STATEMENT OF DR. VALLACK. 239 



about Mr. Kennedy. Saw three native fires on 

 our voyag-e here, one on this south end of Albany 

 Island, one between it and here, and one on shore 

 abreast of us. 



Dec. 25th. — ^At daylight in the morning' a dead 

 calm, and the hottest day we have had, the sun was 

 so g"laring that the altitude could not be taken. At 

 about a quarter before ten a.m. a hght breeze came 

 on and we left our anchorage, the breeze increased 

 a little, before eleven ; saw what appeared to be an 

 island at first ; on nearing, found it to be a canoe, 

 about fifteen feet long-, with seven or eight natives 

 in it, shearing about, sometimes in one direction, 

 sometimes in another. After a little we heard them 

 calling out, " paoud," " whappee," " chauca," some 

 of them standing up. I named to the Captain that 

 I thought they must be from Cape York, from their 

 words, and that it would be at least desu'able to 

 g-lean information from them, if possible, concerning- 

 Mr. Kennedy. The Captain said, "We will not 

 call out ^ paoud,'" (which means peace) but occa- 

 sionally the words "chauca," (tobacco) "biskey," 

 (biscuit) were called out from the ship. They fi-om 

 this drew close to the vessel, very wary, however, 

 in doing so. Jackey was placed in the fore-top, 

 and word came that Jackey knew all these fellows, 

 that they were the party who speared Mr. Kennedy. 

 One black was allowed to come on board, and whilst 

 he was partly in the ship, word came to me by 

 Parker (a seaman), that Jackey wanted to speak to 



