6oo NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



of a creek, showing us the track down the cliffs to the sandy beach. 

 In the mouth of the creek a large canoe was moored. The place 

 bore W. 5 S. from the northmost of the HANNIBAL ISLANDS. In 

 conversation with " Captain Billy " regarding his experience among 

 white fellows, Love asked if he had ever seen WHITE WOMEN. 

 Billy replied in the affirmative, but in terms so gross that the 

 ipsissima verba were not reported to me till nearly a month had 

 elapsed. On being pressed as to where and how he had seen the 

 white woman or women, he lapsed into sulky silence. At first I 

 merely inferred that Billy had seen women at some fishing-station, 

 but I now strongly suspect that he knows something of the WHITE 

 WOMAN seen by Captain Pearn at CAPE GRANVILLE about two years 

 ago, and for whom an unsuccessful search was shortly afterwards 

 made. In connection with this subject, I may here refer to a 

 discovery which seemed of no importance at the time, but which 

 may now be regarded in a new light. Mr. Crosbie and I found, 

 on i6th February, about half a mile south of Bolt Head, in TEMPLE 

 BAY, the WRECK of a large brig, of colonial build (according to Mr. 

 Hamil, of the prospecting party), sheathed with copper and muntz 

 metal, with its cargo of cedar logs strewn on the beach beside it. 

 Most of the timber bore the brand L, and some of it DH. Our 

 guesses at the age of the wreck varied from three to eight years. 

 When we met the master of the Piper Island lightship, 3 miles 

 further north, we inquired about the wreck, and his reply, that 

 he had never heard of it, although the lightship had been there 

 for four years, confirmed my opinion that the wreck was at least 

 over four years old. That it was a wreck whose whereabouts 

 nobody knew never occurred to me till I had made further inquiries 

 at Somerset and Thursday Island. The question arises, What has 

 become of the crew ? A woman may possibly have been on 

 board, and may have escaped the massacre which doubtless awaited 

 her companions. [Mr. B. Fahey subsequently identified the wreck 

 as that of the " Kate Connolly " as already narrated. R. L. J.] 



Having crossed the mouth of the creek where the canoe was 

 moored (yth March), and another similar creek three-quarters of 

 a mile further north the packs just touching the water in both 

 cases we ascended a bare sandstone headland. Here we detected 

 two BLACKS one a hunchback planted in the long grass, with 

 their SPEARS beside them. Four or five were also seen behind us 

 with SPEARS. Five or six more were seen paddling a large canoe 

 rapidly towards us. I was strongly inclined to think that we were 

 the objects of a prearranged attack. As it was, we had the blacks 

 at our mercy, for it would have been easy to have shot the two 

 men discovered in ambush and to have emptied the canoes from our 

 vantage-ground on the top of the cliffs ; but I forbore, anxious to 

 avoid a quarrel, if possible. Having warned and threatened the 

 two spearsmen, we continued our journey. Billy presently over- 



