Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p2.djvu/224

 “I had been able to lay down the different projections of the N.E. coast, and our track within the barrier reefs between the Percy Islands and Cape York; besides having surveyed Port Macquarie, examined Rodd’s Bay, and constructed a boat at Endeavour River.

“Until we passed Cape Grafton the weather was generally fine, and favorable for our purpose; but, between that cape and Torres Strait, it had been thick and cloudy, with frequent rain; which not only increased the danger of the navigation, but also considerably retarded our progress; and, from the continual dampness of the cabins below, which, from the small size of the vessel, and our not possessing the advantage of a stove to dry them, it was impossible to prevent, occasioned much sickness: but fortunately it was checked by our reaching a more salubrious climate. The attention I was obliged to pay to the invalids, took up a great deal of my time, which ought to have been otherwise and more advantageously employed in the object of the voyage. Sailors, of all other people, are the most incautious and careless in contracting illness; but when attacked, there are none that require more attendance and nursing; besides, they were unwilling, in the first instance, to trust to my ignorance, until increasing sickness obliged them, and then my fear was that, although I might be of service and check the disorder, their complaint was possibly not understood by me, and that eventually, instead of curing, I might destroy my patient. And to these fears my mind was so constantly alive, that on some occasions I thought of little else.

“On our voyage from Torres Strait to the western head of the Gulf of Carpentaria, which is Cape Arnhem, no incident occurred of sufficient interest to be worth recording; but no sooner had we passed Torres Strait, than a very sensible difference was perceived in the temperature; the thermometer was observed to range between 75° and 83°, which was about 3° higher than it did on the south side of the strait: this change produced a drier air and liner weather, and soon restored our invalids to perfect health.”

On the 27th Sept. Lieutenant King had to record the death of one of his most attentive and useful men, a native, like himself, of Norfolk Island. This poor fellow, for some time before, and particularly during the last three days of his existence, had been suffering from a dropsical complaint; but his death was occasioned by suffocation, having very imprudently laid down with his head to leeward, while the cutter was under sail in Cambridge Gulf, which is described as a very extraordinary inlet. On the 30th of the same