# The Aborigines of Victoria/Volume 1/Chapter 19

Canoes.
The canoes used by the natives of Victoria are usually made of the bark of some species of gum-tree. The bark of the red gum-tree (Eucalyptus rostrata) is generally preferred; but in many districts the bark of other trees is taken, not because it is the best, but because it is easily obtainable of the sizes required. The Koor-ron or canoe is not made unless there be immediate occasion for its use. When it is necessary to cross a stream, a lake, or an arm of the sea, the natives assemble near the point of departure, and earnestly discuss questions relating to the means of transport. Some may be able to swim well and swiftly, and these would take to the water at once, if it were not for the goods they must carry—their shields, their weapons, and their cloaks.
FIG. 236.
When it is finally settled that the water must be crossed, the oldest and wisest of the tribe have devolved on them the duty of making a suitable canoe. If the numbers be large, the canoe must be large—so as to carry as many as possible at one time; and all the trees in the neighbourhood are examined until one is found whose bark is suitable. It must be a large tree; and it must lean and be curved, so as to admit of a piece of bark being taken off in such a form as not to need much manipulation. Labor is disliked by the Aborigines; and unnecessary labor is to them simply impossible. A gum-tree growing somewhat in the manner shown in Fig. 236 is selected; and the bark is cut at the points x x, and along the line shown by dots; and by pressing the wooden handle of the tomahawk and a pole between the bark and the wood, the sheet is gradually and carefully removed.
​According to the kind of bark used, the sheet is either put over the fire and turned inside out, or employed as cut, the ends being tied; or if the bark be thick—so that the ends cannot be tied—the stem and stern are stopped with clay or mud. Mr. J. A. Panton says that the natives of the south coast invariably construct their canoes of thick bark, which does not admit of the ends being tied together. The water is kept out by walls of clay at each end.—(Fig. 237.)
* FIG. 237.
Mr. Bulmer has sent me a bark canoe from Lake Tyers, which is of the following figure—(Fig. 238):—
* FIG. 237.
Mr. Bulmer says that the canoe—Gri—is propelled by a stick named Jen-dook. The person propelling the vessel holds the stick by the middle and plies it on either side. In crossing deep water the natives lay aside the jen-dook, and sit down, and the vessel is then propelled by two scoop-shaped pieces of bark (Wrail), about six inches in length. They are more convenient than the jen-dook, more easily used, and serve for baling the boat as well as for propelling.
It will be observed that the Gippsland canoe is of a different pattern to that first figured. The ends are fastened together with a stout rope made of a vegetable fibre; and there are stretchers to prevent the collapse of the sides. In such a canoe the use of clay is not necessary if the seams or cracks have been previously caulked with gum.
Mr. Alfred Howitt, who has been under the necessity of making and using bark canoes, has supplied the following information. He says:—
"I am acquainted with two kinds of bark canoe. One kind which is folded together, and tied up at the ends to form the stem and stern, and another kind, which is not tied at the ends, but is usually completed by a lump of mud at one or other end, as may be required by the shape of the canoe. The first kind of canoe is used, I think, alone by the Gippsland blacks. At least I do not remember having seen any other; nor can I at this time recall seeing any tree from which the curved sheet of bark required for the second kind had been stripped. As illustrative of the first kind of canoe, I may describe one which the blackfellow 'Toolabar' and I made a few years ago to cross the Snowy River during a flood. A stringybark-tree was chosen, having a straight bole, free from branches or knots, and about [four] feet in diameter at the butt. It was ascertained by taking a chip of bark out with the tomahawk that it would strip freely. Two straight saplings about ten feet in length were cut, trimmed ​of their branches, and one end of each flattened on each side for some distance, so as to have a bladed form and to be pliable. Toolabar now cut through the bark round the tree about two to three feet from the ground; cut the bark in a straight line upwards for about ten feet—ascending by notches cut into the divided line—and then cut the bark round the tree as he had already cut it down below. Descending from the tree, he carefully inserted the blade of his tomahawk under the cut edge of the bark, thus separating it for some distance up from the tree. Then, inserting the thin blade of one sapling, he ran it upwards between the bark and the tree, leaving it thus partially spreading open the bark. The second sapling was inserted in the same way on the other side, and by working first one, and then the other, cautiously upwards and backwards, the whole sheet of bark was finally separated, all but a small portion on the upper run. It then presented something of this aspect—(Fig. 239).
* FIG. 239.
