Page:History of West Australia.djvu/24

 14 crab-catchers, cormorants, gulls, pelicans," and pictures were carefully drawn of some of these by the versatile navigator. Dampier gives the first description ever written of the kangaroo:—

"The land animals that we saw here were only a sort of racoons, different from those of the West Indies, chiefly as to their legs; for these have very short fore legs; but go jumping upon them as the others do (and like them are very good meat)."

He quaintly describes

"A sort of guanos, of the same shape and size with other guanos described, but differing from them in three remarkable particulars; for these had a larger and uglier head, and had no tail, and at the rump, instead of the tail there, they had a stump of a tail, which appeared like another head, but not really such, being without mouth and eyes. Yet this creature seemed by this means to have a head at each end; and, which may be reckoned a fourth difference, the legs also seemed all four of them to be fore legs, being all alike in shape and length, and seeming by the joints and bending to be made as if they were to go indifferently either head or tail foremost."

These guanos were speckled black and yellow like toads, had scales or knobs on their backs like crocodiles, were slow in motion, and their livers were spotted black and yellow, "and when opened hath a very unsavoury smell. I did never see such ugly creatures." He had eaten snakes and crocodiles and alligators, and many other ugly creatures, but no matter how hungry he did not think he could eat this harmless Australian lizard. Then Dampier goes to much trouble to clearly describe the sea-fish—the "mighty whale," the oysters, the turtles, and the "strange and beautiful shells." Of oysters there were two varieties, the eating oyster and the "pearl kind," which is the first mention we have of the pearl beds which have been such a source of wealth to Western Australia. The company refreshed themselves on fish, fowl, and kangaroo, cruised round the bay and the islands at its mouth, but finding no water, on the 14th August sailed north-east to discover a more fertile shore. In starting they saw three yellow, dark brown, spotted, water serpents, about four feet long and the size of a man's wrist, which they were greatly interested in at first, but the numbers they afterwards observed made them a common sight. Constantly taking soundings and observations, they kept near the coast, passing large shoals of whales and dolphins; the dismal noise made by the former in blowing and dashing the sea with their tails "was very dreadful." Their next anchorage was on 21st August, near rocky islets outside Nickol Bay and Cossack. They coasted round some of the islands, wishing to come upon a suitable place where the men could land and seek water, but the country both on the mainland and on the islands appeared inhospitable and barren indeed.

Here Dampier prophetically foreshadows the gold that was found a few miles inland some years ago. He sought out a course among these islands for water and other refreshments, "besides, that among so many islands we might have found some sort of rich mineral or ambergris, it being a good latitude for both these." Just here it is well to mention that a misconception exists that Dutch charts of the sixteenth century, containing the words, "Beach," Provincia Aurifera, applied to a portion of the Northern coast, suggest that gold must have been found there. That talented man, Mr. C. H. Coote, who has charge of the Department of Maps and Drawings in the British Museum, has been applied to for a solution of the question, and he replies that—

"The legend of 'Beach,' Provincia Aurifera, does not occur on the Chart No. 90,056 (1) Dampier's, but amongst others on the Map of the World, by Peter Plancips, the Dutch geographer, 1594.

"The whole thing is a myth and a geographical blunder of the first half of the sixteenth century.

"You will find it on the Mercator's large Chart of 1569, and on his earlier Earth's Globe of 1541.

"It arose from a misreading of Marco Polo's De Regionibus Orientalibus, lib. 3, caput 2, inserted in Grynæus' (S.) Novas Orbis 1537 (Yule's' Marco Polo, bk. 3, chap. 7, note 3). 'Beach,' or 'Bolach,' is a misprint for 'Locack' (Lokok, the Chinese name for a former province of Lower Siam). This was ignorantly transferred by the early sixteenth century geographers to an imaginary great Southern Continent, the N. W. corner of which was supposed to be the two provinces of ' Beach, Provincia Aurifera '—'  Maletur regnum' with '  Lucack regnum' repeated, in ignorance of the latter being the correct reading of '  Beach.'"

Dampier landed on one of these islands, now included in Dampier Archipelago, and because of a shrub he found resembling rosemary, he named it Rosemary Island. The men could there obtain no water, but were gladdened with oysters and turtle, and the sight of several kinds of beautiful flowers. They left the locality on 23rd August, and sailing north anchored on the 30th somewhere near the boundaries of the Kimberley and North West Divisions. Much smoke was discerned rising from the shore, and Dampier assumed fresh water must be obtainable. While anchored that night the mariners witnessed an eclipse of the moon. In the morning Dampier with several men armed with muskets and cutlasses for defence, and pickaxes and shovels to dig wells, went ashore. Three "tall black naked men" stood watching their approach, but made off when the whites came to close quarters. The natives ascended a small hill, and were there joined by several others, and from its apex looked down upon these white-skinned visitors, whose descendants were destined to dispossess them of their land, yet again when Dampier went towards them they retreated down the other side. From this hill-top Dampier saw "things like haycocks," which he at first believed were huts, and afterwards assumed they were huts. In this he was probably mistaken, for they were more likely to be ant-hills. Then the navigators searched for water, but found none, and they began to dig wells. The natives evidently watched from their hiding-places, when more emboldened, nine or ten of them at last approached until they came to a hill-top, where they stood menacing and threatening with great noise. One of them, leaving the rest, drew nearer, and Dampier went to meet him. The other natives now followed their companion at a distance, and when Dampier was within some yards of the sable warrior he made all the signs of peace and friendship he could. The native was apparently astonished at the demonstration and took to flight nor could Dampier approach close to any of them for some time. In the afternoon he took two of his men with him and walked along the shore hoping to catch a native and question him as to fresh water. About twelve aboriginals watched his movements, and cunningly followed at a distance. Dampier and his men hid themselves behind a sandbank, and the natives, intending to seize them, dispersed around the sand-hill so as to intercept their enemy. One of Dampier's men, with a cutlass in his hand, ran towards some of them, and they, at first running away, drew him over the sandhills and stopped and fought him with their wooden lances or spears. Dampier fearing what would happen, gave chase, and when on the hill-top witnessed the encounter. One native turned and hurled a spear at him, which narrowly missed its object, and he thinking to frighten them away, fired his musket. At first the report startled them, but they soon "learnt to despise it, tossing up their hands and crying pooh, pooh, pooh, and coming on afresh with a great noise." Dampier, seeing the young man was in some danger, shot at and wounded a native, whereupon the two of them hurried back to the shore, Dampier exceedingly "sorry for what had happened." The young man was struck through the cheek by a lance, but recovered after a few days. The natives carried away their wounded companion. Dampier wrote:—

"Among the New Hollanders, whom we were thus engaged with, there was one who by his appearance and carriage, as well in the morning as this afternoon, seemed to be the chief of them, and a kind of prince or