QSA846890 1871 Report by Henry Chester 10 August, Colonial Secretarys Office In letters, In letter 71:2499, DR61918

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generally ascribed to the incantations of their enemies; and if I happened to make a quicker trip than usual I was told it was owing to their successful exertions on my behalf.

Some of the masks made by them display much ingenuity and even humor [humour]. One in my possession consists of an alligator's head made of tortoiseshell [tortoise-shell] surmounted with a capital imitation of a frilled lizard carved in wood. Another is a dog about two feet long made of tortoiseshell [tortoise-shell]. These ornaments decked with fruit and feathers are worn as head dresses in their dances, and seen by the lurid reflection of the camp fires have a singularly grotesque appearance.

The impunity with which for the last eight months a single boat, with a crew never exceeding six men has been able to visit islands and trade with natives who have long been the terror of these waters, is due in a great measure to the presence in the Strait of an unusual number of vessels with strong crews. In a short time, however, most of them will have left, as every week renders it more certain that the fishery is nearly at an end as far as large vessels are concerned; although it may for a time continue to yield a living to a few engaging in it on a humble scale. The position of these small traders will then be full of peril, for the natives rendered sharper and more knowing by their recent intercourse with whites, and missing their accustomed supplies of tobacco, of which they are passionately fond, will not be able to resist temptation to satisfy their wants where the risk involved is so slight. Yet there would be no difficulty in exercising a wholesome control

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over these people. They already stand in considerable awe of the Police at Cape York and a small craft capable of carrying a good boat on her deck, attached to the settlement and cruising occasionally among the islands would be sufficient to hold them in check, and might at the same time frequently render valuable assistance to vessels in distress -

Henry M. Chester.

Somerset 10^th August 1871 -