The Confessions of a Beachcomber

lating the work of his unaccustomed hands in a rueful frame of mind, the boss recited, "Thou fatal and perfidious barque, built in eclipse and

e nude. He sniggered. "What you laugh at, George?" "Me laugh along that picture-naked. That French woman, I think, Boss!" He was evidently of op

pungent kerosene soap with a discarded tooth-brush which he had picked up. Long use had thinned the bristles woefully, but the brush was used faithfully

es. He gave an account to a friend of the suppression of a black rogue, a faith

u carn fight alonga this fella bullet. He catch you blurry quick.' That fella stop one place. We two fella go up alongside. Cap'n he say-'Hold up your hand. Le' me look your hand?' He hold up hand. Quick we put 'em han'cup. That fella no savee han'cup before. He bin sing out loud-loud like anything. We two fella laugh plenty. Mr Limsee tie 'em up hand longa tree, and belt him proper. Belt him plenty longa whip. My word, that fella sing out-sing out-sing out. Mr Limsee belt him more. All time he sing out. Bi'mby let 'em go. He bad fella boy that altogether. We fella-go home along camp. Mr Limsee feel 'em sore tchoulder. Nex' day that boy-very tchausey fella-come up along camp. He say-'Me want fight that fella Cap'n.' Cap'n come up. That fella catch 'em, Cap'n tchuk him hard alonga ground. Get up; tchuk him two time. Head go close up alonga stone. Two fella wrastle all about long time. Cap'n strong fella. That boy more strong. Knock 'em about like anything. Bi'mby come back he have spear-t

f the Clump Point party), had been severely wounded, he said-"'Nother fella boy from outside, come up behind Tom. He no look out that way. That boy tchuk 'em boomerang. Boomerang stic

ight be long time, T

e the opinion that in battle nothing short of death was glorious, or that Tom though wounded was still valorous and wou

read that few will stir out after dark, he said with a guffaw-"Me nebber bin see one yet. Suppose me see 'em, me run 'em!" George is, therefore, as yet unable to give a description of the fiend; but from hearsay authority decla

in the existence in the neighbourhood of Cooktown of a camp of what he calls "groun

town. This no good place.' Sargen' laugh little bit. He say-'No, my boy, you no fright. All right here. You dance alonga that fella gin-good nice gin.' Me go up. Me feel 'em fright. Feel 'em cold inside. Too much fright. My word; han' belonga that fella gin-cold like anything. That gin say-'Where you from?' Me say-'Me come from alonga town.' That gin say-'What you look

d and toughened patiently over the fire, he would provide himself with the scape of a grass tree (XANTHORRHEA ARBOREA), true and straight as a billiard cue, light, and 8 or 10 f

e showed that his was effective as well as economic. During a discussion, George told the following story, which, it will be notice

. Come up; pull out spear, quick fella!' Billy run away. Me sit down quiet. No make noise. Me hear that fella cry, cry, sing out like anything. He carn walk about. Me go quiet along a grass long way. Come round 'nother side. That boy no bin see me. Bi'mby me see gins-big mob. Sing out-'One fella boy bin catch 'em spear. He very bad. Close up dead now.' Billy plant himself long way. Boys and gins come up, where boy sing out. 'Carry 'em alonga camp.' Me go long way, where auntie belonga me sit down. That spear cartn pull 'em out. He got hook. All a time that boy sing out, 'Pull out spear.' Bi'mby Billy come back. He very sorry. He say-'Me no wan' spear you. Me no look out you. Me wan' catch 'em wallaby.' That boy

reputation of being quite a scholar, as far as scholarship goes among blacks. But in accordance with expectations, his pride and en

all asame

, "I no writ

All the time me

iber." These are the names of some of the streams north from Cooktown, George's country. On the other scrap of paper, according to him, the names of some of the islands in this neighbourhood were written. Though the papers were transposed and turned upside down, George could read them w

OO, OTHERW

not for my

, and yet an "honest Injin" in every respect and one who would always look on the happy side of life, but for twinges of neuralgia-"monda" he calls it-which rack his head and face with pain. I saw only the peaceful side of Mickie's nature, and therefore this chronicle will be unsensational as well as imperfect. There is a tradition that the Palm Island blacks are of a milder, less bellicose disposition, than those of the mainland opposite. Many years ago when a party of bushmen, fresh from the excitement and weariness of the Gilbert rush, reposed for a few days on the soft grey sand of Challenger Bay, the spot was invaded by a band of mainland natives. In the early dawn the peace-loving Palm Islanders awoke the friendly whites with the news that a "big fella mob" was coming across in canoes. Under ordinary circumstances they would have fled to the jungle-covered hills until the invaders had retired, but the knowledge that the whites had a couple of guns, and a good supply of shot, inspired a high degree of temporary