We both of us now carefully detached it by taking hold of it from behind by the lower edge, and 'easing' it down to the ground. The next process was, as it lay smooth side downwards—nearly flat on the ground—to strip off the old outer rough fuzzy bark until we had the sheet cleaned; there being then only remaining the brown under bark, and the light-colored inner fibrous layer. The next process was to chip off the brown inner bark from about two feet at each end, leaving there only the thin tough inner layer. We now threw together the chipped-off bark with such dead leaves and rubbish as lay at hand into a heap, and, setting fire to it, placed our sheet of bark over the flames, so as to form a kind of horizontal flue, from each end of which issued volumes of smoke and heated vapour. Thus in a very short time we had our bark well steamed and pliable. Taking it now off the fire, we rapidly, but with care, turned it inside out, doubled up the sides, and secured them together at the distance we required for the canoe, by passing cords through holes previously made near each edge—the cords being twisted strands of the inner fibrous bark pulled from the edge of the sheet. I think three of these ligatures were made. One end of the canoe was now again warmed, and Toolabar folded it together, much as a sheet of paper is folded to make a fan, squeezing the folds together, biting them together ​with his vice-like jaws, and lashing the folded end securely with more stringy-bark cord. The lashing extended about a foot back from the point. The other end was sewed in the same way. A stick, pointed at each end, and of the exact length of the width of the canoe, was now jammed alongside each 'tie,' the stick points holding fast in the string holes. Thus the strings held the canoe from spreading, and the sticks prevented it from coming together. In addition, pliable branches were forced in under the 'ties' as ribs, and the canoe was complete. A section taken at a tie would be thus (Fig. 240):—
* a "tie." b "stretcher." c "rib." d "canoe."
* Side view of Canoe.
* FIG. 240.
"Speaking from memory, this canoe was about ten feet long, and carried Toolabar, myself, and our saddles and effects over the 'Snowy;' but there was not much to spare between the edge of the canoe and the water. At the other side Toolabar pulled it up on the bank, and said, half seriously, 'Leave him here, I b'lieve mraat (dead blackfellow—ghost) might want him.'
* FIG. 241.
"The second kind of canoe I have seen used on the Darling and elsewhere in Riverina. It is usually cut from an inclined tree—a red-gum, according to my recollection. At Pammumaroo, near Menindie, having to cross some things, the blackfellow I had there made a canoe. A bent red gum-tree was chosen, and a sheet taken off from the bend; as the two ends were not enough out of the water, a big lump of the tenacious mud of the Darling River was kneaded into each end and smeared over a crack or two in the bottom. This kept out the water, and I crossed myself and a bag of flour (200 lbs.). If my memory serves me, there was only just room for the flour and myself—the canoe was probably not much over eight feet in length; but somewhat wider than the one I have last described. Such a tree I rudely figure above (Fig. 241).
​"Although red-gums of very large size grow at Cooper's Creek, I never observed that a sheet of bark had been removed for a canoe; nor did I ever observe a canoe with the blacks, or the remains of one. I conclude that they do not use one; and this applies equally to the blacks north of Sturt's Desert (Diamantina River)—in fact, so far as I know, to all Central Australia and South Australia, excepting at the Murray River. This seems a mere truism in respect to a country having no flowing rivers; but when floods such as those of Cooper's Creek and the Diamantina occur, one might have expected to find the blacks using bark canoes on such occasions. The only other remark which suggests itself to me as regards canoes, is the observation I have made, that when navigating a large sheet of water during rough weather—such as parts of the Gippsland Lakes, Lake Tyers, Sydenham Inlet—the canoe-man, in propel- ling his canoe—standing upright—by means of a long light pole for a paddle, does not bring his craft 'end' on to a sea, but 'bow' on, so as to 'sidle' over the waves, the canoe riding over sideways like a duck. End on, it would probably break its back across the wave."
Toolabar, the Gippsland native, who is mentioned in Mr. Hewitt's state- ment, has informed him that the best canoes are obtained from the bark of the following trees, here arranged in order of merit:—
* . Mountain ash, a variety of ironbark, not turned inside out, but tied.
* . Stringybark, turned inside out and tied.
* . Red-gum, generally from a bent tree; may be tied, but not turned inside out.
* . A variety of blue-gum (Ballook), turned and tied.
* . White-gum of river valleys, turned and tied; likewise the Snowy River mahogany (Binnack).
* . Peppermint; "no good," according to Toolabar; as also a thin yellow-barked stringybark (Yert-chuck), the good kind being Yan-goura.
Toolabar measured on the ground canoes for two, three, and four people; and the first was in length about seven feet six inches, the second eight feet, and the third from ten feet to twelve feet.
Mr. Howitt adds that in travelling from Grant towards Bairnsdale he found a stringybark-tree from which a sheet of bark for a canoe had been stripped, the bend evidently having been used. The ends, he has no doubt, had been tied, but he thinks it could not have been turned. He made a sketch on the spot, and furnished me also with diagrams.—(See Fig. 242.) The sheet of bark taken off was twelve feet in length, and four feet four inches measured round the convex side of the bend.
Mr. Nathaniel Munro gives me the following account of the canoes which he has seen used in Victoria. In fashioning a canoe, the natives take a large piece of bark, free from knots, and with their tomahawks cut it into the shape of an ellipse, having its ends pointed, and with its transverse and conjugate diameters as three to one. When this is laid on the fire, it contracts, and doubles over into a cigar-shaped canoe. The ends, which are subsequently tied together, curve up in such a manner as to be above the water-line when it is set afloat. The sides, which have a tendency to come together, are kept ​apart by stays. Should a leak occur, the hole is stopped with clay. In making large canoes, the bow is constructed as above described, but, in order to give greater strength and security, a semicircular piece of bark is fitted into one end. That end, when the piece is so fitted, is of course the stern.
