Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manne eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 871 pages of information about Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1.

Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manne eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 871 pages of information about Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1.
bay, (which I subsequently named Rossiter Bay, after the captain of the whaler,) immediately east of Lucky Bay, and at less than a quarter of a mile distant from the shore.  The people on board appeared to be busily engaged in clearing their cables which were foul, and did not observe me at all.  I tied up my horse, therefore, to a bush, and waited for Wylie, who was not long in coming after me, having driven the poor horses at a pace they had not been accustomed to for many a long day.  I now made a smoke on the rock where I was, and hailed the vessel, upon which a boat instantly put off, and in a few moments I had the inexpressible pleasure of being again among civilized beings, and of shaking hands with a fellow-countryman in the person of Captain Rossiter, commanding the French Whaler “Mississippi.”

Our story was soon told, and we were received with the greatest kindness and hospitality by the captain.

Chapter IV.

Go on board the Mississippi—­wet weather—­visit lucky bay—­interview with
natives—­Wylie understands their language—­get the horses shod—­prepare
to leave the vessel—­kindness and liberality of captain Rossiter—­renew
journey to the westward—­fossil formation still continues—­salt water
streams and lakes—­A large salt river—­character of the country.

June 2.—­After watering the horses at a deposit left by the rains, in the sheets of granite near us, and turning them loose, we piled up our little baggage, and in less than an hour we were comfortably domiciled on board the hospitable Mississippi,—­a change in our circumstances so great, so sudden, and so unexpected, that it seemed more like a dream than a reality; from the solitary loneliness of the wilderness, and its attendant privations, we were at once removed to all the comforts of a civilised community.

After we had done ample justice to the good cheer set before us, by our worthy host, he kindly invited us to remain on board as long as we pleased, to recruit our horses, and told us, that when we felt refreshed sufficiently to renew the journey, he would supply us with such stores and other articles as we might require.  I learnt that the Mississippi had but recently arrived from France, and that she had only been three weeks upon the ground she had taken up for the season’s whaling.  As yet no whales had been seen, and the season was said not to commence before the end of June or beginning of July.  The boats I saw in the morning belonged to her, and had been out chasing what they thought to be a whale, but which proved to be only a fin-back, a species which was not thought to repay the trouble of trying out.

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Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manne from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.