King's Sound, in which is now the town of Derby, Kimberley Division. "New Holland," wrote Dampier, "is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined whether it is an island or a main continent: but I am certain that it joins neither to Asia, Africa, America. This part of it that we saw is all low, even land, sandy banks against the sea, only the points are rocky, and so are some of the islands in this bay."
From these lines an inference is obtained of what English knowledge of Australia then was, for Dampier evidently had well worked out charts with him, judging from his criticisms of the positions marked in them. His remarks dealing with Western Australia should be interesting to readers of the history of this colony, and we take this as a reason for publishing extracts from his volumes. He describes the "dry, sandy, soil" as
"destitute of water, except you make wells; yet producing divers sorts of trees: but the woods are not thick, nor the trees very big. Most of the trees we saw are dragon-trees, as we supposed, and these too are the largest trees of any there. They are about the bigness of our large apple trees, and about the same height; and the rind is blackish and somewhat rough…… The other sorts of trees were not known by any of us. There was pretty long grass growing under the trees; but it was very thin. We saw no trees that bore fruit or berries."
They observed no animals, and only once the track of one, "that seemed to be the tread of a beast as big as a great mastiff dog." There were a few small land birds and but few sea-fowl. Fish were scarce, "unless you reckon the manatee and turtle as such." Dampier was not impressed by the natives he met.
"The inhabitants of this country are the miserablest people in the world. The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, though a nasty people, yet for wealth are gentlemen to these; who have no houses and skin garments, sheep, poultry, and fruits of the earth, ostrich eggs, &c., as the Hodmadods have: and, setting aside their human shape, they differ little from brutes. They are tall, straight-bodied, and thin, with small long limbs. They have great heads, round foreheads, and great brows. Their eyelids are always half closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes; they being so troublesome here that no fanning will keep them from coming to one's face; and without the assistance of both hands to keep them off they will creep into one's nostrils, and mouth too, if the lips are not shut very close. So that from their infancy, being thus annoyed with these insects, they do never open their eyes as other people, and therefore they cannot see far, unless they hold up their heads, as if they were looking at somewhat over them.
"They have great bottle noses, pretty full lips, and wide mouths. The two fore-teeth of their upper jaw are wanting in all of them, men and women, old and young. They are long-visaged…… Their hair is black, short and curled.
They have no sort of clothes, but a piece of the rind of a tree tied like a girdle about their waists, and a handful of long grass, or three or four small green boughs, full of leaves, thrust under their girdle to cover their nakedness.
"They have no houses, but lie in the open air without any covering; the earth being their bed and the heaven their canopy…… They do live in companies, 20 or 30 men, women and children together. Their only food is a small sort of fish, which they get by making weirs of stones across little coves or branches of the sea, every tide bringing in the small fish, and there leave them a prey to these people, who constantly attend there to search for them at low water. This small fry I take to be the top of their fishery: they have no instruments to catch great fish should they come; and such seldom stay to be left behind at low water.… In other places, at low water, they seek for cockles, mussels, and perriwinkles. Of these shell fish there are fewer still; so that their chiefest dependence is what the sea leaves in their weirs; which, be it much or little, they gather up, and march to the places of their abode. There the old people that are not able to stir abroad, by reason of their age, and the tender infants wait their return; and what Providence has bestowed on them they presently broil on the coals, and eat it in common. Sometimes they get as many fish as makes them a plentiful banquet; and at other times they scarce get everyone a taste; but be it little or much that they get, everyone has his part, as well the young and tender, the old and feeble, who are not able to go abroad, as the strong and lusty. When they have eaten they lie down till the next low water, and then all that are able march out, be it night or day, rain or shine, 'tis all one! they must attend the weirs, or else they must fast, for the earth affords them no food at all. There is neither herb, root, pulse, nor any sort of grain, for them to eat that we saw: nor any sort of bird or beast that they can catch, having no instruments wherewithal to do so.
"I did not perceive that they did worship anything. These poor creatures have a sort of weapon to defend their ware, or fight with their enemies, if they have any that will interfere with their poor fisheries.… Some of them had wooden swords, others had a sort of lance. The sword is a piece of wood, shaped somewhat like a cutlass. The lance is a long straight pole, sharp at one end, and hardened afterwards by heat. I saw no iron, nor any other sort of metal."
Excursions were made in boats to the neighbouring islands.
These islands were fairly largely inhabited, and on one of them when the buccaneers were landing the natives threatened them with spears and swords, but the firing of a gun frightened them so that they rushed away and tried to hide themselves. Women snatched their babies to their arms and, howling, joined in the flight, while those who were not able lay by their fires moaning dolefully. On this island water was discovered, and the barrels were filled. The white men desired that their black neighbours should carry these, and after making friends with them and presenting "to one an old pair of breeches, to another a ragged shirt, to the third a jacket that was scarce worth owning," and themselves putting the garments round the astonished recipients, they placed a barrel on the shoulder of each native, and signified that they were to be carried to the canoe. It was to no purpose; the aboriginals stood like statues, and "grinned like so many monkeys, staring one upon another," and perforce the buccaneers had to carry the barrels themselves. The natives took the garments off and threw them to one side, "as if clothes were only to work in," and seemed to like them but little. But they greedily devoured what boiled rice, turtle, and manatee were given them, yet they saw nothing of interest in the ship. They swam from island to island, having no boats. On the mainland one day a company of them gathered on a high bank near the ship, and threatened the intruders with swords and lances. "At last the captain ordered the drum to be sounded, which was done of a sudden with much vigour," and the apparently brave warriors of a moment before scurried away in much haste making a great noise. After about a week the vessel was careened in a sandy cove at low tide, and cleaned, and her sails were mended. While doing this the buccaneers lived on shore in a tent, subsisting on manatee and turtle. Dampier sought to influence his companions to "go to some English factory" then established in the East Indies, and retire from their irregular life, but they threatened to put him on land and leave him there if he did not desist. He apparently passed his time to the best advantage during his sojourn on the Australian coast, for though his remarks on Australian aboriginals only applies to one tribe, it will easily be seen that his descriptions are excellent and substantially true. On the 12th March the Cygnet sailed away from New Holland, after spending two months at King's Sound. She reached the Nicobar Islands, where Dampier and two other men left the ship. Dampier procured a canoe, and after successful encounters with natives, and meeting cannibals, he proceeded to Achin, where he had a long illness. He was at last taken on board an English ship, the Defence, and arrived in his native land on September 16, 1691. The Cygnet finally sank in Augustin Bay, Madagascar. Captain Swan had a tragic fate, for he was murdered by natives at Mindanao.
The wreck of a Dutch vessel, the Ridderschap van Hollandt, in 1684 or 1685, was the cause of another special visit of a Dutch navigator to this coast. The lost ship left the Cape of Good Hope and was not again heard of. In 1696 Wilhelm de Vlaming, with the ships Geelvink, Nyptang, and Wezel, was ordered to search for the wreck at New Holland on its way to the East Indies. He duly left the fatherland, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and held on a southerly and easterly course. At 2.30 on the morning of December 29, 1696, he sighted the South Land, which proved to be Rottnest Island and her neighbouring sisters, off the Swan River. Making close for the shore of Rottnest he anchored, and spent a few days examining the island. On the beach he found a piece of wood in which were nails,
