THE LANGUAGE TEST 303 



terrible and precise earnestness in blotting out the memory 

 of the past, I am convinced that this race, despised and 

 neglected of men, can be as devoted to one another as truly 

 as we who are so superior to them in many attributes. 



The Language Test 



Casual investigations confirm the opiiiion that the 

 language of the natives of Dunk, Hinchinbrook and the 

 intervening isles was mutually understood. Certainly 

 there are more terms in common with Dunk Island and the 

 southern end of Hinchinbrook — 40 miles away — than with 

 Dunk Island and the adjacent mainland. In pre-white 

 folks days amicable intercourse between the natives of the 

 islands and of the mainland was unknown though the 

 islanders frequently visited one another. Hence no doubt 

 their dominant character and higher order of intelligence 

 generally. Literally the insular was a floating population, 

 and derived the advantage of intercommunication. That 

 of the mainland was stationary. It groped dimly in the 

 jungle, each sept, isolated by bewildering differences in 

 language, cramped, narrow, suspicious. Tribes whose 

 country came within 2 or 3 miles of the sea never 

 intruded on the beach, and the Beachcombers dared not 

 venture beyond recognised limits. To this day Tom will 

 not " walk about " inland unless he is in possession of real 

 superiority in the matter of arms, or has a following in force. 

 He professes fear of the primordial savagery of the " man 

 alonga bush." 



Last of the Line 



The last King of Dunk Island — known to the whites 

 as "Jimmy" — was a tall, lanky man, irreclaimably trucu- 

 lent, incapable of recognising the dominance of those 

 who bestowed his Christian name. Long after most of 

 his fellows had submitted in a more or less kindly spirit 

 to the o'ermastering race, "Jimmy" held aloof, and in his 



