A STRANGE TALE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 290, 2 September 1933, Page 18

A STRANGE TALE

Of Lord Howe Island

Who jvere the mysterious inhabitants of Lord Howe Island before its occupation in 1834 by three white men. Ashdown, Bishop, and. Chapman, and five Maoris landed by the. whaler Caroline,' of Hobart. Town?, asks a writer in the Sydney “Daily Telegraph,”

It has usually been assumed that this, remote little island was uninhabited when discovered, and that until the settlement of 1834 it remained unoccupied except for such casual visits as that of the runaway Stewart and his companions, from the Derwent, who spent some time there in 1824. Doubt, however, has been.thrown-on - this theory by thesreport to Mr. Tom I redale, of the Australian Museum in . Sydney, of the flriding on the Island of a skull of an amazingly primitive type and apparently of considerable antiquity, The existence of this' was vouched for by reputable inhabitants of the island, but the skull seems to . have been lost. Yet in a curious little work published in London in 1789 there is what purports to be a description of. the primi- ! tive Inhabitants of Lord Howe Island. This work is entitled:— '

“An Authentic and Interesting Narrative of the late Expedition to Botany Bay, with particular descriptions of Jackson’s Bay and Lord HOwe Island, written by an officer who has just returned in the Prince of Wales, who visited that spot with Captain Cook and Dr. Solander in their celebrated voyage round the world.” This writer speaks of the expedition to Lord Howe Island as likely to be attended with very considerable advantage to the new colony. He de-

■ scribes the island as abounding with fine turtle and fish, with birds, such as pigeons and a “sort of Gulney fowl, very large and heavy and beautifully variegated with different colours.” The cabbage palm tree, wild celery, samphire, wild sorrel, endive and succory. grass were to be found everywhere. Then comes the surprising •part:— . ■

“The natives resemble those of New Holland; their largest houses, if they deserve that name, are just large enough to sit upright in, and their only furniture Is an oblong vessel, made, of the rind of the cabbage tree, bound together at the ends by a small twig, the long ends of which, not being cut off, serve as a handle.”' These "natives” are described also as having small bags, like cabbage nets, made of string which they hung round their necks, containing a lump of gum or,- resin, a few fishhooks of bone, lines made of bark, and a shell or two which served for cutting up anything. A few points used to arm their darts, and an odd ornament or two are said to conclude the inventory of the richest man among them.

Who was the officer who claimed to have visited Botany Bay in 1770, asks the Sydney writer. And what is the basis of his extraordinary statements about Lord Howe Island? There are, of course, other Lord Howe Islands. But, from his'narrative, it seems certain that he refers to the one east of New South Walfes. Did someone who had • been on the Supply when she sighted Lord Howe, in February, and visited it in March, 1788, indulge in a little leg-pulling at the expense of the old “Botany Bay" hand?