60 
Notes on the 
of a second river which we discovered at this time, and 
named the Flinders, as a just tribute to the memory of 
one to whom Australian discovery owes so much. Like 
the Albert, it flowed through a rich alluvial soil in its 
upper part; but it was too much obstructed by sand-banks 
to promise, like the other, to be the Nile of the district 
which it waters. 
On Sweer’s Island at the bottom of the gulf we found 
an old mangrove tree, with the inscription investigator 
1802 still perfectly legible on its twisted trunk; and 
on the other side we left a similar memorial of the 
Beagle's visit. 
After examining nearly 200 miles of the south shore; 
we returned up the east coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, 
to make some necessary observations in Endeavour 
Straits. We nearly followed the tracks of the Dutch 
voyagers and our great countryman Flinders; and were 
too close to the east coast to have any means of judging 
of the nature of the central parts of the gulf. But it may 
possibly contain islands. Flinders, at Batavia River, saw 
flocks of ducks flying in towards the land, as if from some 
no very distant roosting-places. Cocoa-nuts and other 
vegetable matters have been found, washed by the S.E. 
monsoon, upon the N W. shores of the gulf. The 
native traders of Macassar tell a story of a prahu with 
its crew being blown to leeward in the monsoon, and 
falling in with an unknown and uninhabited island, far 
out to sea, upon which they found cocoa-nuts and sub¬ 
sisted for three months. These traders are said to frequent 
the western coast of the gulf as far down as the Wellesley 
Islands, trading for trepang (sea slug) and red ochre, and 
fishing their way back along the coast as far as Port 
Essington. They start in December, January, and 
February. They report the natives on the w r est side of the 
Gulf of Carpentaria to be docile and well disposed. The 