of a stunning blow on the head with a nulla-nulla, no eating of maize-pudding from the same plate, no drinking brandy together, no "hand fasting," nor boring of the bride's ears by the bridegroom, no tying of hands, nor smearing with each other's blood, nor binding together with ropes of grass; simply, "Unkl belonga her giv 'em me!" Once in his possession, however, and Mickie proceeded to set his mark on his bride, so that should any dispute arise as to identity, he at least would have authentic brands. With an apparently studied array of cicatrices, each 3 inches long and half an inch wide, on her arms and shoulders, Mickie marked Jinny for his own. The couple have one girl-Mickie prefers to use the word "daw-tah"-and his child had been but lately received into the bosom of the family, after several years' exile among the whites. It is somewh

her brand new pipe and had broken it short off, Mickie with an extrav

opinions on the supernatural are unsatisfactory. He does not know what the "debil-debil" is like, or what form the ill-will of that mystic being would take-nothing but "that

ar. His foes are dead, and there is no poisonous snake or offensive animal on the Palms. Once he sprang suddenly and excitedly into the air as we tramped through the long grass on the edge of the sweetly-smelling jungle, with the exclamation, "Little fella snake!" Being reminded that he had boldly asserted that there was no bad snakes on the island, Mickie replied-"That fella no bad. Only make foot big." He never missed a chance of securing a hatful of grubs,

rd in the jungle at an extraordinary distance, and a splash or ripple far out on the edge of the reef tells him that a shark or kingfish is driving the mullet into the lagoon, where he may easily spear them. He can tell to a quarter of an hour when the fish will leave off biting; he hears the scamper of the iguana in the grass when the "white fella" fails to catch a sound, and knows when the giant crabs will be "walking about" in

WIVES-H

essed three wives. For a few months he had two a

rd-for Tom is the only historian of that pe

fairly and honourably, and won her from her first man. Though reared but a little over 2 miles apart, these twain h

, and generally does the work of a domestic. She is cheerfully industrious, emphatic in her admiration of pictures, and smokes continuously, preferring a pipe ornamented with "lead," for she has all the woman's love of show. From the most quarrelsome and vixenish gin of the camp she has been transformed into a decent-minded peacemaker-always ready to atone for

m a splinter of a rock off an islet to the southeast of Dunk Island. "Oongle-bi," Nelly's affinity, is a rock on the summit of a hill on the mainland, not far from her birthplace. The plea of the rocks was not raised as any just cause or impediment to the match when Tom by force of arms espoused Nel

between Tom and Nelly m

rra"). NELLY

e-yee.

-can. Car

un. Moogah

Yungl-ma

l-qua-yah.

utta.

m-pui. P

am-moo.

Yukan.

h-al. Y

Rit-tee

ee-bee.

oo-you.

n-kin. C

aka. T

an-dee.

ar-boo.

ong-an.

the learned have named PERIOPHTHALMUS KOELREUTERI,

hooner. Dolly smiled so sweetly upon Tom that Charley, her boy, raged furiously. Tom-never demonstrative, always cool and deep-obtaining an advance from his captain, bought, among a fe

w and bright, for his sweetheart, when she clambered on board, naked, wet, and with shining eyes. Next morning Charley tracked her along the b

deeply mortified that he hates Tom to this day, and Tom is a

shirts himself-by burning the hat and all the newly-acquired finery. Nelly struck back, and Tom, as her eyes were big and ablaze with fury, threw-at the cost of burnt fingers-a handful of hot sand and ashes into her face. From Tom's point of view it was a splendid feat-one of those bold and effective master-strokes that only a ready and d

torn her hair out by the roots in frenzy and stamped upon it; but Tom, surly and impassive Tom, is

the presence of Tom's third wife-"Little Jinny"-the

ional relationship) had died, leaving a young widow. According to Tom's rendering of the matrimonial laws, he

nded that he had one wife, he frankly declared in Nelly's presence, and she seemed to acquiesce, that she was n

Nelly's best dress and hat, dilly-bags brightly coloured, and weapons-boomerang, two black palm spears, a great

shes, and full of hope and expectati

boy-without a hat, unshaven, without a blanket, and even destitute of a pipe, clambe

l property, supplemented by the display and free bestowal of Nelly's choicest finery, and had, as a matter of course, been compelled to fight for her. He had been beaten, terribly beaten.

