Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 1 / Performed between the years 1818 and 1822

by Philip Parker King

At day-dawn the Malays were observed making a move, and as each proa got under sail, it steered towards us. The anchor was, therefore, immediately weighed, and we prepared to receive them as formidably as our means allowed. Their number was now increased to twenty-one vessels, by their having hoisted out six large canoes; but as they approached there was no appearance of any hostile intention, since some of them steered across the bay, and only a few continued to direct their course towards us. One of the canoes came near with the intention of visiting us, but not liking too intimate an acquaintance with them, we pointed to our carronade, and beckoned to them to go away, which they immediately did. One of the proas soon afterwards passed by with Dutch colours displayed, to which its crew repeatedly pointed, at the same time hailing us in an unintelligible jargon, of which Macassar and Trepang were the only words that were distinguished. They also pointed to the North-West, but whether this was intended to convey to us the direction of the place whence they came, or the course they were about to steer, was not very evident. In a short time the fleet had passed by, and as we were under weigh we returned to the examination of Malay Bay, in which nothing worthy of note was found. It affords good anchorage during the easterly monsoon on a muddy bottom in from four to five fathoms, but its shores are low and its beaches rocky, and so uninteresting, that we returned to our previous anchorage in Mountnorris Bay.

April 13.

The next day we landed on Copeland Island and from its summit obtained extensive bearings for the survey of the bay. The island is surrounded by a coral bank; its north side is formed by a perpendicular argillaceous cliff of a bright yellow colour, and is a conspicuous object to vessels entering the bay. Behind the cliff to the south the land gradually declines and runs off to a low point; the whole surface of the island is covered with trees, among which a beautiful hatchet-shape-leafed acacia in full bloom was very conspicuous. The other trees were principally of the eucalyptus family; but they were all of small size. On the west side of the island was a dry gully, and a convenient landing-place, near to which a bottle was deposited, containing a parchment record of our visit, and of the names bestowed upon the bays and islands hereabout.

Three natives were observed walking along the sandy beach, at the bottom of the bay; but they passed on without taking the least notice of our presence.

We left the anchorage on the 13th, and crossed the bottom of the bay within Copeland Island: then steering up the west side we passed a large opening, trending to the North-West. Here we were detained for some time, by grounding upon a sandbank. But by keeping the sails full, the vessel dragged over it, and we resumed our course to the northward, along the west side of Mountnorris Bay; and, at sunset, anchored between it and Darch's Island, which protected us from both the wind and swell, during a very squally night. Darch's Island, so named after my esteemed friend, Thomas Darch, Esquire, of the Admiralty, is, like Valentia Island, very thickly wooded. Its eastern side is a continued bluff cliffy shore, but the north and south ends are low, and terminate with a shoal; which, off the former, is of rocks; and near its extremity is a single mangrove bush, which was seen and set from Copeland Island's summit.

April 14.

The next morning, at daylight, we passed round the north extremity of the island, which was named Cape Croker, in compliment to the first secretary of the Admiralty; and anchored on the north side of a bight round the cape, which was subsequently named Palm Bay.

In the afternoon we landed, and ascending the hill or bank behind the beach, obtained a view of the coast of the bay: a distant wooded point, called, from its unusual elevation, High Point, bounded our view to the south; but to the South-West some patches of land were indistinctly visible. Tracks of natives were seen in many places, and the marks of footsteps on the beach had been very recently impressed. On the bank a circular spot of ground, of fifteen yards in diameter, was cleared away, and had very lately been occupied by a tribe of natives. The island is thickly wooded with a dwarf species of eucalyptus, but here and there the fan palm and pandanus grew in groups, and with the acacia, served to vary the otherwise monotonous appearance of the country. The soil, although it was shallow and poor, was covered with grass, and a great variety of shrubs and plants in flower, which fully occupied Mr. Cunningham's attention. As we proceeded through the trees, a group of lofty palms attracted our notice, and were at first supposed to be coconut trees that had been planted by the Malays; but on examining them closer, they proved to be the areca, the tree that produces the betel-nut and the toddy, a liquor which the Malays and the inhabitants of all the eastern islands use. Some of these palms were from thirty to forty feet high, and the stem of one of them was bruised and deeply indented by a blunt instrument.

Having spent several hours on shore, without finding anything very interesting or at all useful to us, we returned on board, when we found that we had been watched by three natives, who had walked along the beach, but on coming near us, had concealed themselves among the trees, from which they had, probably, observed all our movements whilst we were on shore. They were perhaps deterred from approaching us from our numbers, and from the muskets which each of us carried; for our experience of the disposition of the natives at Goulburn Island had taught us prudence, and no boat was, after that affair, permitted to leave the vessel without taking a musket for each man. It was, however, fortunate for us that we were not often obliged to resort to them for a defence, for the greater number of the twelve that we possessed were useless, notwithstanding they were the best that could be procured at Port Jackson when the vessel was equipped.

The rocks on the beach and the stones which are scattered about the surface of the ground are all of a ferruginous nature, and appear from their colour and weight to contain a large portion of iron; but the needle of the compass was in no way affected by being placed near them. The soil is also highly coloured by the oxide of iron, and it is this that gives the cliffs of this part of the coast, particularly the upper portion of them, the red appearance that they almost universally possess.