SOMERSET AND ITS BACKGROUND 341 



1865, when he returned to his magisterial duties at Rockhampton. 

 He was succeeded by 



CAPTAIN HENRY G. SIMPSON, R.N., who was still in office at the 

 end of 1866. His appointment was for three years, but before 

 the end of his time he left on sick leave, and did not return. The 

 office was vacant at the end of 1867. 



The appointment was held by FRANK JARDINE in 1868 and 1869. 

 In the latter year he discovered that the CREW of the " Sperwer" 

 seventeen in number, had been MURDERED by the natives of Prince 

 of Wales Island, and avenged the murder. 



FRANK JARDINE held the office from 1870 to 1873. He was 

 succeeded by 



CAPTAIN CHARLES BEDDHAME, of the East India Company. 

 When he left on sick leave (say, 1874), he was replaced by 



GEORGE ELPHINSTONE DALRYMPLE. The conspicuous part 

 played by Dalrymple in 1873 in the exploration of the eastern 

 rivers and harbours between the Herbert and the Endeavour and 

 in the opening of Cooktown after the discovery of the Palmer 

 goldfield is described in another chapter. He also took up the 

 Valley of Lagoons in the Burdekin valley and discovered a 

 practicable road from the station to Rockingham Bay. He did 

 not hold the office of Resident long, having contracted a fever 

 at Somerset and died on his way south. His successor was 



C. D'OYLEYH. APLIN, who had been Government Geologist for 

 Southern Queensland in 1868-9. ^- e nac ^ Deen > in 1849, a guest on 

 the " Freak " brig, when she searched for relics of the party left at 

 the Pascoe River by KENNEDY. The bones of two of the party, 

 Wall and Niblet, having been recovered, were interred on Albany 

 Island, Aplin reading the funeral service. 1 He himself died at 

 Somerset, and was buried beside the lost explorers. 



FRANK JARDINE again temporarily held the office until the 

 appointment of 



H. M. CHESTER, formerly of the Indian Navy, who was Resident 

 from about 1876 to 1879, when Somerset was closed on the OPENING 



OF A NEW SETTLEMENT AT THURSDAY ISLAND. I Saw him first On 



7th July, 1877, when the " Normanby" the steamer by which I 

 had come from Singapore, lay off Somerset in quarantine. He 

 and DR. SALTER came alongside in a boat and arranged for the 

 burial, on Albany Island, of a lady, Madame de la Forest, who had 

 died on board. I saw him next at Thursday Island on 5th April, 

 1880. 



HUGH MILMAN, R.N., was the next Resident at Thursday 



1 Vide, Shanahan, in " Sidelights." Queenslander, 25th September, 1897. " The 

 Private Log of T. Beckford Simpson," Master of the Brig "Freak," as printed in 

 Carron's Narrative of the Voyage of the " Rattlesnake," makes no mention of Aplin, but 

 contains the following passage (i3th May, 1849) : " Pulled to the south end of Albany 

 Island, and . . . dug a grave and interred the remains of the unfortunate individuals 

 Thomas Wall and Charles Niblet, reading the funeral service over them." It may be 

 mentioned that the " Freak " was wrecked on the Barrier Reef early in the " seventies." 



