Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/42

18 that two white bĕche-de-mer fishermen, with some Kanakas, had landed on an island to get water and were attacked by the blacks:one man was killed and the other, badly wounded by a spear, was on board the lightship. (He also died later.) We generally had to anchor at night, the strong currents and countless reefs being most troublesome.

On the morning of the 4th, as I was dressing, what was my surprise to see suddenly framed in the porthole a beautiful picture of a large house on an eminence with a flag flying, and below a beautiful little cove with boats at anchor! After days journeying up the barren wild coast, inhabited only by savages, this came as a surprise, and I rushed on deck at once. We were passing through the narrow straits between Albany and the mainland. This was Mr. Jardine's house and cattle station at the extremity of Cape York Peninsula. His father had been the resident at the settlement of Somerset here, and when it was abandoned and removed to Thursday Island the Jar dine family continued to live at this place. It is quite a large two-storied house, surrounded by verandahs and balconies a beautifully situated place. There are said to be no men about it, and only black gins (women) employed in the station work, and some of these ladies we saw galloping about on horseback—and I assure you a black gin galloping astride on a barebacked horse is a sight to see. What a freak the man must be to have nothing but women's tongues around him! Mr. Frank Jardine rendered most hospitable service to many of the wrecked survivors of the ill-fated Quetta. This vessel, a mailboat of the A.S.N. Co., of 3480 tons, on 28th February 1890 struck an uncharted submerged coral reef between Albany and Adolphus Island, and sank in three minutes. Of the