According to the information I have received, the largest canoes made by the natives of Victoria are about eighteen feet in length; and a vessel of that size will carry five or six men, or more. The late Mr. Thomas saw the natives crossing the strait between the mainland and French Island in a canoe in which there were four persons.
* FIG. 242.
Mr. Peter Beveridge says that the natives of the Lower Murray (in Victoria) make canoes from the bark of the red-gum. They generally select a tree with a bend in it, as that saves them a great many hours' work in the manufacture of their tiny craft; because, if they use the bark of a straight stem, they have to give it the necessary curve at each end, by means of fire.
On leaving one district for another, the Aborigines conceal their canoes in the scrub on the borders of the lake or swamp on which they have been used, and, as it is seldom that they remain more than six weeks at one camping place, shifting, as they must, from place to place in search of game, it happens that most of the lakes and swamps have hidden near the water's edge bark canoes, and so carefully concealed in the rushes and scrub as not to be discovered easily by even their own people.
In the forests near the sources of the River Powlett, and elsewhere in Victoria, there still remain many trees from which bark has been taken to make canoes and water vessels.
​Mr. Samuel Bennett, in his exceedingly valuable and interesting History of Australian Discovery and Colonization, makes the following remarks respecting the canoes of the Aborigines:—"The canoes used by the Aborigines on the eastern coast are the best to be found in the whole continent, and they scarcely deserve the name. The Australian canoe represents one of the most primitive appliances ever used by mankind for the purpose of navigation. In some districts it consists of a mere sheet of bark, slightly raised at the edges, serving even in still water to float but a single person, and requiring the greatest care to prevent its overturning. In others a nearer approach is made to the boat form by bending the sheet of bark somewhat in the form of the sides of a boat, sewing or tying up its ends with some fibrous material, and making it water-tight by means of gum or clay. At best, however, it was but
* Canoes, Lake Tyers, from a Photograph by Walters.
* FIG. 243.
a sorry substitute for a boat, and it is probable, from the fact that it was not even known to some of the coast tribes, and that it had in its most rudimentary state never reached Tasmania, that its introduction was not of very ancient date even on the mainland. To the tribes of unmixed Aboriginal blood, like the Tasmanians were, and some on the north-west coast still are, the canoe was wholly unknown. It was, therefore, in all probability a thing of foreign invention, and of modern introduction. The comparative ignorance of the Australian Aborigines, the Andaman Islanders, and other people of Negrito or Indian Negro race, of the use of the canoe, supplies a strong link to connect them with each other. . . . ."
I cannot agree with Mr. Bennett. There is no evidence which would suggest that the bark canoe is of foreign invention. Indeed it is almost beyond doubt that the Australians of Victoria, before the arrival of the whites, had learnt ​nothing from foreigners. On the authority of Mr. Knight, I can state that the natives of the north-west coast of Australia use rough log canoes, though they are, as he remarks, "of the most primitive description."
​The Andaman Islanders have single-tree canoes, and they are acquainted with the use of outriggers, and I have always understood that in the management of their vessels they are expert.
On the north-eastern coasts the natives sometimes use canoes formed of a single trunk of a tree, fourteen feet in length, very narrow, and fitted with an outrigger.
Undoubtedly, the larger and better vessels have been constructed on models copied from foreigners; but the natives of Gippsland and the Murray, who make canoes of bark, and tie the ends, or stop them with clay, could not have learnt from foreigners these methods of constructing such vessels. It was, perhaps, from the accidental floating of the wooden or bark tarnuk that the invention was derived.
Some very interesting letters relating to the canoes of the Australians are found in the Athenæum. It is impossible, in order to do justice to the writers, to summarize the statements made in the letters; and I shall therefore quote them nearly as they appear in that journal.
Mr. O. W. Brierly says:—"The Times of Wednesday the 29th January 1862, in a review of the Transactions of the Ethnological Society, refers to the various opinions of ethnologists with respect to the original unity of the human species, and the probability or otherwise of the different portions of the globe having been peopled by the migrations of a single race, and mentions that Mr. Crawfurd holds 'the supposition of a single race peopling all countries to be monstrous, and contradictory to the fact that some of them to this day do not know how to use or construct a canoe.' At a recent meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, Mr. Crawfurd stated that the Australians have no canoes, so that perhaps these may be the people alluded to as not knowing how to construct or use them. I will not presume now to offer any theory upon the question as to the source from whence Australia was peopled, but perhaps you will kindly allow me space in your columns to say that at Rockingham Bay, on the north-eastern coast of Australia, the natives have very neatly-made canoes; and further on, at a river opening in the mainland opposite the ​Frankland Islands (long. 146° E., lat. 17° 12’ S.), were not only catamarans or rafts, but canoes made out of the solid tree, and having an outrigger on one side; and it is somewhat remarkable that both the canoes and catamarans at this place resembled others we afterwards met with at the south-eastern part of New Guinea. At Cape York (North Australia) we found the natives had large canoes, with double outriggers and mat sails, with which they stood boldly out in a strong breeze with as much sail as our own boats would carry under the same circumstances: indeed the Australians generally, upon all parts of the coast that I have visited, show little fear of the water, and under the direction of white men make very good whalers. In June 1848, the natives near Cape Grafton (lat. 16° 51’ S.) came off in their canoes and boarded the Will-o'-the-wisp, a small sandal-wood trader, which they nearly captured. There are at least six varieties of canoes and rafts along the north-eastern shore of Australia alone; and these are different from others found on the coast to the southward and in other parts."
