led 
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 731 
the friendly intercourse existing between the “natives of the 
southern portion of Torres Straits and those of the mainland 
about Cape York.”* 
These observations indicate the distance to which a knowledge 
of the outrigger canoe, derived from the islanders of the Straits, 
had passed southward at the time spoken of by Mr. McGill- 
ivray. To this may be added that, according to oral information, 
for which | am indebted to Mr. R. L, Jack, the use of the out- 
rigger canoe extends now as far southward as Hinchinbrook Island. 
As to the knowledge of the outrigger canoe by the Australians 
on the western part of the shores of Torres Straits, Mr. MeGill- 
ivray also mentions that two years after the founding of the 
English settlement at Rafiles Bay in 1827, the Bugis had taken 
advantage of the protection afforded to carry on trepang fishing, 
and that formerly bark canoes had been in general use, but that 
they were then completely superseded by others hollowed out of 
trees, which they procured ready made from the Malays in 
exchange for tortoiseshell, and in return for assistance in collecting 
trepang.* 
Captain Stokes,f also speaking of the visits of Malays to Port 
Essington, says that the Aborigines obtained their canoes chiefly 
from the Malays, whom he elsewhere calls “ Bugis.” At the time 
at which he wrote, namely, the years 1837-43, canoes were used 
as far as Clarence Strait, but beyond that place he saw no single 
instance of any “proa or canoe.” t 
It is therefore possible to fix the limits beyond which the 
knowledge of the outrigger canoe did not extend, namely, from 
Hinchinbrook Island, on the north-east coast of Queensland, to 
Clarence Strait in North-western Australia. 
Some further light is afforded by a statement made by a man 
from Prince of Wales Island, whom I once met. It was that 
his tribesmen are accustomed to migrate periodically in their 
seagoing canoes, according to the prevalent winds, either south- 
wards along the coast of Queensland, or northwards to the further 
islands of Torres Straits, or even to the mainland of New Guinea. 
It seems to me that this practice must have existed for ages ; 
indeed, since that time when the Papuan population settled on 
the Straits Islands and thus came to be neighbours of the tribes 
inhabiting the Australian mainland. 
It is difficult to believe, if this coast at that time had been un- 
occupied by Australians, that the Papuans would not have settled 
on it as well as upon islands at no great distance northwards. 
The Kaurarega of Prince of Wales Island are usually considered 
to be Australians with a strong Papuan mixture, which, judging 
from the example I saw, would be very marked. This mixture is 
* XXXVIII, vol. I, pp. 141, 146. f Li, vol. 1, p. 388. * prt, -vol. 1, p. 81. 
