THE WESTERN RIVERS OF THE PENINSULA 655 



that the fact, new to Hey in 1895, would have been any surprise to 

 Embley, who by that time had known the river for ten years. " As 

 no white man had even been up it before," continues Arthur 

 Ward, relating Key's voyage, " and it was not on the map, he 

 called it the Mission River." The name was officially confirmed 

 by Douglas, and so Myall Creek became the MISSION RIVER. As 

 a general rule, the arbitrary alteration of place-names is to be 

 deprecated, but in the present instance no great harm can be done 

 by the elimination of one of the far too numerous " Myall Creeks " 

 from the map of Queensland. Mr. Embley surveyed the Mission 

 River from the Thirty-mile Line down to Kerr Point in 1897. 



Returning to the mouth of the estuary of the Mission River, 

 Hey rounded Kerr Point and sailed up the EMBLEY RIVER till he 

 recognised the site previously selected for " Weipa," and also 

 sailed for some further distance up the Hey River. Douglas again 

 visited the scene of Key's recent travels and confirmed the names 

 of the EMBLEY and HEY RIVERS. On this occasion he also named 

 the bay ALBATROSS BAY. This is still the official name, de facto ^ 

 and perhaps must remain so for all time ; but the name de jure 

 is VLIEGE BAAIJ (Fly Bay), which was bestowed by TASMAN in 1644. 

 Lavienne Lodewijk van Asschens recognised it, on 26th April, 

 1756, as the bay which Tasman had named. 



On 3 ist May, 1756, Jean EtienneGonzal named it MOSSEL BAAIJ 

 (Mussel Bay). 



Between the lower reaches of the BATAVIA RIVER and the JARDINE 

 RIVER, near Cape York, our knowledge of the country is mainly 

 derived from Bradford's explorations and the surveys made in 

 connection with the construction of the CAPE YORK TELEGRAPH 

 LINE (1883-6), but Mr. Embley has made important contributions 

 which deserve to be recorded. 



FRANK JARDINE accompanied the Telegraph construction party 

 and by his knowledge of the Cape York region was able to render 

 them important services. While travelling with cattle in 1865, 

 north of the Batavia River, until he reached the head of the 

 Jardine River, the scrub was so thick, the country was so featureless 

 and the innumerable small creeks were so flooded, that he and 

 Richardson, his Surveyor, had little idea what became of the creeks 

 as they fell to the west of his course. The future identification of 

 the creeks to which he gave the provisional names of South Palm, 

 Rocky, North Palm, Dalhunty, Skardon, and so forth, was almost 

 impossible. Twenty years later, when the Telegraph line came 

 to be constructed not far from his course in fact, crossing it at 

 an acute angle attempts were made to identify the creeks which 

 he had named, but it is doubtful, in many instances, if these attempts 

 were successful. The question is dealt with in the chapters devoted 

 to the Jardines' explorations. 



