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CHAPTER IX.
TH E E A S T C O A S T O F A U S I 'E A L IA .
WE remained at Sydney, refitting ship and enjoying the unaccustomed
pleasures of civilized society, from the 23rd of
January, 1881, until the i6th of April, 1881, but as little of
general interest occurred during this period, and as Sydney with
its surroundings is a place about which so much has been written
by better pens than mine, I think I shall be exercising a judicious
discretion by passing over this period in silence, and resuming the
narrative from the time when we started on our next surveying
cruise.
On leaving Sydney we received a welcome addition to our
numbers in the person of Mr. W. A. Haswell, a professional
zoologist, residing at Sydney, who expressed a wish to accompany
us as far as Torres Straits, in order that he might have opportunities
of studying the crustacean fauna of the east coast of Australia.
He was consequently enrolled as an honorary member of our
mess, and Captain Maclear kindly accommodated him with a
sleeping place in his cabin. I am indebted to Mr. Haswell for
much valuable information concerning the marine zoology of
Australia.
Steaming northwards, along the east coast of Australia, the first
place at which we anchored was Port Curtis, in Queensland, where
we took up a berth in the outer roads close to the Gatcombe Head
lighthouse. The place bore a rather desolate appearance. There
Port Curtis— A “ Labour Vessel.” 181
was no building in sight except the lighthouse. The beach was
lined with a dense fringe of mangrove bushes, behind which rose
a straggling forest of gums and grass trees {Xanthorrea), and for
a long time we saw no living thing excepting several large fish-
eagles {Haliatiis leucogaster), and an odd gull that hovered about
our stern, picking up the garbage that drifted away from the ship.
On the following morning two of us landed and set to work to
explore the mudfiats, which, stretching out for a long distance
from the beach, were laid bare by the ebb tide. As we ranged
along in search of marine curiosities, we encountered a solitary
individual attired in the light and airy costume of a pajama sleeping
suit, and carrying a Westly-Richards rifie on his shoulder.
We soon made his acquaintance, and found that he was in quest
of wild goats, the descendants of some domestic animals originally
let loose by the keeper of the lighthouse. He was an Englishman
named Eastlake, and held the position of “ government immigration
agent” on board a ninety-ton schooner, the Isabella, which at the
time was anchored just outside the lighthouse point, awaiting a
favourable wind to enable her to put to sea. She was engaged in
the “ labour traffic” and was just then about to return to the Solomon
Islands with some “ time-expired” native labourers. The Queensland
government compels every vessel engaged in the “ labour
traffic” to carry an immigration agent, who is accredited to and
salaried by the government. His duty is to see that the natives
who are shipped from the islands for transit to Queensland come
of their own free will, and under a proper contract, and that during
the voyage they are treated well and are furnished with proper
accommodation, and are dieted according to a scale laid down by
the government. In the afternoon I accompanied Mr. Eastlake
on board. The Isabella, a vessel of ninety tons, was allowed to
carry eighty-five natives besides her crew of some half-a-dozen
hands. She had now on board about a dozen natives of New
Hebrides, who had completed their time as contract labourers in
Queensland, and were about to be returned to their is’and home.
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