Australian Islamist Monitor

From my sources in North Queensland, these beliefs are not evident within the aboriginal and Torress Straight islanders (thank goodness).

Do you have any references to Flinders diary about the Macassans?

[NORTH COAST. ENGLISH COMPANY'S ISLANDS.]

After clearing the narrow passage between Cape Wilberforce and Bromby's
Isles, we followed the main coast to the S. W.; having on the starbord
hand some high and large islands, which closed in towards the coast ahead
so as to make it doubtful whether there were any passage between them.
Under the nearest island was perceived a canoe full of men; and in a sort
of roadsted, at the south end of the same island, there were six vessels
covered over like hulks, as if laid up for the bad season. Our
conjectures were various as to who those people could be, and what their
business here; but we had little doubt of their being the same, whose
traces had been found so abundantly in the Gulph. I had inclined to the
opinion that these traces had been left by Chinese, and the report of the
natives in Caledon Bay that they had fire arms, strengthened the
supposition; and combining this with the appearance of the vessels, I set
them down for piratical Ladrones who secreted themselves here from
pursuit, and issued out as the season permitted, or prey invited them.
Impressed with this idea, we tacked to work up for the road; and our
pendant and ensign being hoisted, each of them hung out a small white
flag. On approaching, I sent lieutenant Flinders in an armed boat, to
learn who they were; and soon afterward we came to an anchor in 12
fathoms, within musket shot; having a spring on the cable, and all hands
at quarters.

Every motion in the whale boat, and in the vessel along-side which she
was lying, was closely watched with our glasses, but all seemed to pass
quietly; and on the return of lieutenant Flinders, we learned that they
were prows from Macassar, and the six Malay commanders shortly afterwards
came on board in a canoe. It happened fortunately that my cook was a
Malay, and through his means I was able to communicate with them. The
chief of the six prows was a short, elderly man, named _Pobassoo_; he
said there were upon the coast, in different divisions, sixty prows, and
that _Salloo_ was the commander in chief. These people were Mahometans,
and on looking into the launch, expressed great horror to see hogs there;
nevertheless they had no objection to port wine, and even requested a
bottle to carry away with them at sunset.

The weather continued squally all night, with frequent heavy rain, and
the wind blew strong; but coming off the islands, the ship rode easily.
In the morning [FRIDAY 18 FEBRUARY 1803], I went on board Pobassoo's
vessel, with two of the gentlemen and my interpreter, to make further
inquiries; and afterwards the six chiefs came to the Investigator, and
several canoes were along-side for the purpose of barter. Before noon,
five other prows steered into the road from the S. W., anchoring near the
former six; and we had more people about the ship than I chose to admit
on board, for each of them wore a short dagger or cress by his side. My
people were under arms, and the guns were exercised and a shot fired at
the request of the chiefs; in the evening they all retired quietly, but
our guns were kept ready and half the people at quarters all night. The
weather was very rainy; and towards morning [SATURDAY 19 FEBRUARY 1803],
much noise was heard amongst the prows. At daylight they got under sail,
and steered through the narrow passage between Cape Wilberforce and
Bromby's Isles, by which we had come; and afterwards directed their
course south-eastward into the Gulph of Carpentaria.

My desire to learn every thing concerning these people, and the strict
look-out which it had been necessary to keep upon them, prevented me
attending to any other business during their stay. According to Pobassoo,
from whom my information was principally obtained, sixty prows belonging
to the Rajah of Boni, and carrying one thousand men, had left Macassar
with the north-west monsoon, two months before, upon an expedition to
this coast; and the fleet was then lying in different places to the
westward, five or six together, Pobasso's division being the foremost.
These prows seemed to be about twenty-five tons, and to have twenty or
twenty-five men in each; that of Pobassoo carried two small brass guns,
obtained from the Dutch, but the others had only muskets; besides which,
every Malay wears a cress or dagger, either secretly or openly. I
inquired after bows and arrows, and the _ippo_ poison, but they had none
of them; and it was with difficulty they could understand what was meant
by the _ippo_.

