THE WESTERN RIVERS OF THE PENINSULA 651 



known to be taken by the WARD RIVER, it is impossible that the 

 Coen River can be of any importance as a water-course, and equally 

 impossible that it can be the river on w r hich the goldfield was 

 subsequently discovered. What was, however, of importance was 

 that its banks yielded ESCULENT HERBS, which the sailors gathered 

 and carried back to the boat. To a crew of those days, in constant 

 dread of scurvy, the herbs were of inestimable value. 1 On returning 

 to the boat, they were attacked by the NATIVES, whom they beat 

 off, making one PRISONER. It was a busy day, and we can only 

 conjecture how far the men travelled on foot north of the landing 

 in 13 7', in the time when they were not gathering herbs, fighting 

 or rowing. When they got back to the " Pera" her anchor was 

 lifted and she resumed her voyage to the north. It is easy to 

 recognise, from the log, that in due time they passed PERA HEAD, 

 with its "watering-place," and crossed ALBATROSS BAY to DUYFKEN 

 POINT. 



I regard it as proved beyond question that Carstenszoon's 

 Coen is not the Coen (South Coen) of the diggings, and that in 

 spite of their powers of observation, the men of the " Pera " passed 

 the mouth of the Archer without taking note of it. 



South of the Archer, and below the infall of the South Coen, 

 the former river receives a long west-to-east tributary recognisable 

 as the JARDINE BROTHERS' KINLOCH CREEK, and the true position 

 of this was fixed by Mr. Embley in the course of his " Rokeby " 

 and " Meta Downs " surveys (1885-6). North of the Archer he 

 has traced PICCANINNY CREEK and its tributaries from their sources 

 in the Geikie Range, across the Telegraph line north and south of 

 MEIN TELEGRAPH STATION, through PINE CREEK cattle station to 

 its junction with the ARCHER at the south-western corner of " Meta 

 Downs No. 3 " block. A few miles below the junction the Jardine 

 Brothers crossed the Archer in 1865. 



BATAVIA RIVER 



In 1885-6, in the course of his surveys of the " York Downs " 

 pastoral blocks and the " Thirty-mile Line," Mr. Embley charted 

 the course of the Batavia River from its mouth in the estuary, 

 named Port Musgrave, common to it and the Ducie and Dalhunty 

 livers, to a point 6 miles above what subsequently became the 

 Moreton Telegraph Station, a total distance of about 95 miles. 

 (SEE MAPS B AND C.) Not long afterwards he found it convenient 



1 The above was written prior to the receipt of a letter, dated 5th February, 1919. 



om Mr Nicholas Hey, of the Mapoon Mission. He locates a small water-course falling 



the Gulf in 13 4' S. lat, which as yet has no place on official maps, but which it is 



o call Norman Creek. THIS is CARSTENSZOON'S COBN RJEVIER. Mr. Hey 



emphatically asserts that there is no other water-course between Ina Creek and False 



Pera Head with the exception of a small trickle of fresh water (in the wet season only) 



about a mile south of False Pera Head. He adds that in all this neighbourhood pigweed 



is abundant, and is eaten by the natives. 



