BLUE SHIRT i6i 



ous scars proved him worthy of his blood. He was a 

 I man in authorit}' and full of territorial pride; his son's 

 dominance was undoubted, for did he not chide the 

 "big fella gubbermen" on its audacity in disposing of 

 his Island — his country — even to a friendty white 

 man ? 



Blue Shirt was the ruler and lawgiver of this Island 

 when a barque strove with a C3xlone which eventuall}^ 

 shattered her to pieces and scattered her cargo of cedar- 

 logs to the four winds. After the wreck a boat put out 

 from a not distant port on a beach-combing cruise. The 

 boat was known as the Captain Cook. i\bout a hundred 

 years before her namesake had reported that he had 

 seen about thirty- natives, all unclad, on an adjacent 

 islet. With the captain was his mate, two other white 

 men, a black bo}', and a young gin. Many derelict logs 

 were seen and certain wreckage, which made the boat's 

 compan}" inclined to the belief that some of the cast- 

 aways might have landed on Dunk Island . Thc}^ steered 

 hither, anchoring in the evening. 



Early the next morning three stalwart black boys put 

 off in canoes to the Captain Cook, and, making friendh^ 

 demonstrations, were invited on board. Food was 

 given them, and to the leader the captain presented a 

 blue shirt. No dweller of the Island had ever before 

 possessed such a sumptuous and glorious garment. 

 Indeed, if the absolute truth must be told, no dweller 

 had dreamt of anything more desirable than an inade- 

 quate cloak laboriously wrought from the inner bark 

 of a fig-tree, raiment sanctioned b}'- the first of fashions. 



Having made it known that they belonged to a 

 neighbouring islet at the moment unfriendh^ to the 

 overbearing Dunk Island tribe, Blue Shirt and his 

 attendants mentioned that cedar-logs and other attrac- 

 tive flotsam bestrewed the beaches, and volunteered to 



