o the darkness, that we deemed it the best
policy to remain under cover until their faculties had grasped the fact
that we were not enemies, and as such to be slain incontinently.

It is a startling thing to be hailed suddenly in the silence of the
bush, and had a less experienced sentry than Abiram been on guard, he
would most likely have fired. We had also before our eyes the case of
a party who not long before had gone out to chastise the blacks, and
having split into two divisions, opened a brisk fire upon each other
when they drew near again, luckily without effect. Some of these
warriors we knew to be amongst ourselves, so it behoved us to exercise
caution.

Our greeting was most cordial, and we were soon all assembled round the
fire--now blazing up with fresh fuel--smoking the pipe of peace, which
we moistened with a modicum of grog from the well-filled flasks of the
Cleveland Bayers, and comparing notes, previous to making our plans for
the morrow. Like ourselves, they had found plenty of camps, but not a
living creature in them; and they were as perplexed as we were as to
what had become of their occupants. On their way up from Townsville,
they had seen smoke-signals thrown up from the mangroves at the mouth
of the Herbert River, and these were answered both from the range
behind Cardwell, and from Hinchinbrook, so it was evident there were
blacks on the island, though most likely concealed in some of the
hidden valleys, which, from the volcanic nature of the country, were so
plentiful, and so difficult to find.

Lizzie was now brought forward, and subjected to a most rigid
cross-examination, with which I will not trouble the reader. She said
that they must have crossed over to the main-land, for every place had
now been searched. We were in despair, when Abiram Hills said--

"Baal bora ground been sit down along of Hinchinbrook, Lizzie?"

A "bora ground" is a particular place to which the blacks are in the
habit of resorting at certain seasons of the year, to hold
"corroborries" or dances, and also to perform divers mysterious rites
on the young people of both sexes attaining the marriageable age. What
these solemnities really are, is but little known, and they seem to
differ widely in each tribe. In some, the young girls have a couple of
front teeth knocked out; in others they lose a joint of the little
finger; and at that time the hideous lumps with which the men embellish
their bodies must be r