The late Mr. Beete Jukes, in reply to Mr. Brierly's letter, wrote as follows:—
"Will you allow me to refer to the paragraph headed 'Canoes in Australia,' in your last number, for the purpose of stating exactly how the case stands? In Western Australia, although some large islands front the coast near the mouth of Swan River, at a distance of not more than three or four miles, no natives had ever landed on them till the arrival of the settlers. They had not the remotest notion of a canoe nor any kind of water conveyance whatever. This is true also, as far as my enquiries sixteen or eighteen years ago enabled me to ascertain, for all the west and for all the south coast of Australia. On the north-west coast they used bundles of rushes tied together to assist them in swimming from one island to another. In Botany Bay, Cook found them using strips of bark tied together at the ends, making a sort of dish, in which a man could stand. In Rockingham Bay, when I visited it in H.M.S. Fly, we first saw bark canoes sewn together, and having thwarts, something like the canoes of the North American Indians. North of this the canoes improved till we came to the large ones belonging to the Papuan Islanders of Torres Straits, with sails and outriggers. West of the Gulf of Carpentaria, however, these disappear at once, and the natives had nothing at Port Essington that could be called a canoe until they got some of the Malay sampans. I believe therefore that the Australians derived their canoes from the Papuan Islanders, and that Mr. Crawfurd is right as to their original destitution; although Mr. Brierly is also right as to existing facts.
"P.S.—Does any wood grow in Australia large enough and light enough to make a canoe if merely hollowed out? I doubt it. Neither is there any of which a bow could be made."
In reference to the above. Sir Daniel Cooper thus writes:—"Mr. J. B. Jukes, in his letter on canoes in Australia, is wrong in his statement with respect to New South Wales. In the Catalogue of the Natural and Industrial Products of New South Wales for the Exhibition of 1862 is the following ​extract from a lecture on the Aborigines of New South Wales by Edward J. Hill, Esq.:—'The canoes of the natives are of two kinds. Those intended for a mere temporary purpose—to cross a river or lagoon—are formed from the bark of a gum-tree, simply tied together at the ends, with a piece of stick to keep the sides from coming together. When intended for fishing or permanent use, much more trouble is taken. A large sheet of bark is taken from the stringybark-tree; the outer side of the bark, which is very rough and stringy, is carefully removed; it is then slowly, and with very great attention, passed over a blazing fire until it has become thoroughly hot through, which makes it very pliable; the ends of the bark are then brought together and laced with a cord made from the same description of bark; the gunwale is strengthened by a band of rushes laced along the edge; and two or three stretchers are placed, according to its length, to keep the canoe in shape. A canoe of this kind is usually occupied by two men—one at the stern, who propels it with a short paddle in either hand, and the other at the bow, armed with spears, with which to strike the fish. When crossing a river or lake, four or five persons may be conveyed in one of them with safety. When employed in fishing, a flat stone is placed in the centre, on which a small fire is always kept burning, on which they can cook their fish when they catch them.'
"Mr. Hill speaks the language and knows the customs and habits of the Aborigines thoroughly, and may, therefore, be considered an authority. In 1834 I saw the natives using the large canoes outside both Jervis Bay and Twofold Bay, and the large fish which were brought in by them clearly proved to me that their canoes must have been very buoyant and strong. Any one acquainted with the strength and tenacity of stringybark would not wonder that a primitive people without metal tools should use it for boats in preference to wood, which could only be hollowed out in a rude manner and with immense labor. On the Murray, Murrumbidgee, and other interior rivers, the bark canoe was used; and all who have seen much of the natives, especially on the coast, will admit that they are skilful men in a boat.
"What Mr. Brierly states about the canoes on the north-east coast I believe to be correct, but I cannot vouch for its accuracy from personal observation. The north coast of Australia is regularly visited, I believe, by the Malays for the purpose of trepang-fishing. If Mr. Jukes will be good enough to examine the Australian timbers, and the description of them in the Catalogues of the Great Exhibition, he will find the doubts expressed in the P.S. of his letter fully answered."
