154 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



the wreck of the " Charles Eaton" The Captain made an un- 

 successful attempt to get the boy from the natives. 



For the rescue of any of the crew or passengers who might still 

 be alive among the natives, the Government of New South Wales 

 fitted out their schooner the " Isabella" under command of 

 CAPTAIN C. M. LEWIS. The Captain's journal was edited by 

 CAPTAIN PHILLIP PARKER KING, R.N. 1 Additional particulars 

 are given by WILLIAM EDWARD BROCKETT.* The words " I 

 shipped on the i Isabella ' '' are the only clue to the capacity in 

 which Brockett was on board, but he was evidently an educated 

 man, and was occasionally entrusted with difficult and delicate 

 duties, so that it may be taken for granted that he was an officer. 



The story has also been lucidly retold by CAPTAIN JAMES H. 

 WATSON in the Scottish Australasian for September, 1916. 



The Hon. East India Company also sent their sloop " Tigris " 

 (CAPTAIN IGGLESTON) from Bombay on the same quest. The two 

 search ships, in fact, met at Double Island, Torres Strait. 



In a very short time after striking the reef, the " Charles Eaton " 

 became a hopeless wreck, but the upper part held together and gave 

 a foothold for the greater number of the passengers and crew. 



When she left Sydney, there were altogether thirty-one persons 

 on the ship, including about a dozen passengers, among whom were 

 Captain D'Oyley, H.E.I. Co.'s Artillery, his wife, two sons and a 

 native Indian servant, Dr. Grant and George Armstrong, Barrister. 

 Five left with the boat, leaving twenty-six on the wreck. 



After the departure of the boat, as above related, the first raft 

 was constructed, but it proved of insufficient capacity. The raft, 

 therefore, carrying only nine persons, viz.. Captain Lewis, Dr. 

 Grant, Mr. Armstrong, Captain D'Oyley, his wife and two sons 

 and native servant, with, probably, an officer or seaman, left the 

 ship. Of the fate of this FIRST RAFT little is known with certainty. 

 The only survivors were the two D'Oyley boys, who said that the 

 ADULTS of the party had all been killed. The boys were taken 

 in a canoe to an island, probably AUREED, and in all probability the 

 heads of the adults were taken there at the same time. (SEE MAP A.) 

 So at least we are justified in conjecturing from what happened to 

 the occupants of the second raft. 



Seven days after the first, a SECOND RAFT left the ship, carrying 

 seventeen persons, including Mr. Clare (Chief Officer), W. Mayor 

 (2nd Officer), John Ireland (Steward's Boy), a boy named Sexton, 



1 A Voyage to Torres Straits in Search of the Survivors of the Ship " Charles Eaton," 

 which was wrecked upon the Barrier Reef in the Month of August, 1834, in His Majesty's 

 Colonial Schooner " Isabella," C. M. Lewis, Commander. Arranged from the Journal 

 of the Commander by Authority of His Excellency Major -General Sir Richard Bourke, 

 K.C.B., Governor of New South Wales, etc., etc., etc., by Phillip P. King, Captain R.N., 

 F.R.S.. etc. Sydney, 1837. 



3 Narrative of a Voyage from Sydney to Torres Straits in Search of the Survivors of 

 the " Charles Eaton," in His Majesty's Colonial Schooner " Isabella," C. M. Lewis, 

 Commander. By William Edward Brockett. Sydney, 1836, pp. 54. Illustrated. 



