Port Curtis — A "Labour Vessel" 181 



was no building in sight except the lighthouse. The beach was 

 lined with a dense fringe of mangrove bushes, behind which rose 

 a straggling forest of gums and grass trees (XantJwrred), and for 

 a long time we saw no living thing excepting several large fish- 

 eagles (Haliaetus lencogaster), and an odd gull that hovered about 

 our stern, picking up the garbage that drifted away from the ship. 

 On the following morning two of us landed and set to work to 

 explore the mudflats, which, stretching out for a long distance 

 from the beach, were laid bare by the ebb tide. As we ranged 

 along in search of marine curiosities, we encountered a solitary 

 individual attired in the light and airy costume of a pajama sleep- 

 ing suit, and carrying a Westly- Richards rifle on his shoulder. 

 We soon made his acquaintance, and found that he was in quest 

 of wild goats, the descendants of some domestic animals originally 

 let loose by the keeper of the lighthouse. He was an Englishman 

 named Eastlake, and held the position of "government immigration 

 agent" on board a ninety-ton schooner, the Isabella, which at the 

 time was anchored just outside the lighthouse point, awaiting a 

 favourable wind to enable her to put to sea. She was engaged in 

 the "labour traffic" and was just then about to return to the Solomon 

 Islands with some "time-expired" native labourers. The Queens- 

 land government compels every vessel engaged in the "labour 

 traffic" to carry an immigration agent, who is accredited to and 

 salaried by the government. His duty is to see that the natives 

 who are shipped from the islands for transit to Queensland come 

 of their own free will, and under a proper contract, and that during 

 the voyage they are treated well and are furnished with proper 

 accommodation, and are dieted according to a scale laid down by 

 the government. In the afternoon I accompanied Mr. Eastlake 

 on board. The Isabella, a vessel of ninety tons, was allowed to 

 carry eighty-five natives besides her crew of some half-a-dozen 

 hands. She had now on board about a dozen natives of New 

 Hebrides, who had completed their time as contract labourers in 

 Queensland, and were about to be returned to their island home. 



