aremont Island Lightship]

Mr. Milman, the Resident, and Mr. Symes, the Commissioner of Customs,
called upon us soon after our arrival, and took the rest of the party
on shore to lawn-tennis, which must be a great resource here, for
there is no sport of any kind. Mr. Milman has made a good
tennis-court, and anybody who likes can play there every afternoon.
The society on Thursday Island consists of two resident ladies,
supplemented by occasional visitors, and six gentlemen. Besides this
handful of English, Mr. Hall lives on Prince of Wales' Island, and
Captain and Mrs. Stevens on Goode Island.

Mr. Milman was anxious to take us to Murray and Darnley Islands, in
his little steamer the 'Albatross,' but she is at present looking for
escaped convicts from New Caledonia, and it seems doubtful when she
will return. The story about these escaped convicts is rather
interesting. A boat's crew landed here the other day, with four men,
who stated they were shipwrecked mariners. They were all examined
separately, and told such inconsistent stories (even differing as to
whether their ship had one, two, or three masts), that suspicion was
aroused. Some were Italians, but one appeared to be a Frenchman,
though he pretended not to understand a word of the language. They are
undoubtedly escaped convicts from New Caledonia. Two own to having had
another man with them, and say that when they landed he disappeared.
The others will not acknowledge that the party was ever more than four
in number, but the blacks have since reported finding a body on the
beach twelve miles from where these men landed, near Somerset. There
are still five men wandering about, who were hospitably entertained
and furnished with food and clothes by Mr. Jardine, at Somerset,
before he knew who they were, and three others were compelled to go on
board the 'Claremont' lightship, through want of food, and were
promptly shipped off to gaol in Brisbane. The 'Albatross' was the
little steamer we saw lying alongside the lightship at Piper Island,
on the 19th inst. She was then on her way to search all the reefs and
islands for the five missing men. I hope it will not be long before
they are brought in, for, independent of any other crimes they have
committed, they must almost certainly have been guilty of a most
brutal murder, and have killed their own comrade. It is wonderful how
so many of these men escape. It is difficult to understand how they
can procure boats, pro