Mr. Brierly, in another letter, makes the following statements:—
"I cannot but feel flattered by the testimony of so eminent an authority as Mr. Jukes to the truth of my observations about the canoes of Australia, and well remember the interest with which (on board H.M.S. Rattlesnake) we used to consult his valuable work upon that part of the world during our surveying cruises over much of the ground which he had visited in H.M.S. Fly before us; but I think in the observations which he makes for the purpose of stating ​'exactly how the case stands' in the present instance, there are one or two points in which he does not define this quite clearly, and with your kind permission I will endeavour to show which these are. After alluding to the canoes they saw at Rockingham Bay, Mr. Jukes observes, that 'north of this the canoes improved till we came to the large ones belonging to the Papuan Islanders of Torres Straits.' The improvement in the canoes here spoken of conveys correctly the state of the case so far; but at Cape York we arrive—in the first instance on the mainland—at important canoes, with double outriggers and sails, belonging to the Australians; while next to these, increasing in size and importance, are the canoes of the Kowraregas, or natives of the Prince of Wales's Islands, who are friendly with the Gudang tribe at Cape York, and in constant communication with them. The Kowraregas are a true island tribe, more Australian than Papuan, though in many respects superior to the Australians; and it is the large canoes of these people, and not of Papuans, which we have on the Australian side of the straits. The Kowraregas intermarry both with the Australians and with the more Papuan tribes of the islands nearer New Guinea, as the Kulcalagas, Badulegas, Italegas, and others; indeed the islanders of the straits generally appear to be more or less a mixed race, with a greater or less proportion of Australian or Papuan character as their islands approach either side of the straits. The Prince of Wales's Islanders have no direct communication with New Guinea, but get ornaments, feathers, and weapons through the Badus and other tribes, who obtain them either from New Guinea or from islands immediately upon its coast, and take back in return from the Kowraregas the shell of a large flat oyster they call Marri, which is much valued by the people to the north for making breast ornaments. After speaking of the canoes of Torres Straits, with sails and outriggers, Mr. Jukes remarks, that 'west of the Gulf of Carpentaria these disappear at once; and the natives at Port Essington had nothing that could be called a canoe until they got some of the Malay sampans.' I think Mr. Jukes is right as to the disappearance of the sailing canoes west of the Gulf of Carpentaria; but the sketches of canoes taken by Mr. Banes, the artist of Mr. Gregory's expedition, and now to be seen in the chart-room of the Royal Geographical Society, show that the natives of the Goulburn Islands, upwards of two hundred miles to the westward of Cape Arnhem, on the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, have well-made paddle canoes, capable of carrying, at least, three men in a rough sea. At Port Essington we saw two kinds of wooden canoes—one brought over by the Malays, and another and smaller kind, which appeared to me to be native; but of this I am not sure, as I do not find any note about it upon my sketches of them. Macgillivray says (Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, vol. I., p. 146) that before they obtained canoes from the Malays, bark canoes were in general use among the natives here. Speaking ​with reference not only to the west, but also to all the southern coast of Australia, Mr. Jukes says that the result of his enquiries, sixteen or eighteen years ago, enabled him to ascertain that the natives of these parts of Australia 'had ​not the remotest idea of a canoe nor any kind of water conveyance whatever.' When I visited Twofold Bay, in the yacht Wanderer, soon after our arrival in Australia in that vessel, twenty years ago, we found the natives of that part had their canoes—of bark, certainly, hut still canoes in which they went out into the bay to catch fish by lines and spearing. Twofold Bay is upon the southern point of the continent, in lat. 37° 6’ 40” S. The concluding remark, in which Mr. Jukes expresses his doubt as to whether any wood grows in Australia 'large enough and light enough to make a canoe if merely hollowed out,' will surprise many, besides myself, who have visited Australia. I have before me a list of upwards of three hundred Australian trees, many of which, from their great size and other properties, must be adapted for making the largest canoes. A considerable proportion of the large Australian trees, as the black butt (Eucalyptus media?), become very hollow when they attain their greatest size. One of the most useful trees in Australia, the cedar (Cedrela Australis), is very large and light, and is cut annually in great quantities at the Bellengen, Clarence, and other rivers, and floated down to the coast for shipment to Sydney. Nearly all the Australian wooden canoes that I have seen had outriggers with floats of light wood attached; and these not only give great stability, but are calculated to support upon the surface of the water canoes made from wood which otherwise, from their weight, might not be adapted for the purpose. A friend of mine in Sydney had a canoe made from one of the Australian trees (the red-gum, I believe), and this carried upwards of fifteen people easily, without any assistance from floats or outriggers. When we were at Cape York, the natives pointed out to me the trees of which they said they made their canoes; and Macgillivray (Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, vol. II., p. 16) gives the following account of their construction at that place:—'A tree of sufficient size, free from limbs—usually a species of bombax (silk-cotton tree) or erythrina—is selected in the scrub, cut down, hollowed out where it falls, and dragged to the beach by means of long climbers used as ropes. The remaining requisites are now added; two stout poles, fourteen to twenty feet in length, are laid across the gunwale, and secured there from six to ten feet apart; and the projecting ends are secured by lashing and wooden pegs to a long float of light wood on each side, pointed, and slightly turned up at the ends. A platform or stage of small sticks laid across occupies the centre of the canoe, extending on each side several feet beyond the gunwale, and having on the outside a sort of double fence of upright sticks, used for stowing away weapons and other gear. The cable is made of twisted climbers, often the Flagellaria Indica, and a large stone serves for an anchor.' When I wrote the letter on this subject, which you did me the honor to insert in your number of the 1st inst., I had not seen Mr. Crawfurd's paper 'On Classification of the Races of Men,' published in the last volume of the 'Transactions of the Ethnological Society,' and my observations then were in consequence of the statement which I heard Mr. Crawfurd make at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, and the views attributed to him in a notice of his paper in the Times of the 29th of January last. Upon reading Mr. Jukes's letter, however, I thought that perhaps the paper itself might contain ​some reference to an 'original destitution' of the Australian natives with respect to canoes, in which Mr. Jukes believes Mr. Crawfurd to be right; but, upon looking through it, I can only find the most positive assertions (pp.. 355, 361) that the Australians 'have no canoes to this day,' and that 'even now' they cross their own rivers only on rude rafts."