The object of their expedition was a certain marine animal, called
_trepang_. Of this they gave me two dried specimens; and it proved to be
the _beche-de-mer_, or sea cucumber which we had first seen on the reefs
of the East Coast, and had afterwards hauled on shore so plentifully with
the seine, especially in Caledon Bay. They get the _trepang_ by diving,
in from 3 to 8 fathoms water; and where it is abundant, a man will bring
up eight or ten at a time. The mode of preserving it is this: the animal
is split down one side, boiled, and pressed with a weight of stones; then
stretched open by slips of bamboo, dried in the sun, and afterwards in
smoke, when it is fit to be put away in bags, but requires frequent
exposure to the sun. A thousand trepang make a _picol_, of about 125
Dutch pounds; and one hundred picols are a cargo for a prow. It is
carried to Timor, and sold to the Chinese, who meet them there; and when
all the prows are assembled, the fleet returns to Macassar. By Timor,
seemed to be meant Timor-laoet; for when I inquired concerning the
English, Dutch, and Portuguese there, Pobassoo knew nothing of them: he
had heard of Coepang, a Dutch settlement, but said it was upon another
island.

There are two kinds of trepang. The black, called _baatoo_, is sold to
the Chinese for forty dollars the picol; the white, or grey, called
_koro_, is worth no more than twenty. The _baatoo_ seems to be what we
found upon the coral reefs near the Northumberland Islands; and were a
colony established in Broad Sound or Shoalwater Bay, it might perhaps
derive considerable advantage from the trepang. In the Gulph of
Carpentaria, we did not observe any other than the _koro_, or grey slug.

Pobassoo had made six or seven voyages from Macassar to this coast,
within the preceding twenty years, and he was one of the first who came;
but had never seen any ship here before. This road was the first
rendezvous for his division, to take in water previously to going into
the Gulph. One of their prows had been lost the year before, and much
inquiry was made concerning the pieces of wreck we had seen; and a
canoe's rudder being produced, it was recognised as having belonged to
her. They sometimes had skirmishes with the native inhabitants of the
coast; Pobassoo himself had been formerly speared in the knee, and a man
had been slightly wounded since their arrival in this road: they
cautioned us much to beware of the natives.*

[* A question suggests itself here: Could the natives of the west side of
the Gulph of Carpentaria have learned the rite of circumcision from these
Malay Mahometans? From the short period that the latter had frequented
the coast, and the nature of the intercourse between the two people, it
seems to me very little probable.]

They had no knowledge of any European settlement in this country; and on
learning the name Port Jackson, the son of Pobassoo made a memorandum of
it as thus, (foreign characters), writing from left to right. Until this
time, that some nutmegs were shown to them, they did not know of their
being produced here; nor had they ever met with cocoa nuts, bananas, or
other edible fruits or vegetables; fish, and sometimes turtle, being all
they procured. I inquired if they knew of any rivers or openings leading
far inland, if they made charts of what they saw, or used any charts? To
all which Pobassoo answered in the negative. There was a river at Timor,
into which the ship could go; and he informed me of two turtle islands,
one of them not far to the north-west of our situation in the road; the
other would be seen from the mast head as we sailed along the shore.

I could find no other nautical instrument amongst them than a very small
pocket compass, apparently of Dutch manufacture; by this their course is
directed at sea, without the aid of any chart or astronomical
observation. They carry a month's water, in joints of bamboo; and their
food is rice, cocoa nuts, and dried fish, with a few fowls for the
chiefs. The black _gummotoo_ rope, of which we had found pieces at Sir
Edward Pellew's Group, was in use on board the prows; and they said it
was made from the same palm whence the sweet syrup, called _gulah_, is
obtained.

My numberless questions were answered patiently, and with apparent
sincerity; Pobassoo even stopped one day longer at my desire, than he had
intended, for the north-west monsoon, he said, would not blow quite a
month longer, and he was rather late. I rewarded his trouble and that of
his companions with several presents, principally iron tools, which they
seemed anxious to possess; and he begged of me an English jack, which he
afterwards carried at the head of his squadron. He also expressed a
desire for a letter, to show to any other ship he might meet; and I
accordingly wrote him a note to captain Baudin, whom it seemed probable
he might encounter in the Gulph, either going or returning.

They believed evil had entered their world forever.