302 HISTORY OF A WHITE WOMAN, 



Wales. About four years and a half ag'O she left 

 Moreton Bay with her husband in a small cutter 

 (called the America), of which he was owner, for the 

 purpose of picking' up some of the oil from the 

 wreck of a whaler, lost on the Bampton Shoal, to 

 which place one of her late crew undertook to g'uide 

 them ; their ultimate intention was to go on to Port 

 Essinglon. The man who acted as pilot was unable 

 to find the wreck, and after much quarrelhng on 

 board in consequence, and the loss of two men by 

 drowning, and of another who was left upon a small 

 uninhabited island, they made their way up to 

 Torres Strait, where, during a gale of wind, their 

 vessel struck upon a reef on the Eastern Prince of 

 Wales Island. The two remaining men were lost 

 in attempting to swim on shore through the surf, 

 but the woman was afterwards rescued by a party 

 of natives on a turtling excursion, who, when the 

 gale subsided^ swam on board, and supported her on 

 shore between two of their number. One of these 

 blacks, Boroto by name, took possession of the 

 woman as his share of the plimder ; she was com- 

 pelled to hve with him, but was- well treated by all 

 the men, although many of the women, jealous of 

 the attention shewn her, for a long time evinced 

 anything but kindness. A curious circumstance 

 secured for her the protection of one of the principal 

 men of the tribe a party from which had been the 

 fortunate means of rescuing her, and which she after- 

 wards found to be the Kowrarega, chiefly inhabiting 



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