MULGRAVE ISLANDERS, 309 



The inhabitants of the neighbouring- Banks 

 Island are described by Gi'ora as evincing- the same 

 hostility towards Europeans. Only a few years 

 ag-o the Italeg-as, one of the two tribes inhabiting- 

 that island, murdered two white men and a boy, 

 who had reached their inhospitable shores in a small 

 boat, probably from a wreck. Such savage out- 

 rages committed by the inhabitants of the north- 

 western islands would probably be completely 

 prevented were they oftener visited by Europeans ; 

 such was the case with the people of Darnley 

 Island, once dangerous savages, now safely to be 

 dealt with by taking the usual precautions, and 

 where, as at the Murray Islands, I believe strangers 

 in distress, without valuable property, would now 

 be kindly treated. 



We remained nine weeks at our anchorage in 



small sand-bank about a mile off to pass the night there. The 

 supercargo and three men landed, leaving two men in the boat at 

 anchor; about midnight the latter were alarmed at hearing 

 shouts and yells pn shore, and, landing in haste, found that the 

 natives had attacked their comrades, whose muskets, being'aamp, 

 were quite useless. The supercargo and two men were killed — a 

 shot from the boat however dispersed the natives sufficiently for 

 the two men to drag their surviving comrade into the boat, but 

 he had an arrow through the body, and his hands were partially 

 severed, and he soon died. The bodies of the three people on 

 the sand-bank could not be recovered, the natives returning to the 

 attack with showers of arrows, nor could th« small force on board 

 the schooner attempt to punish- the perpetrators of this unpro- 

 voked murder. 



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