October 1839 - January 1840

My second trip to Encounter Bay.

( 147 ) Partly to inquire whether the house promised to me at Encounter Bay would soon be ready, and partly to see what the situation of the natives would be after the fishing began, I traveled to Encounter Bay.

October 10th, 1839.
Mr. Fiedler was kind enough to lend me his Timoran, which would have been an even greater relief if the stingy protector hadn't gone along on foot. We had to spend the first night in the bush and without water because we had lost the trail and it did not seem advisable to continue walking in the dark. However, the next morning it turned out that we were not far from the halfway police station in Willunga.

October 11th, 1839.
After we had breakfast at the last place, we set off again, this time on the new, closer road. There was a track, but it was so indistinct in places that we lost the way again about 2 German miles before Encounter Bay.

( 148 ) We now traveled by the compass and the approximate, and I had enough trouble to keep the Protector [on the way] that he did not lead me to Lake Murray or Lake Alexandrina; We almost exchanged words about this. We reached our destination before sunset, a considerable difference from the previous time, when it took us almost four days. When we passed the police office, I immediately inquired about my house (a police supervisor is going to build it) and received the sad news that the builder hadn't arrived yet, that the building materials were completely missing, that three other houses besides mine were to be built for the government, and that they didn't know when mine would be next. However, they were able to show me the place. It is close to the beach, on fresh sand washed up by the sea; Opposite the sea is the towering tall granite island, to which you can wade through water from the shore at low tide.

October 12th, 1839.
This morning I went to the one fishery that wasn't completely deserted. The previous time I found many natives camped near them: but now ( 149 ) there were only three huts, which were still mostly inhabited by blind or otherwise weak and old women. The large pile which was formerly encamped at Liniboanunga, and whose area was said to be near Lake Alexandrina, had entirely disappeared, in consequence of a war with [the] Encounter Bay natives proper. A young man, so told me Mr. Hall's surveyor, had stayed there and was hit straight in the left eye by the spear. The reason for this dispute is said to have been that the Parkameyo, or those from the shores of the lake, had laid claim to a whale that had been caught by