2<5o NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



PORT ALBANY (" Rattlesnake" I, p. 132). The pinnace was sent 

 to BOOBY ISLAND and found letters. 



About the same time that the " Rattlesnake " arrived at Cape 

 York, five canoes arrived from Mount Adolphus Island, temporarily 

 increasing the population of Evans Bay to about 150 men, women 

 and children. They visited the ship and were friendly and well 

 treated. They only stayed a few days, and then dispersed along 

 the coast to the south. Stanley considered Cape York a suitable 

 locality for a military post, such as was then contemplated, as 

 Port Essington was not answering the purpose for which it had 

 been founded. In Evans Bay, water was obtainable only in wells, 

 and he judged a small sandy bay on Albany Island to be preferable. 

 MacGillivray noted the occurrence of porphyry in the vicinity 

 of Cape York and of sandstone cliffs, 30 feet high, on ALBANY 

 ISLAND. 



It had been " arranged " that KENNEDY should be at Cape 

 York by the beginning of October, but such arrangements are 

 liable to be overruled by unforeseen circumstances. The schooner 

 " Ariel" Captain Dobson, sent from Sydney, with Dr. Adoniah 

 Vallack and another man as reinforcements, and with sheep and other 

 provisions for Kennedy, arrived at Cape York on zyth October. 



The " Rattlesnake " or the " Bramble " was constantly on the 

 look out for the expected arrival of the land party till 2nd November, 

 when this duty was delegated to the " Ariel" It was not till 

 23rd December that Kennedy's aboriginal " boy " JACKEY-]ACKEY, 

 sole survivor of the forlorn hope which had attempted a "dash " 

 to Cape York (Kennedy and his three white companions having 

 perished), more than half dead, hailed the " Ariel " from the 

 shore. It has already been related how Captain Dobson took 

 Jackey-Jackey on board the " Ariel " and sailed promptly to the 

 relief of the main body of the expedition marooned in WEYMOUTH 

 BAY and rescued the two survivors, CARRON and GODDARD, on 

 3oth December. 



The " Rattlesnake " and " Bramble " left Evans Bay on 2nd 

 November and reached BOOBY ISLAND on the ^th, having passed 

 through PRINCE OF WALES CHANNEL. The " Rattlesnake " arrived 

 at PORT ESSINGTON on gtb November, 1848, and at SYDNEY on 24^ 

 January, 1849. 



The " Bramble " was left at Booby Island with instructions 

 to finish some work in Endeavour Strait and the Inner Passage, 

 and was then to proceed to Sydney. She passed WEYMOUTH BAY 

 on 1st and 2nd December, full in sight of the party dying of sickness 

 and starvation and frantically making signals of distress. (SEE 

 MAP B.) CARRON has described with a glowing pen the elation 

 arising from the certainty of being snatched from the very jaws 

 of death and the subsequent agony of despair when their hopes 

 were dashed to the ground. 



