After passing through the strait we experienced so much bad weather and contrary gales of wind that we did not arrive at Port Jackson until the morning of the 12th, having been absent thirty-five weeks and four days.
The result of our proceedings during this voyage has been the survey of 540 miles of the northern coast, in addition to the 500 that were previously examined. Besides which we had made a running survey of that portion of the intertropical part of the east coast that is situated between the Percy Isles and Torres Strait; a distance of 900 miles; the detailed survey of which had never before been made, for Captain Cook merely examined it in a cursory manner as he passed up the coast. The opportunity, therefore, was not lost of making such observations on our voyage as enabled me to present to the public a route towards Torres Strait infinitely preferable on every account to the dangerous navigation without the reefs, which has hitherto been chiefly used.
As it was not intended that I should make the survey of this extensive tract of coast I did not feel myself authorized to examine in any very detailed way the bottom of every bay or opening that presented itself; but merely confined myself to laying down the vessel's track and the positions of various reefs that were strewed on either side of it; and also to fixing the situations of the head-lands. In doing this enough has been effected to serve as the precursor of a more particular examination of the coast, the appearance of which, from its general fertile and mountainous character, made me regret the necessity of passing so hastily over it.
CHAPTER 9.
Equipment for the third voyage.
Leave Port Jackson.
Loss of bowsprit, and return.
Observations upon the present state of the colony, as regarding the effect of floods upon the River Hawkesbury.
Re-equipment and final departure.
Visit Port Bowen.
Cutter thrown upon a sandbank.
Interview with the natives, and description of the country about Cape Clinton.
Leave Port Bowen.
Pass through the Northumberland, and round the Cumberland Islands.
Anchor at Endeavour River.
Summary of observations taken there.
Visit from the natives.
Vocabulary of their language.
Observations thereon in comparing it with Captain Cook's account.
Mr. Cunningham visits Mount Cook.
Leave Endeavour River, and visit Lizard Island.
Cape Flinders and Pelican Island.
Entangled in the reefs.
Haggerston's Island, Sunday Island, and Cairncross Island.
Cutter springs a leak.
Pass round Cape York.
Endeavour Strait.
Anchor under Booby Island.
Remarks upon the Inner and Outer routes through Torres Strait.
1820. June 21.
In preparing our little vessel for a third voyage, it became requisite to give her a considerable repair; and among many other things there was an absolute necessity for her being fresh coppered; but from the pretended scarcity of copper sheathing in the colony and other circumstances that opposed the measure, we found more than a common difficulty in effecting it. The cutter was careened at a place appointed for the purpose on the east side of Sydney Cove; and whilst undergoing her repair the crew lived on board a hulk hired for the occasion. This offered so favourable an opportunity for destroying the rats and cockroaches with which she was completely overrun, a measure that, from the experience of our last voyage, was considered absolutely necessary for our comfort as well as for our personal safety, that, as soon as the operation of coppering and caulking was finished, she was secured alongside of the hulk, and there immersed in the water for several days, by which process we hoped effectually to destroy them.
Upon the vessel being raised and the water pumped out, I was rejoiced to find that the measure appeared to have had the desired effect; but, before we left Port Jackson, she was again infested by rats, and we had not been long at sea before the cockroaches also made their appearance in great numbers. In sinking the cutter it seemed, in respect to the insects, that we had only succeeded in destroying the living stock, and that the eggs, which were plentifully deposited in the recesses and cracks of the timbers and sides, proved so impervious to the sea-water, that no sooner had we reached the warmer climate, than they were hatched, and the vessel was quickly repossessed by them; but it was many months before we were so annoyed by their numbers as had been the case during the last voyage.
Our crew, after they had returned the stores and fitted the standing rigging, were paid their wages; when, with only two exceptions, they were at their own wish discharged, and it was some time before a new crew was collected. Whilst we were repairing the defects, H.M. store-ship Dromedary arrived from England and brought us a selection of stores, for the want of which we should otherwise have been detained many months.