198 MELVILLE ISLAND. 
under slielter of the land, when her boat, with several of 
the crew on board, broke loose, and drifted out to sea, 
on which the sloop was got under weigh to pick it up ; 
but being unable to regain the anchorage owing to the 
strength of the wind, the commander, an European 
Dutchman, who had already visited Port Essington 
several times, bore up for the settlement, and remained 
there three or four months, until the change of the 
monsoon allowed him to return to Timor- The entire 
crew, with the exception of the commander, were natives 
of the Indian Islanders. One of them, a native of 
Mindanao, stated that he had been driven on the 
coast once before, which is very likely to have been the 
case, as the Macasssar Nakodahs had previously stated 
that they had picked up the crew of a stranded Lanun 
prahu on CrokeHs Island, a fcw^ years before the settle- 
ment was formed at Raffles Bay. Shortly after the 
arrival of the aloop, a ship of a thousand tons burthen, 
the ^ Manlius' of Waterford, bound to China from Bom- 
bay, was driven into Port Essington by the &ame gale, 
with her cargo of cotton wet and heated ; and the whole 
strength of the garrison was required to prevent the 
vessel from taking fire by throwing the heated cotton 
overboard. Similar cases may have occurred during the 
three centuries in which Europeans have navigated the 
neighbouring seas. At all events, the fact of individuals 
bearing evidence of Malayan origin ha\niig been repeatedly 
met with by visitors to the northern coasts of Australia, 
can now be readily accounted for. 
This young man, or one closely resembling him, was 
repeatedly seen by the garrison of Melville Island, as 
