SECOND PRELIMINARY REPORT 601 



took us and said that he knew the men in the boat, who were " all 

 very good," and that they would probably have fish if we waited 

 for them. We declined to wait. 



When we had got down once more to the beach, Billy brought 

 up some of the canoe's men. The offer to bring fish for tobacco 

 was renewed, and we sent the men off, insisting that only two 

 were to come, and without spears. For the next 6 or 7 miles we 

 saw nothing of the blacks, and we were considering the suitableness 

 of a rocky headland with a little grass for a camp when five NATIVES 

 were seen on our track with SPEARS. We took our firearms and 

 advanced to meet them ; four dropped their weapons, which were 

 not fish spears ; a fifth carried his with him to the scrubby sand-hills ; 

 three stayed to meet us. They pretended that the spears were 

 only meant for fishing, but we knew better. They offered us one 

 small fish, which we refused. We let them clearly understand this 

 time that we should fire on them if they appeared again on any 

 pretext. 



I may have been in error in letting the treacherous savages 

 go, but shooting a naked and unarmed man, however justifiable 

 the act may be, is painfully suggestive of murder to my mind. 



We continued to travel northward by the beach towards a 

 grassy flat 2 miles distant. The BLACKS were now coming on 

 behind, at least fifteen in number, CARRYING SPEARS, and making 

 no disguise of their intention of falling upon us whenever they 

 could get us at a disadvantage. It only remained for us to choose 

 a place where the advantage of the ground would be on our side, 

 and to turn on them. A broad part of the beach (11 29' S. 

 latitude) seemed to offer such a vantage-ground, as our flank could 

 not be attacked from under cover of the scrubby sand-hills. We 

 found, however, that a large creek with a treacherous muddy bottom 

 lay between us and the broad patch of sand. The horses got through 

 with difficulty, and my belief is that the savages were waiting to 

 see us thrown into confusion at this place. On the left bank we 

 dismounted, and FIRED ON THE NATIVES, who had begun to run 

 [towards us]. I believe we did no damage, but we saw no more of 

 the blacks for the rest of the day. 



We camped here [CAMP 57] on a grassy flat separated from a 

 scrub by a deep lagoon a backwater of this creek. The camp 

 bore W. 33 S. from HALFWAY ISLAND, N.W. from the outer 

 HANNIBAL ISLAND, and W. 4 N. from the eastmost islet in the 

 BOYDONG CAYS group. 



I arranged that the night was to be divided into FOUR WATCHES 

 by the stars. Macdonald had finished the first, and I the second ; 

 Love, who had been sleeping in the same tent with me, had been 

 on guard for about twenty minutes (about half-past one o'clock), 

 and was rounding up the horses about 200 yards from the camp, 

 when suddenly I felt a SPEAR crash THROUGH MY NECK a little above 

 ii 17 



