Nov. 9, 1857.] 
NORTH AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION. 
9 
the acid pulp of which, boiled up with sugar, greatly relieved the 
men, who were suffering from scurvy. 
On Thursday, the 17th of July, we weighed and proceeded down the 
river, leaving a bottle with a letter, and a board with directions for 
finding it, on Entrance Island, as I had done already at the camp. On 
the 22nd we reached Point Pearce, and on the 25th we ran along the 
coast of Timor and worked into the bay of Coepang, where we 
anchored within half a mile of the beach opposite the town. The 
vessel had made but little water, and, as the sailors were still weak, 
I divided my own men into watches to work the pumps when neces- 
sary. The south coast of Timor seemed composed of mountains and 
rounded hills of moderate height, the latter covered with forest, 
and the lower slopes with cocoa-nut trees and other tropical vege- 
tation. A small river runs from a gap in these toward the town ; 
the water is fresh to within a hundred yards of the sea at low water, 
when there is hardly a foot of water on the bar, but vessels draw- 
ing six feet can enter with the tide. Fort Concordia stands at the 
mouth of the river, on a rock, apparently of old coral. 
The Dutch resident, T. Yan Capellen, was very kind to us ; and 
though the master of the schooner had much difficulty in provision- 
ing the vessel, I was in hopes that I could not only procure the 
supplies for the expedition, but assist him in those required for his 
crew, when the vessel was declared unfit to return east, and I 
had to run 600 miles to the westward to Surabaya, in Java — the 
strong south-east wind, which carried us thither, precluding all 
hope of our being able to work back again in less than six or eight 
weeks. 
The Indian islands appeared very mountainous, and smoke was 
emitted from several volcanoes. Some of the hills in Java and 
Bali were 3000 or 4000 feet in height, but to the northward, as we 
passed through the narrowest part of the strait of Madura, towards 
Surabaya, the coast shelved down till it became an extensive flat, 
with broad mudbanks and shoals in the channel. The canoes and 
proas, under the immense triangular sails which their outriggers 
enable them to support, were very beautiful and picturesque, and 
I sketched several of them. 
The town of Surabaya is situated on the Kedirie or Kaliemaas 
River, two miles from its mouth, opposite which the vessels lie, 
and passengers go up either in carriages or native boats, towed up 
by men walking on the bank. 
The breaking of the Tom Tough’s mainmast, while she was 
hove down for repairs, obliged me to discharge her, and having 
engaged a brigantine, the Messenger, on the 26th of August, every- 
