262 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



During the stay of the " Rattlesnake " at Cape York, a re- 

 markable incident took place. On i6th October, a WHITE WOMAN 

 claimed the protection of a boat's crew who had landed on the beach. 

 She was Barbara Thomson, a native of Aberdeen, who had immi- 

 grated with her parents to New South Wales, where she had 

 married. Some four and a half years ago, she had embarked with 

 her husband in the cutter " America" bent on the salvage of oil 

 from a whaler wrecked on the Bampton Shoal. The guide, a 

 member of the shipwrecked crew, failed to discover the wreck, 

 whereupon recrimination and quarrelling ensued. Two men were 

 accidentally drowned and a third was left on a small uninhabited 

 island. Then the " America " made for Torres Strait and was 

 wrecked on " the eastern Prince of Wales Island " (Entrance 

 Island ?). The only two men then on the ship (one of them 

 Barbara's husband ?) were drowned in the attempt to swim ashore ; 

 but the woman was rescued by the natives, one of whom, named 

 Boroto, took her to wife ; and she also enjoyed the protection of a 

 person of importance in the tribe, who lived in Muralug (Prince of 

 Wales Island), and who recognised her as the re-embodied spirit of 

 his deceased daughter, who had been named Gi'Om, which name 

 was conferred on her. 



A year ago, the people of the island had heard of the visit of 

 " two war canoes "no doubt the " Rattlesnake " and " Bramble " 

 to Cape York. Recently, when the smoke-telegraph conveyed 

 the news of the return of the two ships, Gi'Om had persuaded her 

 hosts, chiefly by hints of great rewards, to take her to Cape York. 

 Once safely on board the "Rattlesnake" and in spite of objections 

 and threats on the part of her black friends (who seemed to have 

 become genuinely attached to her), she elected to return to Sydney, 

 where she was ultimately restored to her parents. 



Gi'Om had much to tell of a WHITE MAN, with a name which 

 sounded like Wini, who had lived with the Badu (MULGRAVE 

 ISLAND) tribe for many years. This man had once visited Prince 

 of Wales Island in the hope of inducing Gi'Om to " share his 

 fortunes." From the fact of his not understanding English and 

 having to converse with her in the native language, she took him 

 to be a foreigner. 



" He had," says MacGillivray, " reached Mulgrave Island in a boat, after having, 

 by his own account, killed his companions, some three or four in number. In course 

 of time, he became the most important person in the tribe, having gained an 

 ascendancy by procuring the death of his principal enemies and intimidating others ; 

 which led to the establishment of his fame as a warrior, and he became in consequence 

 the possessor of several wives and canoes and some property in land, the cultivation 

 of which last he pays great attention to. Wini's character appears from the accounts 

 I have heard for others corroborated part of Gi'Om's statement to be a compound 

 of villainy and cunning, in addition to the ferocity and headlong passions of a thorough 

 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 



