344 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



missionaries, heard of it, and reported to Thursday Island that it 

 had occurred at the Skardon River. Charles Bruce had recruited 

 his crew from the neighbourhood of Bertie Haugh station, having 

 previously told JAMES G. WARD, one of the missionaries, that he 

 " had done with the rascally Batavia River boys," and hinted that 

 these had not improved under missionary influences. " Within 

 six weeks," says the author of The Miracle of Mapoon, " this crew, 

 uncontaminated by missionary influences, murdered him." 



The murderers beached Bruce and Roe's cutter and waited to 

 consume the provisions on board before going further. Some 

 Skardon natives, who had been invited to participate in the feast, 

 then took the cutter, which they professed to have " found," to 

 Thursday Island in the expectation of obtaining a reward. 



When the news of the murder reached Thursday Island, Mr. 

 Douglas sent a police party to arrest the murderers, but gave them 

 orders not to shoot. The party went out and returned, " without 

 having effected anything." 



Next came R. BRUCE, the brother of Charles. He was a Justice 

 of the Peace, and obtained the assistance of a POLICE CONSTABLE 

 and the seven l Skardon natives, who, on their arrival at Thursday 

 Island, were " enlisted by the Justice and the constable." Having 

 reached Mapoon Mission Station in a cutter, R. Bruce, professing 

 the belief that his brother might not be dead, and that he desired 

 to search for the runaway crew and learn from them if his brother 

 had been landed on some island, borrowed the mission whale-boat, 

 into which the constable and troopers were transferred. The 

 whale-boat was returned some days later, but the missionaries had 

 already heard of the landing and the firing of guns. R. Bruce 

 and the constable then returned to Thursday Island and reported 

 their belief that the landing party had been wiped out by the 

 natives. 



MR. DOUGLAS'S OFFICIAL REPORTS, it is said, exonerated the 

 missionaries from all blame. My own impression, after a dis- 

 passionate consideration of the story, as told from two different 

 points of view, is that R. Bruce's expedition was undertaken with 

 a punitive object, which was frustrated by the cunning of the 

 Skardon natives, who had been enlisted as troopers for the occasion. 

 Having been landed, with arms in their hands, and without any 

 white witnesses, they began to fire their rifles as soon as they were 

 out of sight, partly to impress the men in the whale-boat (who, of 

 course, heard the firing) and partly to warn the local inhabitants, 

 with whom they had no wish to come into collision. 



It is certain that an avowed punitive expedition, with a constable 

 and native troopers, would not have been sanctioned by Mr. 

 Douglas, and it is at the same time very difficult to believe that 



1 Shanahan says twelve. 



The Miracle of Mapoon, p. 146. 



