CHAPTER XLVII 

 SOMERSET AND ITS BACKGROUND 



BOOBY ISLAND REFUGE AND POST OFFICE. VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS BY PASSING 

 SHIPS. DEPREDATIONS ON BOOBY ISLAND BY PRINCE OF WALES ISLANDERS AND 

 OTHERS. WHOLESALE MURDER OF SHIPS' CREWS. THE " CHARLES EATON " 

 WRECK AND MASSACRE. NEW SETTLEMENT AT TORRES STRAIT PROPOSED. 

 SOMERSET SELECTED AS SITE. FOUNDED 1863-4. GARRISON OF MARINES. JOHN 

 JARDINE FIRST GOVERNMENT RESIDENT. His SUCCESSORS. SOMERSET SUPERSEDED 

 BY THURSDAY ISLAND, 1879. ADVANTAGES OF SOMERSET. GOOD SCRUB LANDS. 

 UTINGU COCO-NUT PLANTATION. CATTLE STATIONS AT VALLACK POINT AND 

 BERTIE HAUGH. STOCKMEN MURDERED BY BLACKS AT VALLACK POINT. BRUCE 

 AND ROE, PEARL-SHELLERS, MURDERED BY THEIR ABORIGINAL CREW. BRUCE'S 

 BROTHER, WITH NATIVE TROOPERS, FOLLOW SUPPOSED MURDERERS TO DUCIE 

 RIVER. BRUCE AND A CONSTABLE KEEP BOAT. TROOPERS LAND AND FIRE GUNS 

 ALL THE WAY TO BERTIE HAUGH. NATIVES APPEAR AT STATION. TROOPERS 

 RETURN OVERLAND TO CAPE YORK AND REPORT THE Two WHITE MEN KILLED. 

 THE WHITES RETURN AND REPORT LANDING PARTY EXTERMINATED. THE MAPOON 

 MISSION AND THE DuCIE RlVER NATIVES. CATTLE STATIONS AT LOCKERBIE, 

 GALLOWAY, THORNBURY, YORK DOWNS, MERLUNA, PINE TREE CREEK, ROKEBY 

 AND LANGI. MURDERS OF PIONEERS. SOMERSET AND BECHE DE MER AND PEARL- 

 SHELL INDUSTRIES. ROKO ISLAND. DAYMAN ISLAND LEPER STATION. NATIVES 

 AND WHITE EMPLOYERS. EARLY SENILE DEBILITY AMONG NATIVES. FRANK 

 JARDINE'S DIARY OF RESIDENCE IN AND ABOUT SOMERSET, 1865-1919. ITS 

 PUBLICATION DESIRABLE. 



F 



(SEE MAPS A AND B.) 



OR the history of SOMERSET, I have drawn, among others, 

 from the following sources : 



(1) Sir George Bowen's Report, 1862. 



(2) Report by J. Jardine, First Resident Magistrate, 1st March, 1865, in Appendix 

 to Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to 

 Cape Fork, edited by Chas. Byerley. Brisbane, 1867. 



(3) Report by J. Jardine on the Overland Journey of the Messrs. Jardine to the 

 Port Albany Settlement. 1st May, 1865, ibid., p. 86. 



(4) Report of Dr. Haran, Surgeon, R.N., with the First Detachment of Marines 

 landed at Somerset. 22nd May, 1865, ibid. t p. 88. 



(5) Dr. A. Rattray, " Notes on the Geology of Cape York Peninsula," Queensland 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. t 1869, XXV, p. 297. 



(6) Dr. A. Rattray, " Notes on the Physical Geography, Climate, etc., of 

 Somerset," Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc., 1886, XII, p. 313. 



(7) Pugffs Almanac, " Official Lists and Diary of Events." 



(8) Willmetfs North Queensland Almanac. 



(9) Im Australischen Busch. Reise-erlebnisse und Beobachtungen fines Naturforschers 

 in Australien, Richard Semon, Professor in Jena. Leipzig, 1896. 



338 



