WRECK OF THE "CHARLES EATON" 155 



and thirteen others. These, after being two days and nights 

 half-immersed in the sea, on a daily ration of two glasses of water 

 and half a biscuit, drifted among a number of small islands. In the 

 morning of the third day, they saw a canoe, carrying about a dozen 

 natives, approaching. The natives were apparently unarmed, 

 and appeared very friendly. Proposals that the castaways should 

 land were acceded to, and they were taken in the canoe to " the 

 island of BOYDAN." (SEE MAP B, BOYDONG, lat. 11 30' S., 

 about 40 miles north-west of the Sir Charles Hardy Islands.) 



On this island, where there was neither water nor food, the 

 castaways lay defenceless, sleeping the sleep of utter exhaustion, 

 when they were set upon and BEATEN TO DEATH, with the exception 

 of IRELAND and SEXTON, who for some reason were spared, although 

 Ireland had a spear wound. Growing boys have obviously some 

 potential value, even among savages. The heads of the murdered 

 men were cut off and placed, together with Ireland and Sexton, 

 in a canoe which proceeded to AUREED ISLAND, where a party of 

 natives were in temporary residence for the fishing season, and w r here 

 they found the two D'OYLEY BOYS, who had arrived before them. 

 (SEE MAP A.) 



With the addition of the crew of the canoes from Boydong and 

 their captives, and the murderers of the castaways of the first raft 

 and their captives, there were now on this island about fifty persons. 

 About two months after the arrival of Ireland and Sexton, the 

 natives left the island in two parties. No. I PARTY took Ireland 

 and the two-year-old D'Oyley boy, and No. 2 PARTY took Sexton 

 and the elder D'Oyley boy, and both set out in their canoes, for 

 destinations which were of course unknown to the captives. 



The boys with No. 2 PARTY of savages were never heard of 

 again. No. I PARTY, after cruising among islands for some weeks, 

 reached MARSDEN ISLAND. l To this island came, after a time, a 

 native named Dappar and his wife, who took Ireland and the 

 younger D'Oyley boy to their home on MURRAY ISLAND, where they 

 were kindly treated until their rescue by the " Isabella." 



Ireland related that at BOYDONG ISLAND the savages ate the 

 eyes and cheeks of the murdered people, not, as he judged, for food, 

 but with an idea that the act would increase their efficiency against 

 enemies. 



The " Isabella " left SYDNEY on yd June, 1836, and on the qth 

 was " in the latitude of CATO'S REEF " (23 20' S. and 155 35' E.). 

 (ADMIRALTY CHART, No. 780.) Six days later, Captain Lewis saw 

 floating wreckage, but did not suppose it to have come from the 

 " Charles Eaton." On i*jth June, the northmost reefs of the 

 EASTERN FIELDS (ADMIRALTY CHART, No. 2759 A) were rounded 



1 This island was probably named in honour of the Rev. Samuel Marsden, Rector of 

 St. John's, Paramatta, who, in 1812 and for many years after, was unofficially regarded 

 as " the head of the English Church in New South Wales." See J. P. McGuanne in 

 Journ. Roy. Aust. Hist. Soc. t Vol. V (1919). 



