first boat, when she told her
story, which is briefly as follows. Her name is Barbara Thomson: she was
born at Aberdeen in Scotland, and along with her parents, emigrated to
New South Wales. About four years and a half ago she left Moreton Bay
with her husband in a small cutter (called the America) of which he was
owner, for the purpose of picking up some of the oil from the wreck of a
whaler, lost on the Bampton Shoal, to which place one of her late crew
undertook to guide them; their ultimate intention was to go on to Port
Essington. The man who acted as pilot was unable to find the wreck, and
after much quarrelling on board in consequence, and the loss of two men
by drowning, and of another who was left upon a small uninhabited island,
they made their way up to Torres Strait, where, during a gale of wind,
their vessel struck upon a reef on the Eastern Prince of Wales Island.
The two remaining men were lost in attempting to swim on shore through
the surf, but the woman was afterwards rescued by a party of natives on a
turtling excursion, who, when the gale subsided, swam on board, and
supported her on shore between two of their number. One of these blacks,
Boroto by name, took possession of the woman as his share of the plunder;
she was compelled to live with him, but was well treated by all the men,
although many of the women, jealous of the attention shown her, for a
long time evinced anything but kindness. A curious circumstance secured
for her the protection of one of the principal men of the tribe a party
from which had been the fortunate means of rescuing her, and which she
afterwards found to be the Kowrarega, chiefly inhabiting Muralug, or the
Western Prince of Wales Island. This person, named Piaquai, acting upon
the belief (universal throughout Australia and the Islands of Torres
Strait so far as hitherto known) that white people are the ghosts of the
aborigines, fancied that in the stranger he recognised a long-lost
daughter of the name of Giaom, and at once admitted her to the
relationship which he thought had formerly subsisted between them; she
was immediately acknowledged by the whole tribe as one of themselves,
thus ensuring an extensive connection in relatives of all denominations.
From the headquarters of the tribe with which Giaom thus became
associated being upon an island which all vessels passing through Torres
Strait from the eastward must approach within two or three miles, she had
the mortificat