CHAPTER X 
Letter XIV. Off Thursday Island. — O n board the s.s. Jumna — A 
dangerous coast. 
Letters XV. and XVI. Thursday Island. — With the British Fleet — A 
Cingalese Madame Sans Gene— Brilliant sea- flowers — A mischievous 
clothes-line — Uproarious adieux — A visit to the Residency — A curious 
phenomenon. 
Letter XVII. Somerset, Cape York. — The inaccurate judgment of 
Marcus Clarke — Unsurpassable Australian flowers — Happy days of 
continual painting — Some strange natives — The Dugong — Snake 
stories — The white ant — A stupid trick. 
Off Thursday Island. 
Two days later I went on board the s.s. Jumna , 
and for once I almost enjoyed the journey up 
to Thursday Island. We anchored near Channel 
Rock Lighthouse, to take a passenger on board 
from a beche -de-mer and pearling boat, then on 
again to Clermont Lightship, where a boat comes 
alongside for letters, and another eighty miles on to 
Weymouth Bay, so well remembered for the noble 
exploits of the explorer Kennedy and his party, some 
fifty years ago. They lost seven of their number here, 
from fever and starvation, and the undaunted leader, 
with his faithful black boy “Jacky Jacky,” left for 
Albany, where a ship was to wait for them, but Kennedy 
was speared by the natives, and Jacky alone reached 
the last camping ground. One of the grasses of this 
wild land has been named after his native name 
“ Galmarra.” 