atagem, had been foiled, and forced to flee, abandoning eve

m one of the wild herds of Hinchinbrook, and he came back empty-handed. He talks of the pig-how fat and very y

wo as does a starved dog-and Tom had saved money. He never forgets,

bailer shells. Elated, freshly shaved and smiling, he was a different sort from the individ

into the boat, and the boat was full of their luggage. Ah, that desolated camp at Lucinda! The young lad

ays at the camp was idyllic. Then they took back the gifts of clothing, and turned Nelly out of the hut. She built a separate establi

il the great Peacemaker removed Tom's favourit

ee o'clock one windy afternoon, harpooned an immense bull-turtle, which towed him towards the Barrier Reef, into the track of the big steamers 4 miles to the east. He battled with the game all the afternoon and evening, overcame it at "the dead waste and m

und a swaying limb while cutting out a "bee nest," as in a frail

such precision and force as to impale it. He will harpoon a turtle as it rushes away from the boat, 5 feet beneath the surface, with the coolness of a billiard-player, and with unerring

gitimate prey, swerved swiftly downwards. The retreat was a second too late, for Tom had seized the, harpoon lying athwart the boat, and though the fish appeared through a fathom and a half of water, a vague, flee

sy miscellanea of a black's camp. It was not a boatload that landed on the beach: it was a procession. But Tom would go to sea on a chip. His skill as a sailor o

TLE

e and

laughs perpetually and grows ever fatter. There was nothing in common between the two. Indeed they frequently had differences, for "Jin

and as venomous at times as a scorpion. His hand is heavy, and when he lifted it in anger poor "Little Jinny" suffered-but s

er sex. And her besetting vanity was endeavouring to be a "lady." Work was sordid, for she wore garments which made her the leader of fashion. She possessed a pair of-well, a bifurcated garment-and her whole life was spent in trying to live up to it-or them. She succeeded to a certain extent. Her ways were mincing and precise, and she lazed away her days quite artistically. A can of water was too heavy for her to carry, less than two hours "spell" at a time quite an offence to her ideal of the amount o

ter raiment that in gaudiness outrivalled the flame-tree and the yellow hibiscus. She was the favourite of

e soft grey sand and smoke, gazing across the placid bay and waiting for meal-times. So no one took her sickness seriously. Subsequent inquiries, however, elicited the fact that "Little Jinny" had eaten little or no tucker the day prior to Tom's application for medicine on her behalf, and th

to-morrow," was the

there lay "Little Jinny," obviously dying. She had never complained nor whimpered when Tom's heavy hand had corrected her, though the dried trickle of blood had been seen on her forehead, and now that she lay a

ut it was all so useless, for none understood the sickness, or how to prescribe a remedy that might be effective. Our helplessness

t in the camp, and whom "Little Jinny" had slapped and had abused with all the volubility of sp

ut she had some resource. She had no means of alleviating the suffering save those which spendthrift Nature provided-the smooth oily leaf of the "Raroo." She used these aromatic leaves, all t

. Poor Nelly sighed piteously as she continued her work, while Tom massaged the body of the girl, hoping to expel the "debil-debil!" His theory was, and is, that some man whom "Li

none more to the purpose. But it was all in vain. The great eyes of this specimen of uncivilised humanity clouded over, and then brightened. She moaned in response to Tom's well-intended but too forcible massaging. Nelly ap

as exacting, cruelly exacting, imperious, implacable. He woul

ost, which was ever so mean and little, the Conquering Worm would have its victim. And so with a few long-drawn, gulping sighs, each at a longer interv

an's expression of woe, a low, weird yet not inharmonious hum. For two days they chanted the virtues of the dead, told of her likes and dislikes, and of their grief, cro

her. The day after she was buried he spent the hours between daylight and sunset wandering about wherever "Little Jinny" had been wont, obliterating the tracks made by her fee

ndo ran about the fore

ery

chaste, the un

he had that kind of feeling that in the savage stands for love. Nature would have performed the office as effectually, and perhaps mo

ng out the memory of the past, I am convinced that this race, despised and neglected of men, c

ANGUA

f the mainland was unknown though the islanders frequently visited one another. Hence no doubt their dominant character and higher order of intelligence generally. Literally the insular was a floating population, and derived the advantage of intercommunication. That of the mainland was stationary. It groped dimly in the jungle, each sept, isolated by bewildering differences in language, c

OF TH

mpanions to join him in a policy of active resentment. Once, when remonstrated with on account of some offence against the rights of property, he assumed a hostile disposition, and calling upon others, took up a spear, determined if possible to rouse a revolt. Few in number, the whites could not permit their authority to be questioned, and a demonstration with a rifle silenced all show of opposition. "Jimmy," disgusted with the docili

7 1/2 inches. Tom, 5 feet 7 inches. Brow, 5 feet 2 3/4 inches, and Willie, 5 feet 2 inches. T