been a runaway convict, probably from Norfolk Island. It is fortunate
that his sphere of mischief is so limited, for a more dangerous ruffian
could not easily be found. As matters stand at present, it is probable
that not only during his life, but for years afterwards, every European
who falls into the hands of the Badu people will meet with certain
death.*

(*Footnote. In further illustration of this assertion I give the
following note with which I have lately been furnished by Mr. J.
Sweatman, R.N., who served in the Bramble at the time of the occurrence
of the murder to which it alludes. In June 1846 the supercargo and a
boat's crew of a small vessel from Sydney procuring trepang and
tortoise-shell in Torres Strait, landed upon Mulgrave Island (the vessel
being about seven miles off) in order to barter for tortoise-shell. The
natives appeared at first to be friendly enough, but, towards evening
some circumstances occurred which induced the boat's crew to re-embark,
and they then went to a small sandbank about a mile off to pass the night
there. The supercargo and three men landed, leaving two men in the boat
at anchor; about midnight the latter were alarmed at hearing shouts and
yells on shore, and, landing in haste, found that the natives had
attacked their comrades, whose muskets being damp, were quite useless.
The supercargo and two men were killed--a shot from the boat however
dispersed the natives sufficiently for the two men to drag their
surviving comrade into the boat, but he had an arrow through the body,
and his hands were partially severed, and he soon died. The bodies of the
three people on the sandbank could not be recovered, the natives
returning to the attack with showers of arrows, nor could the small force
on board the schooner attempt to punish the perpetrators of this
unprovoked murder.)

The inhabitants of the neighbouring Banks Island are described by Giaom
as evincing the same hostility towards Europeans. Only a few years ago
the Italegas, one of the two tribes inhabiting that island, murdered two
white men and a boy, who had reached their inhospitable shores in a small
boat, probably from a wreck. Such savage outrages committed by the
inhabitants of the north-western islands would probably be completely
prevented were they oftener visited by Europeans; such was the case with
the people of Darnley Island, once dangerous savages, now safely to be
dealt with by taking the usual precautions, and