SECOND CRUISE OF THE "BASILISK" 363 



this river became a waterway for sandalwood getters and gold 

 prospectors operating in the Mcllwraith and Macrossan Ranges. 

 These pioneers of industry established GIBLET'S LANDING, at the 

 head of the tidal reaches. MR. JOHN EMBLEY afterwards surveyed 

 the lower reaches of the river and laid out a township. (SEE MAPS 



B AND A.) 



From Lloyd Bay, the " Basilisk " proceeded to SOMERSET, 

 where she anchored on i8th January, 1873. Her officers were 

 welcomed by FRANK JARDINE, the leader of the exploring expedition 

 of 1865, now acting as Police Magistrate. A service was held on 

 the ship by the REV. A. W. MURRAY, who had been conducting 

 missionary work in the South Seas for thirty-five years. The wet 

 season had set in. Here an interesting personage was met, a 

 naturalist named COCKERILL, who lived, with his son, and a couple 

 of natives, in an 8-ton boat, and had amassed a magnificent collection 

 of tropical birds. 



The " Basilisk " left Somerset on 24th January, 1873, and an- 

 chored at SADDLE ISLAND. (SEE MAP A.) Thence a survey was made 

 to GABBA, or THE BROTHERS ISLANDS. JERVIS ISLAND was next visited, 

 and in this neighbourhood the " Basilisk " stuck on a shoal, but got 

 clear on the rise of the tide. Jervis Island, which is said to be 

 volcanic, rises to 525 feet. It was, at the date of the " Basilisk's " 

 visit, the headquarters of three pearling stations. The anchorage 

 was surveyed and named PHILIP HARBOUR. Moresby remarks 

 that " the space of 36 miles which lies between Jervis Island 

 and the low mangrove-covered coast of New Guinea is a mass 

 of coral reefs and contains no passage for ships and scarcely any 

 for boats. Thus all the passages by which ships can enter Torres 

 Straits lie between Jervis Island and Cape York, and are now British 

 waters." He adds : " The natives of Jervis Island are black 

 Papuans, quite uncivilised and unclothed." (Cf. Douglas on 

 Islands of Torres Straits, 1866.) 



CORNWALLIS ISLAND was next visited (30th January, 1873). 

 It is described as high and healthy, a granite mountain rising to 

 an altitude of 790 feet. It had hitherto been held to be part of 

 the mainland of New Guinea. SAIBAI ISLAND was the next anchorage, 

 and was described as low and probably malarious, with 600 

 inhabitants, with two-story houses raised on poles, and some 

 cultivation. It had for the first time been charted as an island 

 by Moresby, who saw it in 1871 from the neighbourhood of Gabba 

 Island. LIEUTENANT CONNOR, AND MR. PITT, Midshipman, with 

 nine seamen, in the pinnace and a whale-boat lent by Mr. Jardine, 

 were left at SAIBAI ISLAND to make a survey, while the " Basilisk " 

 sailed for the eastern islands of Torres Strait and the NEW GUINEA 

 COAST. On the 4th February, she touched at WARRIOR ISLAND, 

 to find that pearl- shelling had come to a standstill, thirty-two 

 South Sea Islanders bei n g idle while waiting till their employers 



