and had a less experienced sentry than Abiram been on guard, he would most
likely have fired. We had also before our eyes the case of a party who not
long before had gone out to chastise the blacks, and having split into two
divisions, opened a brisk fire upon each other when they drew near again,
luckily without effect. Some of these warriors we knew to be amongst
ourselves, so it behoved us to exercise caution.

Our greeting was most cordial, and we were soon all assembled round the
fire -- now blazing up with fresh fuel -- smoking the pipe of peace, which
we moistened with a modicum of grog from the well-filled flasks of the
Cleveland Bayers, and comparing notes, previous to making our plans for the
morrow. Like ourselves, they had found plenty of camps, but not a living
creature in them; and they were as perplexed as we were as to what had
become of their occupants. On their way up from Townsville, they had seen
smoke-signals thrown up from the mangroves at the mouth of the Herbert
River, and these were answered both from the range behind Cardwell, and
from Hinchinbrook, so it was evident there were blacks on the island,
though most likely concealed in some of the hidden valleys, which, from the
volcanic nature of the country, were so plentiful, and so difficult to find.

Lizzie was now brought forward, and subjected to a most rigid
cross-examination, with which I will not trouble the reader. She said that
they must have crossed over to the main-land, for every place had now been
searched. We were in despair, when Abiram Hills said --

"Baal bora ground been sit down along of Hinchinbrook, Lizzie?"

A "bora ground" is a particular place to which the blacks are in the habit
of resorting at certain seasons of the year, to hold "corroborries" or
dances, and also to perform divers mysterious rites on the young people of