THE EAST COAST AND THE COAST RANGE 203 



specific object of surveying the " Inner Passage," viz., that between 

 the eastern side of Cape York Peninsula and the Barrier Reef. 1 



The ship was also to carry Kennedy's party to Rockingham Bay 

 and assist in their debarkation and start. The two vessels anchored 

 on 2$rd May under the lea of the westmost of the Family Islands 

 group, and the debarkation was accomplished on the two following 

 days. The " Rattlesnake " carried a distinguished group of 

 naturalists, among whom was THOMAS HUXLEY, Assistant Surgeon. 

 Huxley accompanied Kennedy, before the " Rattlesnake " sailed, 

 on an excursion made by the explorer " for the purpose of searching 

 a way out from the low swampy district of Rockingham Bay," and 

 contributed a drawing, reproduced in the Narrative of the Voyage, 

 of a scene entitled " Cutting through the Scrub." Kennedy is 

 represented hacking at vines with a tomahawk, and is followed by 

 a man carrying a gun. Both men lead spirited and gaily-capar- 

 isoned horses. MacGillivray remarks : 



" I last saw poor Kennedy on the evening before he broke up his camp : he was 

 then in high spirits and confident of success. The party, of 13 men and 28 horses 

 (with carts, a flock of sheep for food, etc.), appeared to be furnished with every requisite 

 for their intended journey, and the arrangements and appointments seemed to me 

 to be perfect. Nor did I, despite the forebodings of others, argue anything but a 

 successful result to an undertaking, the blame of which was afterwards attempted to 

 be thrown upon those who had planned it." a 



We learn from the Narrative of the Voyage that Kennedy's 

 original plan was to explore first to the east of the dividing range ; 

 to meet a vessel 8 which was to wait at Cape York with supplies ; 

 and then to make his way southward by the west coast to the south- 

 east corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and make his way back, as 

 might be found convenient, to the nearest settlement. It was a 

 gigantic undertaking, and its success obviously depended upon the 

 endurance of the horses, regarding which bushmen of experience 

 might well have entertained serious forebodings. 



It appears also that H.M.S. " Bramble " was to be in PRINCESS 

 CHARLOTTE BAY in the beginning of August* and Kennedy expected 

 to obtain SUPPLIES from her. He arrived, however, too late, and 

 abandoned the attempt to reach the coast on I3th October, in the 

 belief that the " Bramble " must have left the rendezvous. 



Kennedy was provided with a SEXTANT and must also have 

 carried a CHRONOMETER/ as, in the few instances where the latitude 

 is given and the still fewer instances where the longitude is recorded, 

 the figures are as accurate as could be expected in the circumstances. 



1 Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. " Rattlesnake," commanded by the late Captain 

 Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S., etc., during the Years 1846-50. By John MacGillivray, 

 F.R.G.S., Naturalist to the Expedition. London, T. and W. Boone, 1852. 



2 With all due respect to MacGillivray's high attainments in his own line of study, 

 the value of his opinion on a question of bush equipment may be doubted. 



3 The " Rattlesnake " herself, according to Carron. 



4 Carron's Narrative, quoted in " Rattlesnake," Vol. II, p. 203. 



6 The search party from the " Freak " found " part of a key belonging to a chrono- 

 meter " on the site of the Pascoe camp on 3rd May, 1849. 