Mr. Beete Jukes replied thus:—"Will you allow me to state my opinion a little more deliberately than in my hastily-written note which appeared in your number of the 8th inst.? The statements as to existing facts made by Sir D. Cooper and Mr. Brierly are, of course, beyond all question. I looked at the subject from an ethnological point of view—whether the Australians had anything of their own invention worthy of being called a canoe. Before writing the ethnological chapter in the 'Voyage of H.M.S. Fly,' published in 1847, I searched most, if not all, of the early voyages and travels for information on this matter among others. From this search, and from my own observations and enquiries made during our voyage, I came to the conclusion that, before they were visited by Europeans, the Australians had no canoes anywhere along the south, west, and north-west coasts, from Cape Howe to Cape Leuwin, and thence to Melville Island, or thereabouts. On the east coast, at Twofold Bay, Botany Bay, and the other places visited by Cook, Flinders, King, and others, as far north as Sandy Cape, the only canoes mentioned are, as I believe, the strips of bark tied together at the ends, with rough sticks to keep them open, which have been already described. I was much struck with the bark canoes about Rockingham Bay, as they resembled those I had previously seen among the Mic-Mac Indians of Newfoundland, although greatly inferior to them. The detailed description of those canoes which I find in my own notes agrees precisely with that quoted by Sir D. Cooper from Mr. Hill. The fact mentioned by Sir D. Cooper, however, that he had seen similar canoes outside Jervis and Twofold Bays, in the year 1834, is new to me, and would, had I been aware of it, have, pro tanto, modified my statements as to canoes of New South Wales. I still believe that the canoes made of hollowed trees found among the Australians of the north-east coast are either procured from the Papuan Islanders, or that, at all events, it was from these islanders that the Australian learnt how to make them. Macgillivray says, in the passage quoted by Mr. Brierly from the 'Voyage of the Rattlesnake,' that they now use iron axes, which they must of course procure from 'white men.' The larger canoes among the Torres Straits Islanders themselves must, I think, have been procured from New Guinea, whence so many of their implements are derived, ornamented with cassowary and not with emu feathers. The doubt expressed in the P.S. of my note, as to the possibility of getting trees in Australia large enough and light enough to make canoes, if hollowed out, is certainly of too sweeping a character; for I had hardly posted the note before I recollected the beautiful pine-trees which grow in such profusion about Whitsunday Passage and the neighbourhood—a part of the Australian coast much superior in aspect, and, I believe, in value, to any ​other portion of any side of it. The statements of Macgillivray and Mr. Brierly show clearly that I was wrong in this. Still the generality of Australian trees are ill adapted for such a purpose. It was always said in the Australian Colonies that none of the native woods would float in water. Whether that be true or not, almost all the large trees of the greater part of Australia are at the same time heavy, hard, and brittle, readily splitting into slabs or splinters, but not easily cut across the grain. It is probably in great measure the nature of their woods which has prevented the Australians from becoming as advanced in the arts of life as the Papuans, who have in New Guinea not only large canoes of solid timber, but powerful bows, and large, well-constructed houses, built on the stumps of stout trees, all cut down to one uniform level by stone hatchets not very much superior to those used by the Australians. I am not speaking of what might be done by Europeans with Australian woods, but solely endeavouring to learn the condition of the Australians before they came into contact with either Papuans, Malays, or Europeans. My own impression was that their intercourse with the former had not been of very much earlier date than that with either of the latter, and that it was from the Papuan Islanders of Torres Straits that the art of canoe-making was making its way among the Australians when they were first visited by Europeans. It appeared to me that this art had spread from Torres Straits, as from a centre, down the east coast to Twofold Bay and Cape Howe, and along the north coast not nearly so far, in consequence of the great indentation of the Gulf of Carpentaria, with its barren and therefore uninviting shores. I feel sure that we were told at Port Essington that the natives had no wooden canoes before that coast was visited by the Malays. Can any one now give any certain information as to Port Phillip before it was colonized? Had the natives any canoes there? And what kind of canoes were they?"
