Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia eBook

Philip Parker King
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 366 pages of information about Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia.

Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia eBook

Philip Parker King
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 366 pages of information about Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia.
to be that on which he landed, and the bluff, which he describes as the east end of the island, is no other than our Courtenay Head, for it is the only land of that character hereabouts, and is visible from the deck of a large ship, at the distance of seven leagues.  In the bearing that Dampier saw it, namely, South-East, our Rosemary Island would appear to be joined to Malus Island, and hence his opinion that it was “an island five or six leagues in length, and one in breadth.”

In one of his draughts (Number 9), he gives a view of the head, bearing East-South-East, six leagues; and this bearing and distance, applied to our Courtenay Head, will cross the latitude of 20 degrees 21 minutes, which is that noted in the draught; and in the next draught (Number 10), when the head bears South-East by South, two black rocks are inserted, bearing South-East by East, and a point of land East:  the black rocks readily answer to the two flat rocks of my chart, and the land about Gidley Island will bear East.  No light can be thrown upon the subject from his drawings of the headlands, since they are too minute to be compared with nature.

That the Montebello Islands are not the Rosemary Islands is evident, from their being low, having no bluff head, and from their not being visible so far as Dampier saw those he described.  No other land can answer as to latitude but Rosemary, Malus, Legendre, or Gidley Islands; but, on the two latter, there is no decided bluff, and when bearing South-East by South, no land could be seen bearing East.  The rocks of Malus Island, on which we landed, are “of a rusty colour, and ponderous,"* and the bluff, as I have before remarked, very conspicuously forms the east end of the island.

(Footnote.  Vide Appendix C.)

Dampier remarks that Rosemary Island is two hundred and thirty-two miles east of the meridian of Shark’s Bay; this, applied to the longitude of that place, will make it in 117 degrees 12 minutes, which is only 35 minutes east of my Courtenay Head.

This group was named by the French Dampier’s Archipelago, and as there is ample proof of its being the place which that navigator visited, the name has been admitted by us; but we have also extended it to the islands forming the east side of Mermaid’s strait, which are laid down by the French as a part of the mainland.

Chapter 2. 
Examination of Rowley’s Shoals, and Passage to the North Coast. 
Survey of Goulburn Islands, Mountnorris and Raffles Bays. 
Meet a Malay Fleet, and communicate with one of the Proas. 
Explore Port Essington. 
Attacked by Natives in Knocker’s Bay. 
Anchor in Popham Bay. 
Visit from the Malays. 
Examination of Van Diemen’s Gulf, including Sir George Hope’s Islands and
Alligator Rivers. 
Survey of the Northern Shore of Melville Island, and Apsley Strait. 
Interview with the Natives of Luxmore Head. 
Procure wood at Port Hurd. 
Natives. 
Clarence Strait. 
Leave the Coast, and arrival at Timor.

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Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.