VOYAGE OF THE "PERA" AND " AERNEM " 49 



or pot herbs. When we had got into the boat again, the BLACKS emerged with their 

 weapons from two different points of the bush and came out on the strand. There 

 we enticed them with iron and beads which we held out, till we got close to them, 

 and one of them, who had dropped his weapon, was seized round the waist by the 

 skipper, and then the quartermaster threw a noose round his neck, by which he was 

 dragged to the boat. The others, seeing this, tried to help the captive, furiously 

 throwing their assegais, so that, in our defence, one of them was shot dead, and the 

 others ran away, upon which we embarked without further delay. These men are, 

 like all the others, pitch black and quite naked, with a braided net on their head. Their 

 weapons are assegais, callaways and shields. Beyond this, we cannot give any account 

 of their manners or their ceremonies, or of how the land is populated, on which points 

 we could throw no light, with the few opportunities which we had for exploration or 

 examination. As to what relates thereto, Your Worships may in time, please God ! 

 get something out of the captive, to whom I refer you. The above-named river lies 

 in latitude 13 7', and is entitled the REVIER COEN in the new chart. In the afternoon, 

 the wind W. Set sail, course N., along the land, and in the evening anchored in 3 

 fathoms." [MARGINAL NOTE." The Revier Coen lies in lat. 13 7'."] 



[EDITORIAL NOTE. It is quite clear from the narrative that 

 the " Pera " anchored on yth May in lat. 13 7', and that on the 

 following morning a party landed, probably on a beach, and 

 without having observed any inlet, but having found human 

 footprints, followed them north to a river which they named the 

 COEN (the COEN, de jure). 1 Nothing is said as to whether the 

 water was fresh or salt, the only observation made being that the 

 neighbourhood yielded esculent herbs (pigweed ?). There cannot 

 be a river of any importance in this locality, as the Ward River, 

 running from north to south, a few miles to the east, restricts the 

 possible catchment area of the Coen within very narrow limits. 



The name Coen has been irrevocably attached to a river (the 

 COEN, de Jac to) rising near the Pacific coast in lat. 13 5 O/ and 

 which falls into the still larger Archer River, which empties into 

 the Gulf of Carpentaria in 13 20'. GOLD was found in this 

 river in 1876, by a party of prospectors, who erroneously identified 

 it with Carstenszoon's Coen River. The establishment of a 

 township named Coen, with a post and telegraph office, followed 

 in due course. As it had become impossible to confer a new name 

 on the Coen, de Jacto, the Survey Office has begun to call the 

 river of the goldfield the SOUTH COEN, to distinguish it from the 

 COEN, de jure, which it would be an historical injustice to omit 

 from the map. It remains to be seen whether the name of South 

 Coen will receive popular recognition. 



It is quite clear that the landing party had for their walk 

 north and south only the time between daylight and noon, when 

 they returned to the " Pera," less the time taken by (breakfast ?), 

 rowing ashore, tracking the footprints, gathering herbs, fighting 



1 In the course of the " Investigator's " survey, FLINDERS landed on yth November, 

 1802, at an inlet in 12 13' S., which he described in his Chart as " INLET, PROBABLY 

 COEN R. OF THE OLD CHARTS." It was a most unfortunate misidentification, which 

 has given rise to much confusion. What Flinders took to be the " COEN RIVER of the 

 old charts " is now charted as the PENNEFATHER RIVER, but had been called the Prince 

 Revier by Tasman in 1644. 



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