G.C.B., one of the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty, and spent some interesting days in exploring and giving names to numerous points. A group of islands was afterwards surveyed and named Sir Graham Moore's Islands, after a member of the Admiralty Board, while the Eclipse Islands, Vansittart Bay, Admiralty Gulf, and Port Warrender, were all surveyed and named. Relics, probably of Malay intrusion, especially an earthen pot and the broken wood of boats, were found on the Eclipse Islands—named because of an eclipse of the moon which took place while they were there—and they had an encounter with natives in Vansittart Bay, the precise locality being now known as Encounter Cove. The reconnoitre was a mild one, for after a hostile native demonstration a volley of muskets fired by King’s party frightened them away. The natives here appeared more nimble than others seen on the coast, and possessed better means of earning a livelihood. Vansittart Bay was named after a late Chancellor of the Exchequer. Owing to sickness they finally left the coast and bore up to Savou, after which they returned to Sydney. In September, 1820, the Mermaid visited the north-west coast a third time, and extended the surveys. York Sound was christened in honour of the Duke of York. At Careening Bay the vessel was beached and certain damages were repaired, and Mr. Cunningham took the opportunity of meanwhile examining the indigenous trees. Among these were the mountain ebony, acacia-podded inga, panicled-flowering olive, laurel-leaved date-plum, limetree-leaved hibiscus, tropical native cherry, and the Australian cycas, or sago palm. The country thereabouts bore a barren appearance. Prince Regent River, where a picturesque cascade was visited, was next examined. In December, 1820, they anchored at their basis of operation in Sydney.
King left Sydney a fourth time on 26th May, 1821, to complete surveys and elaborate his information. On this occasion the brig Bathurst was acquired for the work, and sailing through Torres Strait the Eclipse and Sir Graham Moore's Islands, near Cape Londonderry, were seen on the 12th July. Prince Regent River was again visited. At Hanover Bay the surgeon was speared during an encounter with the natives. The coast was now examined to Cape Latouche Treville, whereupon King went over to Mauritius to refit. From there he returned to the south-west coast, and in December, 1821, anchored in King George's Sound. Wood and water were obtained and varied information gleaned, and on the 6th January, 1822, the Bathurst left the sound, rounded Cape Leeuwin, and much attention was devoted to the south-west coast. Passing to Bathurst Island, the expedition landed and explored it; and then they went to the neighbourhood of the Abrolhos taking soundings, afterwards going to Dirk Hartog Island. There they landed to search for the tin plate of De Vlaming, but to their regret they saw only two posts where the memorial had been affixed. Observations were taken right up the coast, and finally King sailed to Sydney, and from there to England in September, 1822.
King in his contributions to science, his charts and sailing directions (which form the basis of those at present in use), and his exhaustive explorations in the northern and western coasts of New Holland, nearly finished the work of the navigators. He presented to the English Government such a comprehensive report that they possessed all the data they required of Australian coasts. What Cook and Bass and Flinders and others had done in the east and North and south, this navigator did in the west. Through his instrumenta1ity, and that of French navigators, a very general knowledge was obtained of the Western Australian coast-line, and many old existing doubts were removed. And the long list of great navigators, so far as Australian exploration is concerned, may be said to end with King. His works are an invaluable source of information, and best show what class of navigator he was. All that remained in after years to be completed in the work of all these navigators was the thorough, comprehensive survey of passages for coastal vessels to carry on a rapidly growing trade. The other colonies have largely had this work completed, while in Western Australia the English Government have not been idle, and vessels, notably the Beagle, have run up and down the huge coast-line.
CHAPTER III.
THE ABORIGINES.
FEAR OF WHITE MEN—INTELLIGENCE UNDERESTIMATED—ORIGIN—AGE—LANGUAGE—APPEARANCE—SENSES—ORNAMENTS—CHARACTERISTICS—BELIEF IN SPIRITS—TRIBAL OR "FAMILY" DISTRICTS—MARRIAGE, ETC—TRIBAL NAMES—THE CAMP—THE CORROBOREE—CHANTS AND POETRY—FOODS—CANNIBALISM—HUNTING—FISHING—WARS—MESSAGES—LEX TALIONIS—PUNISHMENTS—PAINTINGS—DEATH—BURIAL—DECREASING NUMBERS.
IT is necessary to refer to that dark race which for centuries inhabited Australia, and held undisputed possession of her long stretches of woodland and meadow. Many books have been written on the Australian aborigines, but we feel constrained to devote a chapter to them, their daily life, habits, and customs, before proceeding with the historical narrative of European settlement and of the consequent silent, solemn, deadly fight between white and black—the sad, gradual extermination of the original possessors of the soil.
Navigators in their voyages of discovery to Australia observed this strange people at different parts of the coast and were not impressed with their intelligence and appearance. The natives themselves viewed with consternation and involuntary fear the appearance of men of a different colour to their own in such immense contrivances as ships, and they believed them to be spirits from the dead, perhaps even of their own departed, who could no longer remain away from their old hunting-grounds.
While other aboriginal races advanced from the tribal stage, elected kings and constituted innumerable subordinate agencies to administer the governing functions, the Australian remained stationary. No great man rose from among them to lead them out of savagery to civilisation; to teach them agriculture and the arts of writing, building towns and great ships. The primitive life of their primogenitors was their life; and so for unnumbered generations they continued in infinite repetition. With boomerang and spear they hunted the kangaroo and emu, and fought their battles beneath the eucalyptus forests; their minds, fresh, untroubled, contented, oblivious alike of noble ideals and philosophic principles. The present enjoyment, the satisfying of immediate want, was enough for them. They had their loves and hates, jealousies and revenges ; otherwise, neither the mysterious future nor the long past troubled them.
The Australian aborigines are essentially a light-hearted people, full of song and laughter. The onlooker, who knows nothing of their
