canchvmm note. ^ 
effected quietly, but during the latter part of the retimi 
journey, when the sergeant and his prisoner embarked on 
board a boat to cross the harbour, the latter jumped over* 
board, and for a long time eluded all attempts at recap- 
ture, untO at length the sergeant, wearied and irritatedj 
fired at him } the ball took effect, and ultimately caused 
his death. The native was a comparative stranger, and 
the sergeant belonged to the new detachment which had 
recently arrived, otherwise this single case would pro- 
bably not have occurred, for the men of the old garrison 
had become attached to the natives, and had learaed to 
treat their eccentricities as those of chOdren. But even 
this sad affair did not impair the confidence of the natives 
in those whom they had been accustomed to regard as 
protectors ; indeed, the result rather tended to confirm 
the latter in their appreciation of the strict impartiality 
that had been introduced ; for the Commandant considered 
it necessary to keep the sergeant under arrest until an 
opportunity occurred of putting him on board a ship of 
wari and imprisonment had been the severest ■ punish- 
ment inflicted on the natives themselves. Probably no 
civilized community can present more favourable criminal 
statistics than those of the little settlement of Port 
Essiugton during the eleven years of its existence. 
The natives of the islands of Torres Strait present a 
fine development of the mental, as well as physical cha- 
racteristics, of the Papuan race j but as these tribes will 
have to be included with the Papuans of the Pacific, with 
whom also their progress in the agricultural arts seems to 
he identical, there will be no occasion to notice them in 