It is not necessary to add anything to the statements already made respecting the use of canoes by the natives of Australia, nor to reply to the questions put by the late Mr. Beete Jukes. The letters which appeared in the Athenæum show how things the most obvious may be overlooked altogether, or, if seen, misunderstood, by trained observers of the highest ability. And travellers, who have to depend on hastily-made observations, or on the apparently accurate accounts of settlers less informed than themselves, should refrain from too hastily drawing conclusions.
* ↑ Some of these trees were shown to me by Mr. Bee, the superintendent of Mr. Feehan's station, which occupies an area that was once debatable land, held alternately by the tribes of Gippsland and those who had their head-quarters at and near Western Port.
* ↑ The History of Australian Discovery and Colonization, by Samuel Bennett, p. 266.
* ↑ Western Australia: its History, Progress, Condition, and Prospects, by W. H. Knight, p. 106. The natives of Tasmania had canoes, and they were described more than seventy years ago. They are referred to in another part of this work. Mr. Taplin says that the natives around Lake Alexandrina make canoes exactly like those used in Victoria. Oxley, in 1817, saw a bark canoe on a lake near Port Macquarie sufficiently large to hold nine men, and in form it resembled a boat. Mitchell (1838) found that the natives could strip a tree of its bark, and form a canoe, and propel it through the water with astonishing case and swiftness. Abel Tasman states that the proas of the natives of the north-west coast, which he saw, were made of the "bark of trees;" and Capt. Stokes gives an account of the rafts formed of poles of the palm-tree, and propelled by a very rude double-bladed paddle, which, he supposes, may have misled Tasman. The raft of unbarked timber, he thinks, may have been mistaken by Tasman for a bark canoe. Mr. Martin gives the following account of the crafts used at Roebuck Bay:—"As this race of people have no rivers or deep-sea inlets to cross, the craft commonly used by the natives of the Glenelg district is of rare occurrence here. These consist of three or four mangrove sticks, about six or seven feet in length, pegged together with pine. The ends of all the sticks are carefully sharpened, and only such sticks as are naturally bent to a suitable shape appear to be chosen. About the middle of the canoe there is a pine pin projecting six or seven inches on either side, probably affording a similar support to the native mariner as a stirrup does to a horseman. Of course there is no attempt to make a bottom to the canoe, nor do the specimens seen show the least sign of ornamentation. There is a red-ochreous stain to be detected upon them here and there, but we account for them as having been communicated from the persons of the natives colored with wilgi (red-ochre)." The Messrs. Jardine, in the narrative of their overland expedition from Rockhampton to Cape York, give a description of the canoes of the natives of the northern part of Australia. They say:—"The greatest ingenuity which the natives display is in the construction and balancing of their canoes. These are formed from the trunk of the cotton-tree (cochlospermum), hollowed out. The wood is soft and spongy, and becomes very light when dry. The canoes are sometimes more than fifty feet in length, and arc each capable of containing twelve or fifteen natives. The hull is balanced and steadied in the water by two outrigger poles, laid athwart, having a float of light wood fastened across them at each end, so that it is impossible for them to upset. A stage is formed on the canoe where the outriggers cross, on which is carried the fishing gear, and invariably, also, fire. The canoes are propelled by short paddles, or a sail of palm-leaf matting when the wind is fair." Mr. J. A. Panton states, from information furnished by Mr. Halpin, of the Leigh Road, near Geelong, that the canoes of the Cape York natives are of superior build to any others in Australia. Some are forty-five feet in length and three feet in beam. They are cut from a solid log, and fitted with a sort of deck or framework, about twelve feet in length, and fixed amidships, overhanging the sides about three feet. This upper deck has an outer railing, and within it and the deck are kept the fishing-lines, spears, &c. All the natives of Australia, and the natives of Tasmania, have been acquainted with rude modes of transport by water for a long period, and the time when the first bark canoe was made will never be known. The woods in Australia are hard, but eminently fitted for the construction of canoes; and they no doubt would have been used by the natives if the bark had not offered a substitute, at once easy to obtain and easy of manipulation. I have in my possession (fashioned by the natives) a large wooden tarnuk (water vessel), formed of the wood of the eucalyptus. It is fifteen inches in length, twelve inches in breadth, and six inches in depth. It is from three to four inches in thickness, and is very heavy; but it is buoyant on water. Any large sound gum-tree, if shaped and hollowed, would make an excellent canoe.
* ↑ "In nothing do the Andamaners show their skill more than in canoe-making. . . . . In the making and management of canoes they are simply unapproachable, even though their tools are of the rudest possible description."—Natural History of Man, by J. G. Wood, vol. II., p. 213. Capt. Mouatt's description of the canoes of the Andamaners, quoted in the Rev. Mr. Wood's work, gives one a high idea of the skill of these islanders.
* ↑ Voyage autour du Monde. Freycinet.
