I found a bullet under the chair I was sitting on. It had
struck the ceiling, and brought down the plaster. Later, in Melbourne,
John Dean heard that Count Bismarck had been sentenced to two years'
imprisonment for shooting a man.

After a very pleasant time in Sydney, I found the rheumatism had left
me, so I deemed it desirable to return north, and to work. On my arrival
in Townsville I found the wet season was not yet over. Many friends
prevailed upon me to stay back in Townsville, where I put in a most
enjoyable fortnight with some of my old pals.

At the end of the fortnight, the s.s. "Banshee," a boat of about 100
tons, was advertised to sail for Cooktown, _via_ the Hinchinbrook
Channel. I booked my passage by her, and was informed she would sail at
5 a.m. on a certain day.

I was staying at the Criterion Hotel, on the beach, where the evening
previous to my intended departure, I was given a send-off, which lasted
into well-advanced morning. Owing to this I missed the boat.

A few hours afterwards it was blowing a cyclone. Spray came over the
hotel. It was thought the "Banshee" could not live through the blow, and
we were not surprised when we learnt very quickly that she was wrecked
about 3 p.m. the same afternoon. It was ascertained later that, finding
her engines were not powerful enough to make headway against the wind,
the captain tried to weather a rocky point on Hinchinbrook Island, so
that he might beach her in a sandy bay beyond. She failed to get around
the point, and lifted by a wave over the rocks, became fixed in a cleft,
where she soon bumped a hole in her hull. Such of her crew and
passengers who were not lucky enough to be thrown far inland were
drowned, or crushed to death. One passenger, named Burstall, crawled out
on a boom, from which the waves swept him high on to the rocks. A
following wave put him out of danger, but left him considerably bruised.
Out of thirty-seven on board, sixteen were saved, one a stowaway, who,
it was said, walked out of the hole made in the ship's hull by the
rocks.

A few days afterwards I returned to Cooktown by the s.s. "Singapore,"
and saw what was left of the "Banshee" in the distance. In February,
1877, the "Singapore" ran ashore on L. Island, off Port Mackay, and
became a total wreck.

I had left my riding horses in Cooktown, and a day or so after my
arrival, I went on to Palmerville to send my teams down to the Port.
Having done this, and started them two