MYSTERY OF THE BUSH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19838, 7 January 1928, Page 6

MYSTERY OF THE BUSH.

SUPPOSED CAPTIVE WOMAN.

OLD AUSTRALIAN STORY.

SEARCHERS' VAIN QUEST. CHIP'S FIGUREHEAD THEORY* 'About 80 years ago the small white (community of Gippsland was deeply stirred by strange reports that a woman of their own race had fallen into the hands of the {aboriginal tribes, states the Melbourne Argus. The facts surrounding the disappearance of this woman are scanty, but there are probably people still living whose parents remembered, the anxiety that was aroused, and the sending of an armed expedition to search the forests and jbills. In the mist of distant yoars the episode now appears as a curious piece of Australian mythology, comparable with that of the ancient Greeks. Many whit* firmly believed that the woman jwas yrith the blacks; and certain authentic scraps of evidence suggesting the presence of a white woman among tho blacks have to this day never been satisfactorily explained. Included in one search party ■was an aboriginal girl who claimed to have seen the woman. Survivor From a Wreck. The timbers of several coble ships lay rotting on the sand 3 and shoals from [Wilson's Promontory to Gabo. It was conceivable that survivors of those wrecks had crawled ashore, wandered about the country, and fallen in with hostile tribes. Unarmed, exhausted men ano an easy prey for the arrows and darts of the savage; thy woman was probably spared. An old black attached to a mission declared in the early part of this century that the white woman was tho wife of a miner who accompanied her husband to Stockyard Creek at the time of the gold rush. This story must bo dismissed, however, for it was some years after the search that Gippsland attracted jmy attention from miners.

Search Party Sent Out. More disquieting than the stories of blacks, whose propensity to tell a questioner what they conceive he wants them to say is well known, was the discovery piade by a party of pioneers near Port Albert in 1841. Upon disturbing a camp of blacks, the latter hurriedly made off, leaving five bark canoes. Among the materials used to block the ends of ons of the canoes, so as to prevent the ingress pf water, were a towel and an article of woman's attire. It was, of course, conceivable that these fabrics had come into jthft possession of the blacks from a wrecked vessel, or by theft from a settler s home; but the discovery, combined with a strange drawing found later at the site of the deserted camp, with an arrow pointing to the bosh, spurred powerfully the demand for a search. Representations were made to the Government in Sydney, with the result that two parties were sent out One/ comprising five whites and nine blacks, left Idelbourne on October 20, 1846, by the steamer Shamrock. The intention was to land about Port Albert, Ram Head, or Rabbit Island, according to the weather, and then separate into two whaleboats. The searchers were provisioned for four monthsj well armed, and furnished with a supply of fish hooks, lines, blankets and other articles esteemed by tho blacks. Message on Handkerchief. Of special interest was a large number of handkerchiefs on which 'were printed theso words, in English and Gaelic: — " White Woman.—There ara 14 armed men, partly white and partly black, in eearch of you. Be cautious, and rush to them when you see them near you. Be particularly on the look-out every dawn of morning, for it is then that the party are in hopes of rescuing you. 'Hie white settlement is toward the setting vun. Theso handkerchiefs were affixed to tho trunks of trees, so as to attract attention, end to convey information of the search party to the woman. On the reverse side were pictures designed to arouse the curiosity of the natives. The Gaelic was employed because some time previously a barque was wrecked on the NinctyMi'ie Beach, and among those missing were a woman from tho highlands of Scotland and her husband. Mirrors were also affixed to trees. According to the Port Philip Patriot of October 20, 1846, the Government also intended to despatch a party on horseback. At all events, the utmost endeavoura of the* search parties' proved negative; no white woman was encountered, and the poetical admonition in two languages failed to induce the supposed captive to come to her rescuers. If such a woman existed her fate must for ever remain an impenetrable mystery. Pospibly there was a large admixture of imaginative native stories in the episode, and at that time the white settlers had not become so well accustomed to thia characteristic of the native mind. Figurehead of' a Woman, Thero was subsequent evidence that a •white figurehead of a woman, taken from a wrecked ship, was observed in possession of the natives, who probably attached eome emblematic value to it. In those days carved representations of Britannia Were frequently seen under the bowsprit, and the object would bo regarded ;with wonderment by savages. Three or four years ago a similar report given by a blackfeilow to an oil exploration party in tho Northern Territory led to a search of Arnheim Land for a supposed white woman survivor from the steamer Douglas Mawson. The country was scoured; a special police Bti.tion was established, lurid and imaginative fictions about the fate of the supposed woman wrro published abroad, buti no trace of a white woman or any substantial basis for the report was over discovered.