308 WINI AND THE 



his companions^ some three or four in number. In 

 course of time he became the most important 

 person in the tribe^ having* grained an ascendancy 

 by procuring" the death of his principal enemies and 

 intimidatino- others, which led to the establishment 

 of his fame as a warrior^ and he became in conse- 

 quence the possessor of several wives^ a canoe^ and 

 some property in land^ the cultivation of which last 

 he pays g^reat attention to. Wini^s character ap- 

 pears from the accounts I have heard— for others 

 corroborated part of Gi'om's statement— to be a com- 

 pound of villany and cunning-^ in addition to the 

 ferocity and headstrong- passions of a thoroug-h 

 savage^ — it strikes me that he must have been a 

 runaway convict^ probably from Norfolk Island. 

 It is fortunate that his sphere of mischief is so 

 limited^ for a more dang*erous ruffian could not easily 

 be found. As matters stand at present^ it is probable 

 that not only during- his life, but for years after- 

 wards, every European who falls into the hands of 

 the Badu people will meet with certain death.* 



* In further illustration of this assertion I give the following 

 note with which I have lately been furnished by Mr. J. Sweatman, 

 K/.N., who served in the Bramble at the time of the occurrence 

 of the murder to which it alludes. In June 1846 the supercargo 

 and a boat's crew of a small vessel from Sydney procuring 

 trepang and tortoise-shell in Torres Strait, landed upon Mulgrave 

 Island (the vessel being about seven miles off) in order to barter 

 for tortoise-shell. The natives appeared at first to be friendly 

 enough, but, towards evening some circumstances occurred which 

 induced the boat's crew to re-embark, and thev tlien went to a 



