346 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



Twenty-five miles south-east of York Downs, a cattle station 

 named MERLUNA was founded about 1888 by the BROTHERS 

 WATSON, one of whom (Edwin) was afterwards KILLED BY THE 

 BLACKS. The station is on LAGOON CREEK, one of the heads of 

 the WATSON RIVER and about 9 miles east of the Jardine Brothers' 

 track of 1865. AURUKUN MISSION STATION was established in 

 1904 near the mouth of the river. 



PINE TREE CREEK STATION, near Mein Telegraph Station, was 

 opened by PATRICK Fox in 1887, while the telegraph line was under 

 construction. 



ROKEBY cattle station, on the SOUTH COEN RIVER, was taken up 

 by the BROTHERS JOHN AND CHARLES MASSY in 1884. CHARLES 

 was KILLED BY THE BLACKS shortly afterwards. 



LANGI cattle station, on the ARCHER RIVER, was taken up by 

 A. W. KNOTT in 1883. 



The twenty-five MARINES landed at Somerset in 1863 were 

 WITHDRAWN in 1 866, from which time till the seat of the Resident 

 was transferred to Thursday Island, in 1879, a force of Queensland 

 POLICE, generally numbering four to seven white men and four 

 to eight native troopers, was maintained at the Residency. The 

 EARLY DAYS OF SOMERSET were far from peaceful. Meston records 

 that five of the MARINES were SPEARED, one of them, while performing 

 sentry duty, being simultaneously wounded both before and 

 behind. " JAMES HOWARD was SPEARED at Newcastle Bay and 

 brought in to Somerset with spear-points stuck all over him." l 

 The massacre, at Vallack Point, has already been referred to. 



Willmetfs Almanac for 1867 has a note to the effect that " the 

 LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY has of late years made Somerset the 

 point of departure for their proselytising expeditions to New 

 Guinea." Shanahan mentions the abandonment of this mission, 

 which he characterises as a failure. 



Professor Semon, of Jena, who visited Torres Strait in 1895, 

 says : " On the mainland, near Cape York, stands a squatting and 

 pearl-fishing station, Somerset, belonging to Mr. Jardine, one of 

 the oldest and most celebrated settlers of North Queensland. 

 Passing steamers observe the custom of saluting his house with 

 one gun." 



Shanahan asserts that the natives of Cape York POISON THEIR 

 SPEARS by dipping them into corpses.* It is more than doubtful 

 if the custom is indigenous, although this trick of " frightfulness " 

 may have been learned in recent years from the Papuans. 



Until the transfer of the Residency to Thursday Island, SOMER- 

 SET was the base of the pearl- shelling and beche de mer shipping, 

 except for a short time when Roko, a small island between Posses- 



1 A. Meston, "A Tour in North Queensland." Queenslander, i6th and 23rd 

 January, 1897. 



a " Sidelights." Queensland** , 2nd October, 1897. 