* ↑ From the descriptions I have given, it may appear to the reader that it is very easy to make a bark canoe. The natives indeed make such vessels without much labor, but a European would find it difficult to imitate them. Mr. Hamilton Hume, in the account of his expedition from Lake George to Port Phillip, says, that being determined to cross the River Murrumbidgee, when flooded, he set out in search of a sheet of bark suitable for a canoe, such as the natives use; after a good deal of trouble, he got the bark, and succeeded in forming a canoe, but unfortunately, and to his great disappointment, it cracked and became useless for his purpose. He attributed this to the fact that it was late in the season, that the sap was down, and that the bark had set to the wood. His skill and enterprise were, however, exerted in a different manner; and he safely crossed the river in his cart, under which he had fastened a tarpaulin.—Overland Expedition to Port Phillip. Hamilton Hume, 1824.
* ↑ Athenæum, p. 304, 1st March 1862.
* ↑ Ibid, p. 331, 8th March 1862.
* ↑ Athenæum, p. 364, 15th March 1862.
* ↑ In Macgillivray's work it is stated that at Rockingham Bay the canoes are constructed of a single sheet of bark of the gutn-tree, brought together at the ends and secured by stitching. The sitter squats down with his legs doubled under him, and uses a small square piece of bark in each hand as paddles, with one of which he also bales the water out by dexterously scooping it up from behind him. At Port Essington the natives at one period used bark canoes, but at the time of his visit (1846) such vessels were completely superseded by others, hollowed out of the trunk of a tree, which they procure, ready-made, from the Malays, in exchange for tortoise-shell, and in return for assistance in collecting trepang. He gives the following description of the canoes seen by him at Coral Haven, in the Louisiade Archipelago:—"The usual length is about twenty-five feet, and one of this size carries from seven to ten people. The body is formed by the hollowed-out trunk of a tree, tapering and rising at each end, short and rounded behind, but in front run out into a long beak. A stout plank on each side raises the canoe a foot, forming a gunwale secured by knees, the seam at the junction being payed over with a black pitch-like substance. This gunwale is open at the stern, the ends not being connected, but the bow is closed by a raised end-board, fancifully carved and painted, in front of which a crest-like wooden ornament fits into a groove running along the beak. This figure-head, called tabúra, is elaborately cut into various devices, painted red and white, and decorated with white egg-shells and feathers of the cassowary and bird of paradise. The bow and stern also are more or less profusely ornamented with these shells, which besides are strung about other parts of the canoe, usually in pairs. An outrigger extends along nearly the whole length of the left or port side of the canoe. In its construction there are employed from six to eight poles, two inches in diameter, which rest against one side of the body of the canoe, and are secured there; then passing out through the opposite side about five feet, inclining slightly upwards at the same time, are connected at the ends by lashing to a long stout pole completing the strong framework required for the support of the boat. This last is a long and narrow log of a soft and very light wood (probably a cotton-tree), rising a little and pointed at each end, so as to offer the least possible resistance to the water. Four sticks passing diagonally downwards from each of the transverse poles are sunk into the boat, and firmly secure it. A strip of the inner portion of the outrigger frame is converted into a flat form by long sticks laid lengthways close to each other;—here the sails, masts, poles, spears, and other articles are laid when not in use. The paddles vary slightly in form, but are usually about four feet in length, with a slender handle and a pointed lance-shaped blade. The number of men able to use the paddles is regulated in each canoe by that of supporting outrigger poles, the end of each of which, in conjunction with one of the knees supporting the gunwale, serves as a seat. One sitter at each end, being clear of the outrigger, is able to use his paddle on either side as requisite in steering, but the others paddle on the right or starboard side only. The man seated at the stern closes with his body the opening between the ends of the raised gunwale, and thus keeps out the spray or wash of the sea. Still they require to bale frequently, using for this purpose the large shell of Melo Ethiopica. . . . . The sails are from twelve to fifteen feet in length and a yard wide—made of coarse matting of the leaf of the cocoa-nut tree stretched between two slender poles. The mast is stepped with an outward inclination into one of three or four holes in a narrow shifting board in the bottom of the canoe, and is secured near the top to a slender stick of similar length made fast to the outside part of the outrigger; a second pole is then erected, stretching diagonally outwards and secured to the outer one near its centre. Against the framework thus formed the sails are stuck up on end, side by side, to the number of three or four, occasionally even five, and kept in their places by long sticks placed transversely, their ends as well as those of the mast being sharpened to serve as skewers which in the first instance secure the sails."—Voyage of the Rattlesnake, vol. I., pp. 202-4. Another canoe, of a somewhat different construction, but also formed of the hollowed-out trunk of a tree, was seen near Rossel Island. The natives of Brumer Island use catamarans. One nine feet long, consisted, according to Macgillivray, of three thick planks lashed together, forming a sort of raft, which one man sitting a little behind the middle, with his legs doubled under him, managed very dexterously with his paddle. Others were seen of a larger size, capable of carrying a dozen people with their effects. The canoe of this part of New Guinea is about twenty-five feet in length, is made of the trunk of a tree, and carries seven or eight people. It is carved, as is also the catamaran. Small temporary sails are used for the canoes. Near Redscar, canoes were observed similar to those in use at Brumer and Dufaure Islands, but there were slight differences noticed in the arrangement of the outriggers and outrigger floats.
* ↑ Athenæum, p. 397, 22nd March 1862.
* ↑ Athenæum, p. 431, 29th March 1862.