8 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



high-spirited, resentful and treacherous, far from friendly 

 or polite to strangers. One sea-captain was maimed for 

 life in our quiet little bay during a misunderstanding with 

 a hasty black possessed of a new bright tomahawk, a rare 

 prize in those days. This was the most trivial of the many 

 incidents by which the natives expressed their character. 

 Inhospitable acts were common when the white folks first be- 

 gan to pay the island visits, for they found the blacks hostile 

 and daring. Why invoke those long-silent spectres, white 

 as well as black, when all active boorishness is of the past ? 

 Civilisation has almost fulfilled its inexorable law ; but four 

 out of a considerable population remain, and they remember 

 naught of the bad old times when the humanising processes, 

 or rather the results of them, began to be felt. They must 

 have been a fine race, fine for Australian aboriginals at 

 least, judging by the stamp of two of those who survive ; 

 and perhaps that is why they resented interference, and 

 consequently soon began to give way before the irresis- 

 tible pressure of the whites. Possibly, had they been 

 more docile and placid, the remnants would have been 

 more numerous though less flattering representatives of 

 the race. You shall judge of the type by what is related 

 of some of the habits and customs of the semi-civilised 

 survivors. 



Dunk Island is well within the tropical zone, its true bear- 

 ings being 146 deg. 11 min. 20 sec. E. long., and 17 deg. 55 

 min. 25 sec. S. lat. It is but 30 miles south of the port of 

 Geraldton, the wettest place in Australia, as well as the centre 

 of the chief sugar-producing district of the State of Queens- 

 land. There the rainfall averages about 140 inches per 

 annum. Geraldton has in its immediate background two of 

 the highest mountains in Australia (5,400 feet), and on these 

 the monsoons buffet and break their moisture-laden clouds, 

 affording the district much meteorological fame. Again, 

 20 miles to the south lies Hinchinbrook Island, 28 miles 

 long, 12 miles broad, and mountainous from end to end : 

 there also the rain-clouds revel. The long and picturesque 

 channel which divides Hinchinbrook from the mainland, and 



