I had not time to stop to examine several places I wished to see, particularly the southern part of the island of Timor Laut, where from information we received at Banda, a very large and secure harbour is said to exist, available in both monsoons. The island of Serra was another point, as it is stated to be a very good place for obtaining supplies.
In crossing over to Australia we saw Timor Laut, off which we experienced a very fresh South-East breeze and a heavy sea, which continuing to prevail with a strong current setting to leeward, we were in consequence eight days reaching Port Essington, where we found that all had gone on well during our absence.
CHAPTER 2.11. PORT ESSINGTON AND THE NORTH-WEST COAST.
Appearance of Settlement.
Effects of climate.
Native mother.
Trade in teeth.
Macassar Proas.
Lieutenant Vallack visits the Alligator Rivers.
Interview with Natives.
Prospects of Port Essington.
Lieutenant Stewart's Route.
Climate.
Remarks of Mr. Bynoe.
Harbour of refuge.
Sail from Port Essington.
Sahul Shoal.
Arrive at Coepang.
Timorees.
Sail for North-west Coast.
Strong winds.
Cape Bossut.
Exploration of North-west Coast.
View of Interior.
Birds.
Solitary Island.
Visit the Shore.
Amphinome Shoals.
Bedout Island.
Breaker Inlet.
Exmouth Gulf.
Arrive at Swan River.
PORT ESSINGTON.
The period of our arrival at Port Essington had been looked forward to by all with deep interest, and, I may say, some anxiety. Two years had elapsed since our last visit, and various and contradictory were the reports in circulation respecting the welfare of the settlement. We were accordingly truly rejoiced to find it in a state of prosperity that will ever reflect the highest credit on the hardy few who have laboured so earnestly for its welfare. It was an emblem of the rapidity with which, in young countries, it is possible to recover from any disaster, that the trees which had been uprooted, shattered, and riven in fragments by the hurricane of 1839, were for the most part concealed by the fresh foliage of the year; there was scarcely anything left to commemorate that dreadful visitation, but the tombs of twelve brave fellows, of the Pelorus, who lost their lives at the time.
There was a care-worn, jaundiced appearance about the settlers, that plainly revealed how little suited was the climate for Europeans to labour in; and yet there had been, I was told, no positive sickness. The hospital, however, had been enlarged, and rendered a very substantial building. Captain Macarthur had built a strong and well-contrived blockhouse, of the excellent kind of wood, a species of teak, before alluded to. A new garden also had been laid out, in which the banana and pine, besides many other tropical fruits, were flourishing. The arrow-root and sugar-cane grown here are allowed by those who have seen these plants in the West Indies not to be surpassed in excellence; and the cotton from Pernambuco, and Bourbon seed, has been valued in England at sixpence-halfpenny a pound. The colonists were beginning to understand the seasons; they had taken out of the ground sweet potatoes nearly sufficient to last them until the next crop. This was the first time they had been tried. I have never seen any in South America half the size. In short, I may say that the settlement was fast approaching the state in which was that at Raffles Bay when it was abandoned.