Page:Picturesque New Guinea.djvu/75

Rh quiet dinner and a calm night afterwards. This anticipation, happily, was not disappointed.

On passing Percy Island No. 1 in the afternoon of the next day, the 22nd, Captain Lake mentioned that he knew the place well from a tragic incident that occurred there within his own knowledge. The captain has spent all his naval life on these coasts, and in the year 1854—some time before the separation of Queensland from New South Wales—the Government of Sydney sent out an expedition to make explorations along that portion of the territory. The party started from Brisbane in a cutter named the "Percy," and after making an inspection of various islands they came upon the one that was now in sight. As the place presented an inviting appearance, they all landed to make researches, with the exception of four men, who formed the crew of the little vessel. But they never returned, every one of them being murdered by the blacks. The geologist of the party, Mr. Strange, was a personal friend of our captain's, and the sad catastrophe was therefore stamped indelibly upon his memory. The island bears the name of the cutter, and the recollection of the tragedy is thus perpetuated.

A second trial of the taffrail log already mentioned was made on the 23rd, with much more satisfactory results. The instrument rings a bell every quarter of a mile traversed, and is self registering up to one hundred miles. Then the time is taken, and the same process is repeated, the instrument requiring no attention save oiling a couple of times a day.

We noticed here a peculiar yellowish scum spread over the surface of the ocean. Upon inquiring of our skipper what the substance was, he told me that seamen suppose it to be the spawn of the coral insect. Sometimes it is met with in such large quantities that a landsman would think that the vessel was running on a sandbank. The substance, whatever it may be, makes its appearance in these waters about the beginning of August, and is rarely seen later than December.

At 4 p.m. we passed Percy Island No 2, or rather, two islands divided from one another by a narrow strait. Seen under the tinted lights of a brilliant sunset, the place looks as lovely to the eye as